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What Is The Morning Writing Effect?

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Re: What Is The Morning Writing Effect?

#41

Post by the_clarence »

sureaboutthis wrote: post #22
mark_l_watson wrote: post #13

I write a lot: probably average writing 1 book every 1 1/2 year over the last 35 years. This may be key: “Yet another version might be that sleep itself is the key: sleep, aside from any resetting, is also responsible for memory formation and appears involved in unconscious processes of creativity.‘ I find the morning is my best work time for either writing or designing and writing software. It seems that often good…

> sleep, aside from any resetting, is also responsible for memory formation When my son was little, he had to memorize the 13 colonies of the United States for History class. He was getting frustrated that he just couldn't remember them all. I told him to just read through the list again right before he went to bed. He did so and came home from school that day to tell me, "It worked!".

Better ways to memorize such things: create a story between each colonies so that you can remember it as a linked list.

Re: What Is The Morning Writing Effect?

#42

Post by lordnacho »

I buy the third explanation, that sleep is key.

How often do you find yourself thinking about code in your sleep? A lot, right? And then when you wake up somehow you have some clarity about the problem to hand. Once you've mucked around a bit and found the solution, cleaned it up, written some unit tests, and documented it, you're a bit tired. And the next problem is starting to form without being entirely clear.

Re: What Is The Morning Writing Effect?

#43

Post by drieddust »

weehobbes wrote: post #21

Few thoughts: For me personally, I experience a lot of ego depletion during the day. But having kids tends to do that. There's no way I can write at the end of the day, I'm just way to mentally tired. Also as someone who both codes and writes, writing is far more emotionally taxing. Coding is problem solving - there is usually a clear path to follow and I generally know when I've solved a problem. Writing for me is u…

I struggle with same issues everyday. Job, marriage, Kids, and life in general does not allow me to have a fixed schedule.

The thing is in today's world of small apartments, noisy kids, and demanding jobs does not allow having the luxury of following a fixed schedules. I see blocks of time during the day getting wasted and I am not able to muster enough courage to claim those. On the other-hand is Cory Doctorow who is able to use these 20 minutes time blocks[1].

On the problem of not able to finish. I think Peter Elbow in his book Writing with Power[2] suggests many different strategies but they basically boils down to separating writing from editing. One technique he suggests is to divide the available time into 2 parts. Write uninhibited during the first time period and only do the editing in second half.

[1] http://www.locusmag.com/Features/2009/01/cory-doctorow-writi...

[2] https://global.oup.com/ushe/product/writing-with-power-97801...

Re: What Is The Morning Writing Effect?

#44

Post by ThrowawayR2 »

lordnacho wrote: post #42

I buy the third explanation, that sleep is key. How often do you find yourself thinking about code in your sleep? A lot, right? And then when you wake up somehow you have some clarity about the problem to hand. Once you've mucked around a bit and found the solution, cleaned it up, written some unit tests, and documented it, you're a bit tired. And the next problem is starting to form without being entirely clear.

> A lot, right?

Can't say I've ever thought about code in my sleep. Is that a common thing among coders?

Re: What Is The Morning Writing Effect?

#45

Post by evincarofautumn »

ThrowawayR2 wrote: post #44
lordnacho wrote: post #42

I buy the third explanation, that sleep is key. How often do you find yourself thinking about code in your sleep? A lot, right? And then when you wake up somehow you have some clarity about the problem to hand. Once you've mucked around a bit and found the solution, cleaned it up, written some unit tests, and documented it, you're a bit tired. And the next problem is starting to form without being entirely clear.

> A lot, right? Can't say I've ever thought about code in my sleep. Is that a common thing among coders?

I sometimes dream about being & moving amongst the abstract structures that I build in my head when reasoning about a complex problem. Sometimes it gives me an insight; others, it’s meaningless, the Tetris effect in another form.

Re: What Is The Morning Writing Effect?

#46

Post by DanielBMarkham »

My theory? We think while we sleep. It's not a "normal" kind of thinking, more free association as your brain wanders around various connections it's made, testing them out. But I also believe we string together larger concepts. We just don't remember it.

When you awaken, your mind has all of those new tentative associations and is ready to try them out by writing them down. As you go through the day, it gets "cluttered" again, going back to using almost extensively older, tried-and-true connections.

Re: What Is The Morning Writing Effect?

#48

Post by matwood »

drieddust wrote: post #43
weehobbes wrote: post #21

Few thoughts: For me personally, I experience a lot of ego depletion during the day. But having kids tends to do that. There's no way I can write at the end of the day, I'm just way to mentally tired. Also as someone who both codes and writes, writing is far more emotionally taxing. Coding is problem solving - there is usually a clear path to follow and I generally know when I've solved a problem. Writing for me is u…

I struggle with same issues everyday. Job, marriage, Kids, and life in general does not allow me to have a fixed schedule. The thing is in today's world of small apartments, noisy kids, and demanding jobs does not allow having the luxury of following a fixed schedules. I see blocks of time during the day getting wasted and I am not able to muster enough courage to claim those. On the other-hand is Cory Doctorow who i…

> Job, marriage, Kids, and life in general does not allow me to have a fixed schedule.

The way I fixed this was to get up early. If I get up between 5-6am, I easily have 2-4 hours of time before anything attempts to derail me. During these hours, I go to the gym and then get my most focused productivity of the day done. The rest of the day is flexible depending on what's going.

Before someone chimes in that I'm going to die from lack of sleep, I'm in bed between 9-10pm every night and get 7-8 hours sleep.

Re: What Is The Morning Writing Effect?

#49

Post by ascom »

jason_slack wrote: post #40
alsetmusic wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that a URL shortener? Please post the link with a fully disclosed address. I’d like to see the content on the other end, but don’t know where it’s going to take me.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072Q985YX?ref_=k4w_ss_details_rh

I still have no idea where this link is going to take me.

a.co links always go to some illegible Amazon URL, so I think it’s fine to use them.

Re: What Is The Morning Writing Effect?

#50

Post by chrisweekly »

alsetmusic wrote: post #35
chrisweekly wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm reading a terrific book -- "When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing"[1] -- that reviews the literature on this exact topic. Recommended. 1. http://a.co/hY8eixX

Is that a URL shortener? Please post the link with a fully disclosed address. I’d like to see the content on the other end, but don’t know where it’s going to take me.

Sorry about that, it's an amazon url shortener; was in a hurry and just c/p the link from ios kindle app. Others have posted the url for you.

Slainte

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