I’m a big fan of setting goals to help make scholarly writing less daunting. I’ve encouraged you to set product-focused weekly goals and set goals for and track your individual writing sessions. But my hope is to help you write more, with less effort.
It happened when you were up against a deadline, and you had no other option. You sat down and thought, “I don’t know what I’m saying! How can I write if I don’t know what I’m saying!” But with the looming deadline, you managed to temporarily push past your fear and just start.
In previous posts, I showed you how to get your summer off to the right start by making a schedule, time map, and setting a summer start date; determining what your writing will look like; and negotiating the crucial first weeks. But summer is not just about writing. Here are 6 other things you should
Faculty: do you plan to use this summer to make headway on your writing projects? Have you fantasized for months about all you’ll finally be able to write once your classes end? Did you (or will you soon) finish the semester stressed, burned out, and needing time to recharge? If so, you might be tempted
“I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. I sit down to write in the afternoon, but after only 15 minutes, I get so distracted that I can’t make any progress on my writing. I schedule my session for two hours, but can’t get anything done. Then I feel guilty for not writing like I was
As I lay out in my post about how and why to plan your summer before the semester ends, summer break tends to sneak up on faculty, professors, and graduate students. During the hectic semester, we long for the days when we will have fewer responsibilities. We fantasize about how much writing we will get
It might have snuck up on you, but summer (at least for most US faculty) is right around the corner. Especially if you have a heavy teaching load right now, I bet you’re thinking two main things. First, summer will be your long-awaited down time to finally rest and recover from the semester’s stresses. Second, you
Your brain tricks you constantly. You think you are a good multitasker. It never feels like your attention and focus suffer when you quickly answer a text message during a writing session. In fact, you’re able to get right back to your work. The science tells a different story, one that will forever change how
So many junior scholars quickly find themselves in research “survival mode.” You might find yourself saying “I don’t have time to write, especially on teaching days! I barely have enough time to prep, teach, grade, eat and sleep!” Or, you might find yourself in an extreme cycle: you write intensely to meet a deadline, then
In previous posts, I outlined how to publish more articles by tracking your writing, how to use opening rituals to make each writing session productive, and how to use closing rituals to set yourself up for success in your next session. But those posts left out one key piece. How do you set actionable product-focused