Pondering

I will have to admit that pondering the thoughts of life during a concurrent final is probably not the best thing in the world, expically for those of us with ADD. It is very distracting, and forces us to end up writing random blog postings regarding it. But, during this final (which I did complete) I started to wonder about thinking. Yes, people, thinking about thinking. It is probably hard to handle, but for those that know me, this is a normal think for me.

As I sat there trying to figure out the best way to been the people of Alpha and Beta on to the Enterprise while allowing Mr. Scotty to sleep between transports, I looked around the room at people working on their own finals. This is where the derailing of the train of thought happened. I wondered: How are people processing the information? What are people's trains of thoughts for taking an exam? How are people jumping from one question to the next in a logical mannger? This has always interested me. I sit in a room with people that are clearly smarter than I, and wonder what their thought processes are. I find it mildly interesting.

With all of this, I started to wonder about my though processes, and how I can up with answers and solved probelms. This, this was the bad point. At this point, I realized that I had no formal though process. Things just appeared in my head. I mean it is clear that the transporter site is suppose wake up Mr. Scotty. It is just clear. Well, to me at least.

Through out my schooling, there have been several attempts at teaching ways to approach problem, map your mind, and get your thoughs out on paper. I was never really turned on by these methods, or to say I never really found that they worked. It just always seemed like a lot of extra work to sit and draw out a map, fill in the little circles, and by that point my OCD would kick in, and well 4 hours later, I would have a half completed mind map that would be worthily of some sort of design award. But at the same time, I haven't gotten all of my ideas out. This is something that has always been true. I spend more time making it look pretty than actually getting the information down.

But there was something else that I wondered about: thinking in the head. I watched the professor change the first problem three times. Granted I wonder about his thinking processes because of a number of other problems in the class, but I sat there and watched him go through the problem in his head. Granted this was a problem that I had no idea even how to approach, but I wondered how he was going through it in his head. I was curious.

I guess this is forming the thought that things just pop into my head, and normally I try and give attention to those things. (Ex: grading midterms, assisting with homework, fixing the mailserver, and talking with friend all in the same hour and half. (Yes, I got it all done. Christine was impressed.)) But I wonder if there is a need to formalize the process of handling thoughts and approaching things instead of just raming it head on and working with the things that appear in my head.

Thoughs and comments are welcome.

To Do.

Though out life, there are many different to do lists that are created. There are ones fo things that we need to do in school and at work. There are also the to do lists that we make for life. There are lists that we make for the next three hours. There are a lot of to do lists. To do lists are a great. The only problem that I have with them is that mine are continous growing.

I get a little obsessed with my todo lists. They get pretty detailed. Some times breaking a task down so much that it would form a good model for a requirements document for a complex program.

I don't keep a formal todo list. I have tried. Purchased notebooks to carry around with me. Random sheets of paper (these are easy to loose). GoogleTaks. Remember the Milk. All of these I have tried, and I end up either stop using them, or they become so large that it is just eaiser to ignore them :).

I guess that it is time to try something new. Time to make some sort of grand todo for everything. Maybe I will just write a program to do it for me which will then distract me from actaully doing the things on the list. I'm all in favor of this.