Every once in a while I get really passionate about some topic of study or a project, dive into it head first, devote all my (hopefully spare) time to it. Occasionally it has even been detrimental to my wellbeing. Like once I permanently fucked my stomach by skipping too many meals during a week long programing project.

Yet, nine out of ten times the whole shebang doesn't amount to anything. After a week or so I loose all interest and drop the whole thing.

Now, I'm getting one of those obsessions about learning a language and it got me thinking about the best way to deal with it. Maybe I should try pacing myself, stop myself from spending too much time everyday learning and maybe it will prevent me from burning out and losing interest in a week or two? Maybe trying to cram information into your brain ten hours a day is not an effective way to learn? Or maybe it's the opposite and the smart thing is to use this short period when I'm excited and eager to study to learn as much as possible?

Do any of you guy have experience with something like this?

  • Anemasta [any]
    ·
    2 years ago

    This is really good. If the book we're talking about is Eric Hayot's The Elements of Academic Style: Writing for the Humanities it's already on LibGen. Should I read it or is it all the relevant advice it has?

    • ChestRockwell [comrade/them, any]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Yes. The relevant chapter is chapter 3 - "Eight Strategies for Getting Writing Done."

      (So to clarify, that whole chapter is all that's really relevant. I've chosen the juciest bits, but there's some other good advice in there)

      The rest is more focused towards writing in the humanities, but the strategies in Chapter 3 I feel are very portable. When he talks about days that you teach, you can insert whatever there - days you've worked at your alienating job, days that your job made you work overtime, etc.

      I'm still working to implement them, but every month that I've stayed on the daily writing practice, I've done more work overall than any binge/purge cycle of writing I've been on. The trouble is keeping up on it after a vacation or such. I need to still learn how to always do something towards my writing (so like, reading some article or doing research in lieu of actual writing when I'm on vacation with my partner, just to keep the momentum going).