Writing is central to your career and to your identity. You need a writing practice that enables you to incorporate writing into your regular activities and adapts to changes in your other responsibilities. There are 3 kinds of writing time you can combine to create an effective practice. The one that’s easiest to find but hardest to believe will actually be worthwhile is the “short snatch”. I have created this 15 minute writing challenge to help you work out how you can use short snatches of time to build a regular habit, to complement your longer sessions, to keep your regular practice going when you get really busy, and to help you work on projects you are finding difficult.
The good thing about 15 mins of #AcWri in the morning is that it gives you this ‘buzz’ that keeps you motivated throughout the day.
— Adi Afzal Ahmad (@adiafzal) November 1, 2016
I did it.
There I was, tired and a bit cranky, thinking I couldn’t do anything useful in 15 minutes (failing to follow my advice) and all for calling it a day. But I just did 15 minutes of useful work on the article, keeping it fresh in my mind.
Thanks @JoVanEvery
— Kieran Fenby-Hulse (@DrKFenbyHulse) January 9, 2018
The challenge on this page is designed to help you build a habit. If you are struggling to do any research and scholarly writing during teaching terms, this is a good place to start. You may be early in your career and trying to figure out how to do this. You may be mid-career or late career and have given up trying, either relegating writing to breaks and study leaves or stopping thinking of yourself as research-active altogether.
It is also useful if you are finding some time to write but not enough to build any momentum. Maybe you write once a week, or find a day or two a few times a term. But each time you come back to your writing you have to find your way back in. You are making progress but it feels really slow. You can use the 15 minute challenge to connect those longer, but less frequent, writing sessions. I’ve written more about using “short snatches” and how they complement other kinds of writing time in Finding Time for your Scholarly Writing. For more support for your writing practice, including a weekly Meeting With Your Writing to support you in finding one longer session a week, join the Academic Writing Studio.
What’s on this page:
Setting yourself up
Instructions
Setting Goals
Asking for Support
Resources
You can write during term time.
The 15-minute/day Writing Challenge is based on evidence that even this small amount can be effective. I know you can find 15 minutes a day. The biggest problem is that you don’t think you can do anything useful with 15 minutes a day. I recommend 15 minutes because it is small enough that you can definitely find that time. As you establish your habit, you can experiment with extending the time.
The challenge is an experiment. I’ve set it out assuming you are experimenting with daily writing during your working week. This is your challenge so you get to decide on the details. Do you want to establish a particular time of day as “writing time” or do you want to make sure you do some writing each day (in whatever time is available)? What do you hope will happen?
How long will you run your experiment before you assess the results? I recommend at least 6 weeks. The tracking chart allows for 12. Whatever you choose, look at what you were able to accomplish and what you learned, and make a decision about whether it is worth continuing this practice, whether you want to adapt the practice and create a new experiment going forward, or whether you now know that this model doesn’t work for you.
Setting yourself up for the week
You can do this on the weekend or use your Friday or Monday 15-minute slot for this. (It contributes to moving your project forward, so it totally counts as writing.)
- Pick a writing project. (Any project. I suggest the one you most feel like working on for whatever reason.)
- Ask yourself “What does this project need to move forward?” Write down everything that comes to mind, no matter how ridiculous.
- Break down the bigger things on that list into the smallest possible pieces. (e.g. “Edit the draft” can be broken down into “Rewrite paragraph 6 on page 3 to better express …” + more statements like that)
You are going to refer to this list every day so put it in a form that makes that easy. You don’t want to waste any of your 15 minutes trying to figure out what an item on your list means. You want to pick one and go. You might stick with the same project for several weeks. You can add things to this list of needs whenever you like.
It is possible that some of what your project needs really requires more sustained attention over a longer period. One of the objectives of this challenge is to help you work out what kinds of things work in 15 minutes, even if you need multiple short sessions to finish the task. Focus on what’s possible. Challenge yourself to try some things you aren’t sure about. This is an experiment.
Instructions
Pick a time of day you will write. After breakfast? After lunch? Preferably something you can do every work day.
Put the sign on the door. Sit down at your desk. Set a timer for 15 minutes. Pick something on your list. Write.
When the timer goes off, stop, even if you are mid sentence. Leave a few breadcrumbs to help you get started again: “If I could keep writing what would I do next?”
Take the sign off the door. Highlight or cross off today on your tracking sheet. Get on with your day.
I’ve created a recording, Jo on Tap Express, with a short opening to get you focused (mostly stretching and breathing), 15 minutes of silence in which to write, and then 2 questions to wrap up before you go on to the rest of your day. You can find it in the Resources section below.
Setting goals you can achieve
You want to find out how much you can write if you do this so you are not going to set a goal related to the product. This is all about the process. Your goal in taking this challenge is to establish a practice and/or to learn how you can use short snatches of time in your writing practice. What you do is much less important than that you do it.
Set yourself up for success. You don’t want to set your goal at a level where you can fail by Week 3 of the semester. Why would you stick to your plan if you’ve already failed? You also know that setting challenging goals can give you an incentive to try harder. So you don’t want to set a goal that’s too easy.
The answer is to give your goal levels. (I first got this idea from a client and have adapted it.)
Set 3 levels for success:
- A level below which you really need to ask yourself if you are committed to your goal. (This should feel relatively easy.)
- A level that seems possible and comfortable. You are committed and doing well. There is enough slack here for bad weeks.
- A level that feels like a comfortable stretch. You will have to try a little harder but it should be achievable.
If you only set the level 3 goal, there is a good chance you will not meet it and get discouraged. That’s not motivating. If you only set the level 1 goal, you would probably feel like it wasn’t really enough. That’s not motivating either.
By identifying all 3 levels, you keep the higher level of achievement in view but recognize that it might take you some time to get there.
On the tracking sheet, there is a place to write your 3 goals. They take the form [blank] days per week + at least [blank] weeks.
You get to pick what works for you. This is your challenge. Do not bully yourself.
You can (re)start any time
If you only heard about this in Week 6 of term, that’s okay. Start now. This week is your week 1 of the challenge.
If you started with great intentions in Week 2 of term, did okay for a couple of weeks and then completely blew one week, that’s okay, too. Draw a line on your chart. And start again at week 1 of the challenge. You can reset your goals based on the new information you have about what is comfortable and what’s a stretch.
This is your challenge. Do not bully yourself.
Ask for support
One of the difficulties with writing is that it is largely invisible work, despite how important it is to your job. A secondary goal of this challenge is to make writing more visible in your department. I’ve written more about how you can do that in a supportive way and ask for the support you need to succeed with this challenge.
The 15-minute Challenge: Asking for Support
There is also a page with some suggestions for supporting your colleagues in case you need to point some of your colleagues in that direction so they can be more supportive.
Supporting colleagues in the 15 minute challenge
If you want to share your progress publicly, please use #15minacwri on Twitter. Search that tag to see who else is taking the challenge, too.
Resources
- A door sign. This is particularly useful if you are writing in the office. It not only reminds people not to disturb you, it also increases the visibility of writing as a legitimate part of your work.
- A tracking sheet. Print this out to record your 3 part goal and track the days on which you do your 15 minutes.
- A timed recording with a short opening, 15 minutes of silence (during which you write), and a short closing.
- Questions to help you review your experiment.
Download the door sign & tracking sheet PDF:
US letter (8.5″ x 11″) 15 Min Challenge - US Letter (1052 downloads)
A4 15 Min Challenge - A4 (1691 downloads)
You can print this as 1 double-sided page, keeping track on the back of your sign, or print them separately and keep the tracking sheet near your writing stuff.
If you prefer to use your smartphone for tracking there are lots of apps out there for building new habits. Veronica Cheplygina uses Habitica and has a post about using it with Todoist. If you have another app you like, contact me to let me know and I’ll add other recommendations to the page.
“Jo On Tap Express” MP3
I’ve created a recording with a short opening, 15 minutes of silence in which to write, and a short closing.
The Review PDF
I’ve also created a set of questions to help you reflect on the process and decide what to do next. This is your practice. You get to tweak it however you like to make it work. Your goal is to write regularly. I hope these questions help you figure out how to make that happen.
Download: 15 Minute Academic Writing Challenge Review Sheet (1170 downloads)
Further support from Jo
If you’d like to add one longer writing session to your week, A Meeting With Your Writing (the core of the Academic Writing Studio) provides just enough support to help you make and keep that commitment to yourself. As a Studio member you will also have support for planning that includes writing, a periodic Establishing a Writing Practice class to help you review what’s working and create experiments to tweak your practice, and a community who are doing this alongside you. The Studio newsletter includes monthly articles about writing and planning, and monthly prompts to review your activities and adjust your plans for the month ahead as well as notification of stand-alone classes.
I also offer individual coaching to support you through making bigger changes, preparing for a promotion, or making the most of a sabbatical: Guide for the Journey.
Meeting In Progress Sign by Jo VanEvery is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
