Learning Logs — like Morning Pages, only different
St. Jerome in His Study by Albrecht Dürer, 1514
Each month I like to try out a new habit. Doing something for 30 days is a good way to form a habit, or to realize that it’s not a habit you want to adopt. The habit I’m trying out this month is to post something here every day. It’s going ok, although I’m a few posts behind. I’m not sure if it’s a habit I will adopt long term, but writing more often is definitely a good thing to do.
A while ago I tried to adopt a habit called Morning Pages, made popular by the writer Julia Cameron, who wrote about it in her book The Artist’s Way. The idea is that each morning, the first thing you do is to write three pages without thinking about it too much, a kind of stream of consciousness thing. I only lasted for about a week. It seemed a bit pointless to me. It was only once I started doing it that I investigated it, and discovered a few things that didn’t really vibe with me. Firstly Julia Cameron said that it was difficult to do, and that most people will get stuck after about the first page. That wasn’t true for me—I am continuously thinking about things, and often have some current obsessions I am thinking about, and so writing out three pages of what is currently in my head really isn’t difficult for me. Secondly Cameron said something like that you will find that all your complex emotions will come out on the paper and help you to sort things through. That wasn’t true for me. I don’t have complex emotions. I’m not usually thinking about emotion-related things. So anyway, the Morning Pages habit didn’t work for me and I abandoned it.
However, the idea of writing more I think is a great one. It’s a wonderful way to improve your thinking. I’ve thought of a new kind of habit I could try to adopt, kind of like Morning Pages but learning focused, rather than emotional/stream of consciousness. I’m going to call it Learning Logs. The basic idea is this:
- Spend say half an hour researching a topic, for example “the latest developments in the science and philosophy of consciousness”.
- Split your screen in two, one half is what you are watching/reading, the other half is your Learning Log.
- Put the URLs/titles of everything you are looking at in the Learning Log.
- When you come across something interesting, a good quote, or have a related thought, write it in the Learning Log.
That’s it! Someone who does this consistently is the writer and member of the rationalist community Zvi Mowshowitz. He publishes his Learning Logs on his blog here Don’t Worry About the Vase and here Don’t Worry About the Vase | Zvi Mowshowitz | Substack
I’ve already got the habit I am going to try to adopt in July planned — making two short videos each week. So I may try to adopt this Learning Logs habit in August or later in the year.