Epistemic Effort: Regular ruminations over the span of several months
In linguistics, a register describes the differences in word choice, pronunciation, sentence construction, etc. that we use in various social settings. For a simple example, you would use a totally different register talking to your boss in a meeting than your spouse after dinner.
Probably. It wouldn't surprise me if some people use the same register everywhere. I definitely have trouble shifting to a friendly register, even with people I'm sorta comfortable with. But that's not the point of this post. Rather, I want to steal the term to describe a more psychological phenomena.
First, though, let me tell you a story.
Back during my last semester at Purdue, my mom had some inkling of how serious the situation was, and decided to sign me up for a session with her therapist when I was around for spring break. The session was largely forgettable, in no small part because you don't really need a hypnotist to put you to sleep when you're as tired as I was, but one thing I remember saying stuck out.
I was trying to describe how my stress response worked, and ran into an issue explaining it. You see, how I operated when I was in West Lafayette was almost entirely divorced with how I operated in Kansas City.
This makes perfect sense when you think about it. When I was at home, I was sleeping all day and didn't have class. When I was at school, I had classes and homework and exams and so on. At school, I lived in a dorm, with a roommate, showered and brushed my teeth in a communal bathroom, etc. At home, I had dramatically more privacy. I rode in cars instead of walking or taking the bus.
I tried to explain that my behavior, mindset, whatever you want to call it was very different when I was at home for a break, even a mid-semester break, than at school. I don't think I did a very good job. But that realization has stuck with me.
This is what I'm describing as a register. Even now, I'm in a very different register when I'm at home or at school. Yesterday I was in Kansas City, today I'm in Lawrence. In KC, I'm mostly killing time because I literally never know when I'll be interrupted for whatever activity my parents want me for. My most productive hours were monopolized by manual labor in the continuing move process, and then, exhausted, I couldn't exert decent discipline in a non-optimized environment.
Today, I am the only person ultimately controlling my daily schedule. When I finish writing this blog post, I'll finish my grocery list and go to the store, put in laundry after I come back, and start reading up for this semester. I still don't have great self-discipline, but my routine is designed around my needs and apartment layout.
Concrete examples don't really get at the underlying difference, unfortunately. I'm not trying to describe the way my routine varies, but rather the way my mindset varies. At school, I'm focused on more optimal forms of recreation between churning out assignments. That's the ideal, at least; I frequently still fall short. But that's a hell of a lot better than waiting for the largely-unpredictable parental help requests. It's difficult to get anything done, so after all these years I've basically stopped trying. It's not a mindset I like, so naturally I try to minimize my time there.
Shifting registers isn't quick or easy. Part of the reason I went back to school early this semester was to begin the process early. All too often, during what non-engineers call "syllabus week", I'm still operating primarily in the home register than the school register. I slack off out of habit instead of clearing out easy assignments quickly and efficiently. I don't like that but there's only so much that BRUTE STRENGTH can do for it. Putting myself back in the correct habitspace is a much smarter tactic.
If I didn't get the idea across well-enough, well, maybe I just need to switch registers.
