Loading...Blog members sometimes ask me about my work habits: I seem to get a lot of writing done in addition to the day job as a university professor and doing the blog and what not. How’s that happen exactly? I should say that it’s not happenin’ too well right now: start of classes – teaching 240 students remotely! – and lots of other things–I ain’t getting twit done on my research….
But normally I do try to pack it in. And how? My usual answer is that I don’t watch a lot of TV. And that’s certainly true. I do watch the news sometimes – I did a lot more, e.g., in election season; but I find televised news both problematic and inefficient, if what you really want is *news*. It’s problematic because most news shows these days do not demarcate between information and opinion (it’s impossible to do that completely, of course; but sometimes you really do just want to know facts); it’s inefficient because the amount of news you can get in an hour-long show you can easily get in 10-15 minutes if you’re reading from a reputable source. So there’s 45-50 minutes more to your day, just there!
I do watch sports. But almost always when I’m working out, since it’s a good way to spend the time.
I used to say that I got a lot of reading and writing done because I didn’t sleep much. And once in my life that was true. But no more. I’m far more productive if I get a good night’s sleep, so I almost always do.
I’d say that I manage to get a lot done mainly because I’m able to focus intensely, I am crazily disciplined, and I’m unusually obsessive about time. I am not touting these as admirable traits. Some of those close to me decidedly think they are not. ?
The traits are all closely interrelated, of course. Early in my career…
Most posts on the blog are not about me, of course, but about non-sectarian scholarship on the New Testament and early Christianity. Interested in that? Join!
I’m exactly almost to the day, your age and I couldn’t imagine still working. ( I did run 2000 miles last year) but have you found that getting old isn’t as much about time management but pain management?
I never understood why older folks talked about all those aches and pains. Oh boy, now I do. And I don’t run 2000 miles a year….
New research on personality suggests that we can detect at a relatively young age (certainly by school age) that some people have the temperament to delay gratification and have more self control. It can sometimes come at a cost with relationships and the ability for the person to chill out, relax and have fun. They can be too thorough and too precise. They can have excessive rule-governed behavior. They can have high threat sensitivity and low reward sensitivity and sometimes they see the thorns more than the roses. We call this emotional overcontrol. It becomes problematic when their strength with self control gets out of control! Too much of a good thing sometimes!
This is precisely (more or less) the reason I put my own ideas (mostly) aside in deference to your teaching. This focusing trait of yours is evident in your conversational command over the scholarship. It reminds me of Richard Feynman and Shelby Foote. I am, and will remain, grateful for the generosity you have shown. Thanks.
I’d hate to be late to a lunch date with you! In any case, as long as you can avoid Jack Nicholson’s response when his wife interrupted his writing in The Shining, you’ll be golden.
How many pages of academic articles and books do you typically read through in a week?
I would like to know more about your reading strategy: do you do quick read first to complete the article/book then a more careful reading when you make extensive notes, or you write detailed notes as you read?
Do your academic peers envy your hyper-productivity in generating voluminous output?
I would love to have your trance-like ability.
My practice involves different approaches for different kinds of scholarship. If it’s somethign I really need to know inside out, I read carefully, highlight, and take copious notes. If it’s sonmething I just need to know the argument of since I already know all the data, I might simply read, highlight, and write a paragraph or two in summary. If it’s useless to my purposes (or simply awful) I might skim it and write a sentence on it. All this applies to both books and articles. But I make a note of everyhting I read. Otherwise, given my lousy memory , I would read it again and not know it. It’s happened more than once!
What a relief to hear (that you have a lousy memory, like mine)! Sometimes I’ll pick up one of your books to re-read, open it in the middle, and find a marginal note I made years before, showing that I clearly had mastered the material/issue at hand, and then find myself having to read several paragraphs or pages to remind myself whatever niggling point or extension I’d made to your work, or augmented or linked by or to another source, for contrasting views, etc. So in the years intervening all of this “knowledge” i supposedly possessed (high learning) had vanished! So I have re-learn everything, which seems an HORRIBLY inefficient use of time!
Prof Ehrman, you have commented before on having a meditation practice. Do you meditate daily? For how long? In what setting? How does it help you?
Usually 15 minutes, sometimes 20 or more (on the weekends!). Usually first thing in the morning. IN a comfortable chair. It’s made an enormous difference in my temperament.
“ My door is shut, my headphones are on (either with instrumental classical music – I can’t possibly write with words in my ears…”
As a freelance (commercial) translator, boy do I relate to this. I like to have something on in the background while I work, but anything with words totally screws up my thought process. So I mostly listen to classical music, with a bit of jazz thrown in occasionally just to change things up.
Right! Some jazz works for me, but usually it makes me pay attention too much….
You two are lucky. I need complete silence when reading or writing. I’d love to listen to instrumental music, but that is what i’d shift my focus to and want to think about. No such thing as “background” music for me, as it becomes my chosen and preferred distraction. Anything but my work is what i’d rather do. At heart, i’m LAZY.
Never underestimate the power of words in large groups.
I wrote thirteen reasons why you should not ask Bart, but I missed this one: you don’t like reading.
We could add some vocal notes or comments instead of writing them down in this post.
It sounds like your are finding a *balance* in your life, that incorporates personal pleasures with business endeavours. I think that that is healthy and a good/repetitive routine, which is focused and structured, although sometimes I like to mix some spontaneity in there. It would seem,tenacity, is a quality you possess, and many, including myself, wish we had more of. Someone once said, ” The busier one is, the more meaning life has”. My question would be then. At what point will you be satisfied with your accomplishments/work that you can step back ? Or can you? Sustaining everything may get irritating at some point.
I guess it’s different for everyone. For me it’s extremely difficult to step back. It’s something I”m working hard on. See, there I go again: working hard!
Certainly agree with you on TV “news”. No matter where you turn–CNN, FOX, NBC, CBS, ABC, BBC, etc.–it’s all heavily opinion, often masquerading as news. Of course ratings, profits, drive it all.
Bart, are you an early riser, what time is ‘getting up time’ during the working week and, do you have a lie in on the weekends?
Ha! These days I get up at 5:00, so that I can work on reading Homer in Greek just for fun — it has little to do with my work (the Greek I”ve spent most of my life on is Koine, his is, well, Homeric — a much older and more complicated form of the language. A different beast.) That hour or so I spend on it every morning is the highlight of my day. Very quiet. Me, coffee, classical music, and the Odyssey. Fantastic. I usually take Saturdays off (I lie in till, say, 7:00!).
Thanks Bart, you’re a great example to the rest of us poor mortals. Keep up the good work! ???
But you left unanswered the biggest question. WHY ARE THERE NEVER ANY TYPOS IN YOUR WRITINGS???? I can read my own writing 100x over and my eyes will glide past right the typos.
Oh, my writings are filled with typpos.