Writing Is Thinking; Reading Is Pruning.

I woke up 4:20am today and spent the next one hour 36 minutes thinking about what to write as today's blog post. Now that I am already running late for the day's regular activities I have stopped thinking about what to write and I'm simply writing something.

My writing deadline is 8:00am. If I don't complete my blog post by 7:59am you are not going to get it in your inbox that day. So I try my best to complete whatever blog post I am writing before 8:00am. But I can't count the number of times I was done at exactly 7:59am. And also the days I woke up 7:10am to begin thinking and writing are without count.

image: thinkingwriting.qmul.ac.uk

The interesting part is that I always get the post done regardless of how short the time I have left before 8:00am to think about a post and write it out. And the reason? I found out that writing in itself is thinking. When I am short of time, I simply write. And the moment I place my hands on the keyboard it's like a secondary CPU in my brain comes on and my thinking goes into turbo drive. I don't need to think out what I want to write; every sentence I write leads me to the next one. And the one after. All I just need to do is to stop thinking and start writing. Writing triggers thoughts, refines them and lay them out in written words. Writing is thinking.

I read everyday. I often read for more hours than I sleep in a day. There is always a book I am in the middle of. I am currently reading Principles of Economics, though it's for my MBA program. Increasingly, I am finding that reading is pruning me. I end up shedding more thoughts and things after reading a good book. Reading opens my eyes to the unnecessary baggage in my life and thoughts. It helps me see the unreasonable habits I need to stop and the unsound thoughts I need to let go off. The more I read the more things I get rid off. Reading is pruning.

When I write I embark on a mysterious journey. I don't know what the next paragraph is going to be. I most times don't even know what the next sentence will be. And I don't know how the article will turn out. Writing shows me a part of me that is almost independent of me. It brings out the thoughts I could not think without the soft pressure of the keyboard against my hands. It leads me into the fountain of thoughts I struggle to find on my own. Writing makes me think more than thinking does.

And when I read, it's like going on a guided tour. Relaxing and letting someone else, usually an expert, do the show and tell. I get to see things and life from another's very interesting perspective. I get to go to places and time I can never physically go. I get to satisfy every curiosity I have. It is the main reason I don't get easily upset, excited or in a hurry. It prunes off every incomplete thought, almost all spontaneity and a lot of expectations. Reading is pruning.