PTSD

How I learnt to stop worrying and love studying

There’s been a lack of postings here lately. I’m sure our loyal reader has noticed that. And probably even wondered where we were. Well, E has wandered off to the great wide lands of the American centre while I languish away at the local bignamebookstore thinking about all the things I could be doing while trying to read/rework the latest version of my PhD proposal.

Yes, in case it hasn’t been obvious yet, this is an angst post. But, not really. I just wanted to let you know that we (no, I'm not using the Royal "we" but referring to E and me and, in my usual imperialist way, speaking for her as well) are still around and still about to entertain you with our myriad of views on life, the universe and everything. Or, at least about our (selfish? Caring? Unique?) views on life. It just takes time since we are working on other stuff in between. Though, I guess this is part of the “other stuff”.

I also want to tell yous that I am seriously thinking about my PhD proposal while I am typing this post. Seriously. In fact, this post is about my PhD. Specifically, about studying.

So, here you go. Tips for studying when you don't have a desk at home (or even a proper home, really).

Studying is not something you can just “do”. People think that you can just sit and do it but then they have never studied much. Studying is something that happens but often not when we want it to happen. Rather like that bloke who said something similar about ideas. Yes, well, that’s sort of what studying is like. You go to bignamebookstore, whip out (rather difficult considering it’s quite heavy) your computer from your tattered backpack, get ready to get amazed (yes, I’m still not over it. I still remember having to walk to get to the nearest “cyber café” when I was home last year and then having to wait for minutes for a page to load. One could actually finish reading The Complete Sherlock Holmes during the time one checked emails. I know. I did that) by the instant internet access and then do work/study.

The thing about it is that it hardly works that way. For instance, I was all set to work yesterday evening, after having spent the morning walking to Uni and back (took about an hour each way) but got distracted by finding new (well, not “new” since the bloke is dead but new in that I’d never read them before) books by one of my favourite scholars. By the time I’d finished reading some of the chapters from From Shakespeare to Existentialism, it was late and time to head home. The same thing happens with libraries: there are a lot of other books you’d rather be reading than working on your proposal. This is bad and pretty much unhelpful to studying. But, there’s no way of avoiding it. You can sit at home and try to study but that’s even worse since the house reminds you of many things, especially the need to clean it, do laundry, get a table to work on, etc. So, home’s out as a place for studying. It’s either bignamebookstore or the library and each has its own drawbacks.

You do, as I wrote earlier, have moments though when you realise that’s IT. That’s what you wanted to write about. Usually, though, by the time you’ve got your pen/paper/fingers ready to write/type, this feeling’s gone. As an analogy, it’s like going dancing if, like me, you just can’t dance. There’s this one song (it was AC/DC for me last week but it could be anything really) which makes you think you maybe can (jump up and down and wave arms, look like a ridiculous fool but not care) but then by the time you realise that, the song’s over. The next one is some crap stuff again and you head off to the bar and prop it up. Writing/studying is sort of like that. The key is to take advantage of when you have the AC/DC moments and go for it.

Following from this, it is important, even essential to have non annoying music playing when studying. Bignamebookstore isn’t half bad (it had the new Franz Ferdinand album on yesterday) with its musical taste but for those non-MP3 player owners like me, some places are traps waiting to ensnare you in some really terrible crap (think Mariah Carey, Beyonce-type stuff) which will either ensure your brain cells have given up on any pretence of intellectual thought and gone off to sleep or will raise your blood pressure to such an extent that you can’t work on your proper stuff anyway. And, you’ve just bought your coffee so you don’t want to leave right away. The solution is probably to get a player or make sure you're mates with the person who controls music in the shop. Both these options involve a fair amount of effort and/or money.

Studying, as you note, is full of little pitfalls like these. And, I’ve not even gotten to the people who want to discuss studying when someone is trying to do it. The thing is to avoid places like bignamebookstore on weekends when those who really don’t study seem to populate its premises in the hopes of talking to people who are trying to study. This leads to situations where you get to tell people off or have to suffer through your neighbours’ descriptions of what they did over the past few days (usually involving inebriation and some form of US sports-watching, often both together).

I reckon that's about all the tips for today. Might think of more as I keep doing this (studying).

posted by Priya @ 11:50 AM