I continued research today, spending the morning writing a report for a conference call later in the day. The call itself went well and I have a good sense of where I'm going with the work over the next few days. Later I worked out, and in general, I followed a healthy routine.
While walking home, I asked Shiva a question that I had been pondering in my research, and we talked about it for the duration of the walk, which was maybe 15 minutes. By the end, a solution had emerged from the conversation. The amazing thing is how powerful even a few minutes of focused dialogue about a topic can be. Of course, St. John's demonstrated this to me repeatedly, but it's easy to forget at MIT. It seems we get inundated with information and have to respond relatively quickly to it and produce some output. Contemplation is an activity that is non-existent on a day-to-day basis. This is a serious problem and one that I will try to address this semester by pacing myself better and trying to zone out distractions. Sometimes sitting and "staring" at a problem, metaphorically speaking, causes a solution to present itself, but it takes time, and at first the problem may seem impossible.
Along these lines, I reinstated my habit of listening to electronica while doing sustained, productive mental work. I got into this while I was doing architecture, and it's a great way to zone out and evoke a mood ideal for intellectual activity. Oooo, but just now I switched over to Arvo Part and it is lovely...