# freewrite: freewriting is the best adult pacifier

adults use pacifiers to calm down babies. but adults have their own pacifiers too, e.g.:

• checking email, facebook, memes;
• snacking on some food or drink (e.g. coffee);
• smoking;
• playing games;
• watching youtube or porn.

when one is waiting for something, e.g.

• a webpage to load;
• waiting for a response in a messaging app;
• compilation to finish (https://xkcd.com/303/);
• waiting to be motivated to start something, aka procrastinating,

one is tempted to switch to such a pacifying activity. i guess that's because most people are very uncomfortable with just waiting.

there are two problems with the above pacifiers:

• they are addictive and hard to stop so you might spend more time on them than on the activity you wanted to do in the first place.
• you lose a lot of momentum with the task due to the context switch. e.g. during a coding session's compilation phase you notice some important email and you start writing a response to that. you just pretty much throw out 10+ minutes worth of context out of your head.

so what to do instead? freewrite! get a notebook and every time you need to wait and/or have an urge to do something else, just write out the uncomfortableness instead!

this shouldn't be your notebook for todo lists. this should be a write only notebook that you just append thoughts to, which are never to be read again.

if you don't know know what to write, just write down what is actually happening. e.g. "i'm waiting for a response from john. i feel like i should check on my email. i'm expecting an important email, i wonder i got it already. probably not. what should i respond to john if he doesn't like my idea? [...]"

keep your device open at the activity that you are waiting for. while writing you'll quickly notice if your webpage finished loading or you received your response so you can immediately switch back to your previous activity. with writing you don't need to wait until you "finish" your pacifier activity. writing can fill any duration you need to wait and can be easily stopped anytime.

it is very weird at the beginning but quite nice once the habit is established. you'll lose less context by this and at the same time it helps you to organize your thoughts in general. it's a win-win!

published on 2021-06-20

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