Essay season brings out peculiar behaviour in me. I become rather superstitious or ritualistic, I have to perform certain activities before I can begin studying, note-taking or writing an essay.
The first ritual that had to take place was the acquisition of a 60 Watt bulb for my tablelamp. My tablelamp had been bulbless for a while and I felt that the central room light was just not enough for my studies, I had to wander around town looking for a bulb (Tesco has an aisle clearly stating 'Bulbs' but there are no bulbs there) I finally found my bulb and studying could commence.
Second ritual is that I need to eat first before I start working. I go down and prepare a large meal, eat, watch something on BBC iPlayer and then begin making an essay plan.
Once the essay plan is done, it's time to begin writing the essay, but first I must take a shower. It doesn't matter what time of day it is, just before I start an essay I take a long cold(ish) shower- I feel it helps me focus better. I get lotioned up, comb my hair and sit at my laptop- play a randomly selected song and then begin the writing process.
My breaks are often 5-10 minutes long, and I can do a various activities ranging from simply staring out my window, to reading about a country on wikipedia, to grabbing Sophie (my camera) and actually going outside to photograph a seagull eating a crab (a photo-op I spotted from my window)
But essays are done, and boredom sets in..a boredom that is relieved by watching programs on iPlayer or reading random facts on wikipedia..yesterday I was reading about- Bermuda, Bora Bora (French Polynesia), The Odyssey, Paul Robeson...Wikipedia is a great source of knowledge, and I urge everyone to go on it everyday and pick up a random bit of knowledge, I know it's easily vandalised, but it's still quite reliable in most cases.
