"The payoff is less about peacocking with obscure adjectives which, let's face it, can make you sound insufferable and more about the mental calisthenics of the ritual. Each time I look up and record a word, I feel a faint stretch, as though some neglected part of my brain is flexing again. Even if I never deploy eidolon in conversation, the very act of noticing, logging and revising it interrupts the slide into passive, semi-skimmed attention."
"So, about a year ago, I made a small vow: every time I came across a word I didn't know whether in a novel, an article, or an overheard conversation I would look it up and write it down. Nothing elaborate, no leather-bound journal or fountain pen. Just a running list kept, ironically, on my phone. Each week, I'd spend a few minutes reading the list back in an attempt to lodge the word into my memory."
Deep sustained reading diminished into habitual phone scrolling and a contracted attention span. A small vow began: whenever an unfamiliar word appeared—whether in a novel, a news piece, or overheard speech—the word was looked up, recorded on a simple running list kept on a phone, and reviewed weekly. The list grew to almost twenty pages and functioned as both vocabulary practice and a reading diary. The ritual exercised neglected cognitive muscles by forcing noticing, logging and revision, interrupting passive, semi-skimmed attention. The practice can be impractical in transit but yields restorative, subtle gains in mental elasticity.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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