Butt In Seat
In middle school I wrote horrible lovesick poetry to boyfriends. In high school I spent late nights in the laundry room pecking away at my dad’s computer composing essays for my Honor’s Lit class. In college I received an A- on an essay on religious freedom. A few weeks later my would-be husband had to go home to write an essay so I “lent” him the A- essay so we could extend our date. He received an “A++! This should be published!” While miffed he received a better grade on my essay, twenty-five years and four kids later I do not regret my decision to lend him my essay.
These days writing looks like collecting a million notes for sermons in five composition notebooks littering my desk. I pull these notes from various resources including commentaries, newspapers, cheesy Instagram posts, and books, while waiting for inspiration. I then take a shower and write my first paragraph in the steam on my shower door. Finally, I force myself to do what I call “butt in seat” writing two thirds of a crappy first draft. After a few days of deluding myself, believing the sermon is written I erase the whole thing and write the real sermon. In whole it takes me at least 40 painful hours.
The reason it takes so long is because I tend to perfectionism. I tell you this because a skill I hope to develop is the “good enough” skill. (Obviously, I am trying out this skill in this blog post.) I also hope to use Ahrens’ idea of the slip box , connecting my notes with more than wildly drawn arrows on pages in random composition books. My fear is that my shocking lack of organizational skills will make mastering the slip box a steep learning curve.
When I am reading to write, I mostly engage in inspectional reading. This seems to serve me well though I would like to develop the skill of remembering what I read! Adler addresses this saying, “The problem with speed reading then is the problem of comprehension. You cannot comprehend a book without reading it analytically.”[2] He continues, “Not only is reading, especially analytical reading, a very complex activity – much more complex than skiing – it is also much more of a mental activity.”[3] As I stated before, I have to employ the “butt in seat” method to get writing done. This is also true for reading. I would much rather be skiing. A skill I need to continue to develop is “butt in seat” to move past inspectional reading to analytical and syntopical reading.
Ahrens, Sönke. How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking. North Charleston, SC: CreateSpace, 2017. 25-33
Adler, Mortimer Jerome, and Charles Van Doren. How to Read a Book: Simon and Schuster. New York, New York. 63
Adler and Van Doren. How to Read a Book. 82
About the Author
Kally Elliott
Mom of four. Wanna-be Broadway star. PC(USA) pastor. Wife. Friend. Sometimes a hot mess. Sometimes somewhat together. Is this supposed to be a professional bio?7 responses to “Butt In Seat”
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Love your honesty and hearing where you are in your process. The “butt in the seat” idea seems like a creative hack that’s encourages you to do something that may not come natural for you at this point. That inspires me to find creative reminders to take notes differently and consistently in categories as I read. I tend to mark the page I’m reading all up or write on whatever is close (even paper plates at times), but I don’t always document it in one place for later use. Maybe I’ll do “Note it HERE or it never happened”!
I definitely need to up my game on my note taking skills. Like you said, documenting them in one place would be helpful for me too! I also have used items such as paper plates to simply get my thoughts/notes on paper! I need a better system! Ha! I guess we’ll learn how to be better organized in this program. Maybe there is hope for me yet!
I love your “butt in the seat ” approach. It’s something that I struggle with because I want to create the perfect writing environment, with the perfect cup of tea and the right candle scent and before I realize it, I have not only wasted a great deal of time but lost a lot of my motivation. It is my prep process that allows me to transition from one set of tasks to my writing. I think I will give your approach a try. I will put my butt in the seat and get it done without all the fanfare. I’ll let you know how it works for me.
I totally get that trying to create the perfect environment for writing thing! It is important and it does make for more creativity. However, at this point in my life I can’t ever seem to create that environment! Either at work or at home there are ALWAYS too many people around who constantly interrupt me. I’ve found that if I wake up early I can get about an hour in (hopefully) before someone disrupts me. During all the other hours of the day I have to put in my airpods, turn them to noise cancelling, and play “study music.” It’s the only way to drown out the other noise! Then it is “butt in seat” until I have at least something on paper!
You said you “tend to perfectionism.” If you did NOT spend 40 hours writing a sermon, where would you spend those extra hours? Where would you direct that extra energy? I’m asking that sort of question with my current schedule. In my case it isn’t a sermon, but it is something else I fret about in leading an organization. I find that I tend to work like I can’t let anything fall through the cracks. But that is not sustainable, especially with this new chapter of doctoral studies. To tackle this program, I know that I’m going to have to recalibrate the way I approach the art of reading, critical thinking, and writing. This will require a lot more “good enough,” no doubt. I resonate with your “butt in the seat” approach. For me, that sort of thing is working out the removal of too much context-shifting (that happens when I’m trying to stay on top of EVERYTHING) and instead organizing my week and days with major “deep work” time blocks. Cal Newport’s work has been helpful in that arena.
Ah, such a good question Travis! Where would I spend the 40 hours I use writing a sermon! Sometimes I feel like it is such a waste of time and other times it seems important. I probably need to clarify, those 40 hours I spend writing a sermon are not all at my desk. I often listen to podcast commentaries, sermons, books while I fold laundry or go for walks etc. But, all in all, probably a good 40 hours of my life goes to sermon prep and writing. I wonder if it is the prep is what takes me the longest. I am always looking for one more detail, one more interesting story, etc. Like you, I tend to work like I can’t let anything fall through the cracks.
I am finding with the work we’ve done for the doctoral program so far that if I pay close attention to simply answering the exact questions they ask and just doing the bare minimum – I don’t mean that in a slacker way – I mean that by paying close attention to doing exactly what they ask of me and using the tools they’ve given, the work seems to….work. I guess I haven’t yet gotten caught up in the weeds of “one more resource” or “one more story”….because of the instructions they’ve given. However, I definitely can see that becoming an issue for me as we dive deeper into research.
My “butt in seat” approach at this point regarding the doctoral project is just making me sit down and actually do the work when there are so many other things I also like to do!
Thank you for your comment!
As you look at the options for managing all the notes (by the way, I COMPLETELY identify with the multiple notebooks as I have at least 4 in my office at any given time), what tool/approach are you considering? Are you going to maintain the notebooks with better organization, switch to some online app, or something else?