Laws

There seem to be occurences that follow a law-like consistency within my own behavior, ones that I am not about to assume apply to all people, but laws that I would be foolish not to consider simply because I cannot test it scientifically with my limited knowledge and means.

It certainly seems to be the case that, if I have unpleasant grading to do, I will not be productive in many other tasks because I refuse to engage in those other tasks until the grading is done.

However, I am unlikely to be productive in unpleasant grading because it is unpleasant. Therefore when I have unpleasant grading to do, I am unproductive in a whole range of activities.

When I have unpleasant grading to do, I look for distractions, and the longer the grading is carried out, the stronger this rule becomes. 

If I have unpleasant work to do, then if I dally and relax in the morning, then I will waste the whole day. If I leave the apartment immediately in the morning, then I may still have an unproductive day, but it will in all likelihood be more productive than staying at home.

Depending on the habits of the moment–habits that do fluctuate every few weeks–even if I have enjoyable but difficult work to accomplish, then if I dally and relax in the morning, then I will waste the whole day.  This is certainly dependent on the habits of the time: My most productive days in this work have been at home, but this is only true if for the last few days I have not been distracted by other things and have had a “momentum” like quality in my work.  This work  is generally the actual work of philosophy, rather than grading philosophy papers or preparing lectures that I am unexcited about.

Again, these are hypotheses about how I work; only the weakest of speculations would allow me to ascend to more general notions than this.