Nels Lindahl — Functional Journal

A weblog created by Dr. Nels Lindahl featuring writings and thoughts…

More notes should have been taken

Waking up happened all of a sudden today in a flash of awareness. That did occur a few minutes after my two shots of espresso. The spelling and grammar editor built into Google Docs has definitely been improving over the years. Throughout the last 80 days of writing I have really been able to watch it make suggestions in real time and they have gotten better. Some people are using these new plugins to help edit content as they go, but I have not dug into that type of effort. I’m waiting for that functionality to get built into Microsoft Word or Google Docs before really giving it a test drive. The other piece of that equation is that I’m really making an effort this year to edit and look at my own words. That means that the quality of my prose should be improving as things move along this daily writing journey. 

More notes should have been taken yesterday. That is what I’m thinking right now. A lot of reacting to things and understanding the world around you involves navigating the day. Some people aim solely to get passed the day without having an overall philosophy to guide them as they move forward. That allows decision making to occur on a situational basis without a lot of foundation built on a distinct philosophy. I’m not advocating any specific philosophy at the moment just contemplating the difference between having an intellectual foundation built on philosophy and just reacting to things as they come up. That is a pretty complex thing to contemplate this early in the morning. I might need a lot more espresso to really think deeply about that inherent conflict in decision making. Assuming that things will just keep moving along and that the world is full of constantly changing decidable moments that makes the question even more challenging. 

Whoa… I lost focus for a few minutes and started browsing the internet. Right in the middle of that writing session all hope for finishing out this daily writing journey was put on hold and my focus went elsewhere. Every day I scroll through my subscriptions on YouTube to see what those creators have put forward. That pretty much helps me decide what I’m going to watch after finishing up the start of the day writing exercise. During the course of writing I try to only listen to music and engage in the act of writing. That seems to be the best method for focusing in and writing for a few minutes continuously. Watching videos on YouTube for some reason does not facilitate the writing experience at all. It actually has a chilling effect on my productivity as measured by the production of the written word. It is all about managing my focus and attention to ensure the right amount of attention remains on the task at hand and things get done. For example, right now I’m listening to Tom Petty play the song Wildflowers on my Warren Zevon Pandora internet streaming radio station. That song works fine to play in the background and it does not interfere with my writing process at all.


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