Learning my lessons well

I learnt another lesson today – a rather obvious lesson any rational, thinking person might say. But it’s been a lesson I've refused to learn since I've started my fieldwork.

And it started like this...I needed to have my sinuses x-rayed, so picked today to go to the radiographers. As they don’t take appointments for this procedure I had to sit in the waiting room and wait my turn. So instead of reading the magazines on their coffee table, I simply pulled out my laptop and started to write up the fieldnotes for the day. Before I knew it my notes were complete and when I got home the relief of not having to do this task was just fantastic. I hate coming home and then having to contemplate the dreaded fieldnote writing. It’s not that serious, but you need a solid hour or so to concentrate and focus on what happened during the day. I usually take rough written notes throughout the day and then sit down at night to recompose and built out the detail in my final notes on computer. Last week because of one or other reason I ended up having to write up about three days of fieldnotes over the weekend – which for me is really a bad practice because one can so easily forget the specifics of what happened on the day. Also in the rush to finish the task, you skimp over the finer details and elaborations – again failing to capture authentically the happenings of the day. Also imagine taking 3-4 hours out for your weekend free time – not a good prospect at all!

So why don’t I sit down and write my fieldnotes immediately when I get home, why am I always distracted by other ‘things’ I need to do, leaving the fieldnotes for later and then ending up feeling like this crucial activity is a horrible chore? So my lesson today is to do my notes before I leave my research site – spend an extra hour on campus writing my notes and come home without ‘fieldnotes’ hanging over my head. These notes are crucial to my understanding and reading of the context and I need to give them the space and priority they deserve. When I’m sitting with my analysis in 4-5 months time, I want to be smiling rather than wanting to pull my hair out.