If there’s one thing I’ve learned from dabbling in popular science books about cognitive psychology (I have a Bachelor of Science in Psychology back in my murky past, but I never had as much fun studying the subject formally as I have had reading about the results of various specialist areas presented for a general audience), it’s that our minds are out to screw us. Our body is a little more reliable, at least before we outlive our evolutionary usefulness, but there’s a couple of areas where it too will happily sabotage us (and then there’s areas where mind and body together act against us — see research on weight loss and gain).
For example, the body seeks to preserve energy at all costs and will therefore cause us to slouch, sit, stand and walk in lazy ways that are overall damaging. We have to consciously fight our body’s preferences to prevent bad habits from causing poor posture and back ache. More relevantly to the point I promise I am getting to, the body does not let you know you are thirsty before you get dehydrated. When you feel thirsty, you are already short on water — only a little, mind you, but enough to affect performance. And the body will only give you the thirsty signal for a little while, until it adapts and no longer does so (or not as strongly). Dehydration can lead to all sorts of issues including fatigue, trouble concentrating, back pain (supposedly?), and insomnia. The rule of thumb is to drink eight glasses (two litres) a day, though there are arguments that this is a vast over-estimate and that actually we get almost all we need from our food; it’s better to consider how you feel, the colour of your pee, and where you live.
I’ve found drinking more water to be my surefire cure for feeling low on energy. It never seemed fair to me — I’m no athlete but I do plenty of exercise; I eat well (lots of fruit and veg, not much processed food) and I sleep well, right down to following the advice to have no screen time within the two-hour period before bedtime to ensure a restful night. And yet, despite ticking every box for not feeling tired, I felt tired, to such an extent that I got checked out for low iron levels (and had plenty). Through experimentation, I found my problem was not drinking enough water for the hot, humid environment I currently live in. Once I started drinking more, I felt much better.
What has all this got to do with writing?
I’ve recently had a lot of trouble focussing on my writing, both sitting down and doing it, and getting good words out when I do manage to force myself to sit down. I’ve also been sleeping a lot more than usual, and feeling tired and groggy when I am awake. I attributed this to being in my third trimester, which was probably a reasonable assumption till the day I spent more time asleep than awake (or so it felt) and my partner came home also complaining of being tired and I realised we had both slipped out of the habit of drinking plenty of water. And so I re-established my habit of keeping a water bottle by my side every day and taking constant sips to stay hydrated (I think sipping a glass-worth over the course of an hour is better than drinking a glass once an hour, but that’s just me). And I’m back to sitting down every day to write, and making progress through some scenes that have been stymieing me for days.
The upshot is: getting motivated to write (or do many tasks) can sometimes be a very difficult thing. But you can’t always blame your mind — sometimes physical factors are involved. Consider your overall health and fitness, and if it seems your diet, exercise and sleep regimens are fine, look at your water intake.
