Photo by Jason Strull on Unsplash
In days gone by when someone said they were at university they were often asked, “what are you reading?”. The reply might be maths, law, engineering and so on. I’m not quite sure what caused this phase to become less used but in a way I’m not surprised it has.
As the times and technologies have changed, the requirement to be nose deep in a book at the uni library isn’t there like it once was. It may also be tied to the rise in less traditionally academic subject, such as sports science.
I feel that in our current approach, as well as less traditional forms of reading, there is also less time afforded to thinking. We all want to ensure we pass our assessments and often this leads us to being quite outcome focused. Although logical, to a point, this might come with some limitations. Carving time out to specifically think about problems or strategies is often where the magic is. Where we find inspiration. But the drive to get the job done and move on can stifle that.
I think it’s therefore really important to try to partition time for such thinking. I know we’re all busy, but I think a return to such practices could well yield rewards we might not otherwise get when we’re rushing to tick off a task.
This doesn’t apply only to students either. Taking the time for a slower paced twenty minutes can act as a nice reset for all of us and allow us to get our creative juices going!
T.Brownlee@bham.ac.uk