180 days with the Theme System Journal
Prior to starting this post I went back to look at what I was thinking about when I wrote the post, 90 Days with the Theme System Journal. I noticed that I spent some time thinking about what I was doing in the journal page section of the journal. At the time, I was using the largest box to think about things related to blogging.
180 days in...my use of that space hasn't changed. I like the fact that I have been using that space to think about just one thing. It provides me a way, without really thinking about it consciously until now, to document historically, my thinking about one thing, writing about my writing. I'd like to spend a little time here thinking more about what's been going on in that space over the past 90 "TSJ" days. I'm going to use the lens of a critically reflective teacher. This is something I learned about years ago, while working on my PhD, in a book by Stephen Brookfield titled: Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher. There's a section in the book that encourages teachers to engage their students in something called a Critical Incident Questionnaire. The questionnaire is meant to generate information from the students directed to the teacher who in turn uses the information to create a classroom environment that is "in tune" with what the student's perceive and understand to be their reality. I've used this questionnaire with my students over the years and have "mined" its essence to reflect on things myself. Here are the 5 key points of the questionnaire...re-tweaked...in an attempt to help me reflect on my use of the large portion of space, on the journal pages of the TSJ...
What about using the TSJ to write about blogging has engaged me most?
What about using the TSJ to write about blogging have I been most distanced from?
What about using the TSJ to write about blogging have I found affirming/helpful?
What about using the TSJ to write about blogging have I found puzzling/confusing?
What about using the TSJ to write about blogging have I found surprising?
For the rest of this post I will use each question as a lens to reflect on my use of the TSJ.
WARNING TO THE READER
Writing is usually seen and “consumed” in a linear fashion. There are occasions when a non-linear approach can work as well. Before you proceed know that there are moments below where I ask the reader to embrace a non-linear path through my reflection. You will be shown exactly where to go and what to do next as I take you on this momentary, non-linear journey. Proceed with an open mind.
Section 1
What about using the TSJ to write about blogging has engaged me most?
One thing I'm noticing is my interest in the actual process of blogging. The mechanics and/or technical things I'm doing, like creating content for future posts, creating social media teasers, keeping up with my self-imposed deadlines so that I remain ahead of the days that I choose to post to to the blog. My thinking about creating social media teasers seems to evolve over time as I reflect on what it is I think these teasers should be doing and whether or not they serve the overall purpose of drawing people to my blog.
Another thing that has engaged me is the pride I started feeling (about a month in) to documenting my "teaching" from home. I address this in section 3 as well and speak about it here because, once I got a sense that we were probably not going to be going back to "physical" school...the thought of documenting this experience literally drew me in to writing! I thought, and still do think that it is important that this part of my life has some sort of documentation to it.
My interest in automation started to surface on day 134 of using my TSJ. A topic like this is engaging to me because of my interest in becoming more efficient with different aspects of my life...something I wrote about shortly after purchasing the Keyboard Maestro app.
Section 2
What about using the TSJ to write about blogging have I been most distanced from?
Honestly, there's nothing about using the TSJ to write about blogging that I have felt distanced from. I think that comes through pretty clear in the other sections of this post.
Section 3
What about using the TSJ to write about blogging have I found affirming/helpful?
It's affirming to me that it only took 2 days being at home, due to COVID-19, to figure out that I should be using the blog to document what it's like to be going through this quarantine/lockdown "teaching" from home. I say this because I learned long ago that the best writing comes from what you know. The entries on March 18th and 19th validate that thinking. I'm also finding it helpful that my sense of urgency, with regards to what posts I'm working on, what's been published, and what my next steps should be seem to help propel my writing forward.
NOTE: Before I proceed in this section I want to point out the non-linear function of writing. Indulge me for a moment as I ask you to go to section 5 of this post, read that section, then go to section 4 and read the first sentence there. Afterwards, come back here to continue reading.
Ok...back to being linear. My writing on day 137 was helpful because it was at this point that I had learned something new about the Ulysses app. Specifically, I figured out how to copy/paste text in Rich text form...which keeps links that I want readers to click, in the document when I bring it over to my Squarespace site. Up until that point I was putting the links in manually, like a barbarian, when I pasted the text to my Squarespace site. This was also a helpful moment because...looking at it now...I can see the seeds being planted for the Macro I now use at the end of my writing process which I talk about in my Keyboard Maestro post.
Section 4
What about using the TSJ to write about blogging have I found puzzling/confusing?
After writing section 5 I came to this section because I am puzzled as to whether or not my sense of urgency (see section 3) would cease to exist if I stopped documenting what is happening daily with my blogging in the TSJ?
NOTE: You can go back to section 3 and finish reading it.
Ok...back to linear writing. In section 1 I wrote a bit about the evolution of my thinking about the teasers I write for social media posts that go live the day before my blog posts go live. This seems to be the appropriate section to state that I wonder if I should start looking at how much traffic those teasers are getting and comparing it to what goes on the following day when my posts go live?
Section 5
What about using the TSJ to write about blogging have I found surprising?
In section 3, I wrote about my sense of urgency and how it seems to help propel my writing forward. As I wrote that sentence I felt the need to come to this section and state that I am a bit surprised that my writing about blogging seems to serve as a system of "checks and balances" on the entire process.
NOTE: Proceed backwards...to the first sentence in the previous section...to continue this thought.
Final Thoughts
In my 90 days with the Theme System Journal post I wrote about having the presence of mind to order a new journal before the 90th day due to what little we knew about the Coronavirus at the time. 90 more days in finds the Coronavirus impacting the supply chain and as a result, me without a TSJ to transition into the next 90 days. I’m thinking of using some older notebooks to continue the process while I wait for the opportunity to order another TSJ. Ultimately it’s the process and/or habit that the TSJ has helped me to cultivate that matters.
