Arjun was back in town for the weekend. As
we were hanging out and talking about psychology, Arjun brought up the idea of
rituals as preparation for work. Thinking about it, there are a bunch of
reasons to have some kind of unchanging ritual that you can do prior to
beginning work. One is commitment, once you begin the ritual, you're committed
to doing it. Rituals also calm your emotions while getting your rat brain in
synch with your higher order cognition (maybe). Calming your emotions also
calms your body, and puts your body in a state more conducive to analytical
thought.
Arjun also brought up the idea of goal substitution (which just indicates that
I need to take some psych). An example is you have a term paper due, and
instead you clean your room. You're substituting a more comfortable goal for
a less comfortable one. As soon as he said this, I realized that I do this
all the time. Sigh. ;)