Writing Habits

Introduction
Writing is an every day thing, no matter how mundane it may
be, it plays a role in everyones life. The technology that is available in
this day and age certainly contributes to just how much writing the
average person does. I for one, was curious as to just how much I really
write in one day and what time of day it peaks. Seeing as to how I tend
to write as little as possible, I figured I would not have trouble keeping
track of just how much or what type of writing I complete. With this in
mind, I set out to collect five to six days worth of reading logs which
were meant to capture a variety of aspects of my writing. Thus, every
time I finished any sort of writing, I would complete a template that
asks about what type of writing it was or whom it was intended for.
My writing process was something I never analyzed deeply. The
usual text conversation, email, or note taking was the most common
application for which I would write. Never thinking of it too much, I
would write only whenever I needed to. At the start of this project I
hypothesized that most of my writing would occur around noon since
that is the time when I feel most alert. In a Harvard Business Review
article, the author argues It takes a few hours after waking up to
reach peak levels of energy and alertness. Not long after lunch, those
levels begin to decline, hitting a low at around 3pm (Barnes). The
author, Christopher Barnes, also goes on to explain why a persons

circadian rhythm contributes to how production varies among different

hours of the day. At this point, using deductive reasoning, a technique
where researchers start with a hypothesis or general conclusion and
then collect specific data, I now had some evidence to support my
hypothesis (Driscoll 158).
Methods
The data collection for this project was relatively simple. I
adhered to a writing log template which was provided. That writing log
template had questions such as, what I was writing about, why I was
writing, who the audience was, what technologies were used, and also
what my writing process was like during that writing event. I had a pen
and notepad that I would take to classes because I knew I would most
likely need to fill out my writing log for my lecture. On this notepad I
would also document what class I was in and what time of day it
occurred. I would generally fill out my writing log after lecture was over
so as to maximize my attention for the lecture material. Although,
during the lecture I would be sure to make a mental note of my writing
process to later include that in my writing log. I repeated this process
for both of my lecture courses that I was enrolled in.
As far as text messages go, my writing logs were recorded a bit
differently than my lecture logs. The only person I text is my girlfriend
and occasionally one or two of my friends who go to another university.
Since the conversations with my friends were so brief, I instead logged

my girlfriends conversation because there were far more texts

between she and I than anybody else. Rather than filling out a writing
log after every message I would send out, I would fill out the log at the
end of the day after looking back at the conversation between my
girlfriend and I. Resorting again to my pen and notepad, I would jot
down a brief summary of the discussion that day. I paid attention to
how formal or informal my conversation was and also included that in
my writing logs. The only other type of writing I included in my writing
logs were mundane tasks such as searches I would submit on Google
or comments I would leave on Instagram.
At the end I decided to dive back and focus more on my note
taking logs since I was more curious about my writing habits when it
came to something as important as my schoolwork. I determined that I
would examine my lecture notes and see just how much I write and
compare that to what time of day it is. I selected this because,
although it may be a simple question, it is something that I could
definitely learn from and hopefully improve upon in the future for my
personal gain.
Results
Total data collection spanned six different school days. Each day
of data covered all of my Monday/Wednesday/Friday lectures along
with my Tuesday/ Thursday lectures. The Monday/Wednesday/ Friday
lecture is a physics course which has a time span from 10AM to

10:50AM. The other lecture course is a macroevolution course which

served as Tuesday/Thursday data and this class is from 11AM to
12:15PM. The first day of data collection happened to be a Thursday
and I had only managed to write roughly half a page of notes. The
following day, two
full pages of physics notes were jotted down. Following the weekend, I
returned to my physics lecture, this time writing significantly less. I was
almost able to write a full page of physics notes, which I counted as .9
of a page when calculating the average. The next day, Tuesday, I
produced a little more than a half page of notes for my 11AM lecture.
Since these notes were just past the half a page mark, I rounded the
number to .6 of a page for calculation purposes. For, Wednesdays
10AM class I wrote 1.5 pages and lastly for my 11AM macroevolution
course I managed one page of notes.
From the data collected, a clear trend has emerged. It seems as
though the lecture time is impacting the amount of notes I produce for
a given lecture. It seems that I produce significantly more notes in my
10AM physics course compared to my 11AM macroevolution course.
This conflicts my initial hypothesis in which I believed I would be most
productive around 12PM due to feeling more alert. However, the data
does not agree with my hypothesis nor Christopher Barnes argument
on circadian rhythms. The data instead resembles Karen Lelands
where she conducted a poll on when people were most productive. She

found that, The lowest time for productivity was between 12 and 2
p.m., with only 6 percent of respondents saying this was their most
productive time of day (Leland). I myself do not fall in that six
percentile.
It seems as though my productivity, at least on note taking,
peaks earlier than expected (see below). The average number of notes
for my 10AM lecture was 1.46 pages versus my 11AM at only a mere .
86 pages. From these results, I will have

to conclude that I am less productive as the lecture time is later in the

day. Had I been taking an extra lecture course, I could have done more
writing logs which would either skew these results or confirm them
even further.
Figure 1

Discussion

It is quite surprising to disprove something you strongly felt was

true. I was certain that I would write more notes for a class that was
later in the day. Not to mention, my 11AM is an hour and fifteen
minute lecture. That is an extra 25 minutes longer than my physics
course and somehow I am still not taking as many notes.
Upon further investigation, I came up with a couple reasons that
could explain my findings. One of the possible causes is that my
physics course simply has a lot of equations and example problems
that I copy down word for word or number by number. The reason for
this is because I do not want to leave out any steps in solving a math
heavy problem. I would hate to go back to my notes and be missing
crucial steps. It is also possible that maybe I become less interested in
taking notes as lunch hour approaches. Hunger strikes most people
around noon and it would make sense that the body needs to refuel to
run at its optimum.
Another explanation for my results could also be caused by the
lecture slides themselves. I postulate that slides full of details relating
to the material could negatively affect how much note taking I do.
There is probably some correlation to the amount of information on the
professors slides and how many notes I bother taking. This would only
apply if the professor uploads their slides online, otherwise what I just
mentioned would not apply and I would most likely jot down more
notes.

All in all, despite my findings not being in agreement with my

hypothesis, they are still valuable in the sense that I now know I could
maximize my productivity on important tasks by tackling them at
earlier times in the day.

Bibliography
"The Ideal Work Schedule, as Determined by Circadian Rhythms."
Harvard Business Review. 2015. Web. 17 May 2016.

"New Poll Shows Most Productive Time of Day." Gigaom. 2010 Karen
Leland. Web. 18 May 2016.