I'm "training" now I and I thought I'd write about this process because whatever gets you typing (or me) is a good thing. I find there is no such thing as "typing fatigue" - well, except for the type that will give you carpel tunnel. But what I mean is there is no mental "too much" of typing.
I'm on my first (of three) three-day typing/production stints. I decided that would be the best way to train for comps. So I write myself 3 questions- anticipating possible comps questions- and I take three days to write one question a day. And then I take a two day "rest" by editing them a bit and reading the rest of my last list.
If you were interested at all here are the questions I wrote myself for my first round:
1) Critical Urban Geography
a) Gentrification and displacement
b) Regulating public space and flows
c) The Right to the City
1. What are the debates in gentrification? How has it fatigued? Where is gentrification literature going? What needs to be done?
2. How are geographies of exclusion produced and regulated? With what logic is it produced and regulated? What are the formal and informal ways space is produced, regulated and materialized?
3. Lefebvre, Harvey and Castells are often read together. What do they say about “the urban”. How do they conceptualize “the urban” differently? What do they say about the limitations and possibilities for emancipation? How is The Right to the City conceptualized as a theory as opposed to a movement? What are the neo-Marxist historical materialist conceptions of urbanization pertinent to future movements?
I tried to make questions fairly simple and for them to help me review general concepts that I could potentially reuse. I also wanted to cover the thematic bases of the list.
I'm on my third day of my first round and well..still on question one.
Ridiculous. But it's good that I'm doing this because I am discovering a lot about what I will need in my emergency writing process:
1) I need to eat breakfast. I know this sounds ridiculous because it's something that people just do anyway. But I never eat breakfast. I'm not particularly a breakfast person-unless I'm going out for breakfast- then it's more like going out for next-day brunch at 3pm. I dont' get particularly hungry in the morning and I don t in general get that feeling of hunger that most people do. I attribute it to having a high proportion of storage aka fat. You know those super skinny people that get really irritated when they haven't eaten? Yeah.. I'm not like that. I can go the entire day and be like, "meh". But I recently lost a bit of weight and I think I don't have reserves like I used to. So when I got up and tried to start working on my first day mu brain just would NOT work. I thought it was just me wanting to procrastinate again (like me..now) but I think it was just because I had no nutrition in me.
I took a food break- not wanting to stray very far I ate pretty bad foods- I probably ate 2 bagels, a donut, coffee, cereal, took a 15 minute "digestion break" and then all of a sudden I started to type! I was really craving carbs. So note to self: eat breakfast.
As a result, the week of comps I'm going to load up on bananas, make a big pot of veggie soup and tea. Lots of tea.
My general goal is to keep my BMI @20 or under during this process.
2) Leave the house. Consistently I think I can be productive in the house. I can't
3) Don't take a break with friends. I have been a absentee friend in the last...oh maybe 3 months. And so every chance of writing-exhaustion or necessary food break I take I try to also multi-task by seeing a friend. Bad decision. Because I never go back to work after. So during comps I know the end my day with friends but take breaks alone.
Things I'm still trying to figure out:
1) Do I keep facebook active for the week? Yes, it's a distraction, but sometimes it's also fun to write updates and stay accountable to the world. I remember in undergrad when Romeo and I used to call each other every hour to keep each other accountable. The general consensus is 300 usable words/hour. Which makes for 10 hours a day of writing if I want to keep up.
2) Caffeine- how much? I've had a healthy to unhealthy relationship with caffeine intake in various forms and I'm trying to figure out what works best for me. During paper time I always overload with caffeine (coffee, coke, redbull) and then take downers in the evening (red wine). I'm usually WAY wired during paper time.
In the past year I have reduced my caffeine intake drastically. To maybe 8oz of coffee a day on average. (I used to take in 20-50oz EASILY)
I've also been experimenting with caffeine pills. Which has been an interesting journey.
I'll write more about caffeine and its effects, uses and abuses later. But this is also something I am experimenting with.
3) Relationships. This usually isn't a problem. But it has become a massive problem in the last year about managing relationships during work times. I have a very firm commitment to my work and to my career. I have a very pathetic commitment to relationships. But I have a considerably strong commitment to the potential of a good relationship. So given that- it has become a problem in the past year.
ok, back to writing...
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