I find that most of my current thinking process is happening in a "spontaneous" manner - I have thoughts as I go about my life and I would flash them out a bit if things seem particularly promising - briefly transitioning into a "deliberate mode"
Among other things this is how this note has started
?Arguably most ideas would start here as a consequence of unconscious processing of information
In deliberate mode - I'm focusing on elaborating/diving deeper into an idea, will do additional research/etc. The goal of the deliberate mode is to create deeper understanding of the topic
There are other ways of going into the deliberate mode - the easiest I can replicate is having a dedicated time to do evergreen notes tending. Picking a note that seems exciting and developing it
Is deliberate mode "more virtuous" ?
that's the unsubstantiated feeling I have
You need "spontaneous mode", but it's also by its nature easy to achieve and will happen naturally, assuming you give space for it
Though ideas happen in spontaneous mode far more often when there is a deliberate mode phase (or focused work) present in your life
How do you build structures to spend more time in deliberate mode?
I have the deliberate writing time enforced by Beeminder as a way to push me in that direction
this but as a routine that I do daily in the morning has been helpful
I don't find it as onerous and it provides a space for me
so if I have something that I've been pondering - I'd have a space and time to write about it
ofc if it's "intense" enough contemplation it'd prompt me to write by itself
but this is very valuable for thing that didn't breach that threshold, and so I wouldn't have written about it, with no set space
Is there a more "natural" way of getting there?
focused work would include some aspects of it, but is not quite the same
How do I make it more inherently rewarding?
Right now (unless I'm in that mode as a consequence of spontaneous -> deliberate transition), going into a deliberate mode explicitly is hard.
Part of this is that writing is kind of hard for me
It's important to find topics that I'm excited about elaborating on, as my current default process pushes me to look at things that are in the "attention queue" soon, but that does not translate to excitement.
Maybe just being aware of this is already helpful, but it'd be nice to have some structural support here
The thing that does not map on this distinction well is walking to think
Is it deliberate because I'd have a specific thing I'd like to focus on and load the context for?
Also bc the point of this exercise is actually thinking/making intellectual progress
It has more of a form of "spontaneous" thinking though - you're outwardly engaged in some light-weight activity while mostly intellectually occupied with your topic presumably
But also your mind will wander and the pondering would be background at least some of the time