Think of a time when you weren’t finding time to write. How did that feel?
I’ve heard enough academics complain about how little time they have for writing during term time to know that whatever specific feelings that brought up for you, they weren’t good.
Now, think about a time when you were writing regularly. Take a deep breath and close your eyes if that helps. I want you to try to re-experience how that felt.
Better, right?
Even if some individual writing sessions are difficult. Even if the process of writing can be frustrating. When you write regularly, the overall feeling is a good one.
Writing is important to your emotional state
One reason you are now an academic is because writing is how you process ideas. Writing about ideas helps you work through the confusion. Writing brings order into your thoughts.
In a post about being interviewed, Sarah J Bray wrote the following (emphasis mine; this post is no longer available on her site):
She sent me the questions ahead of time.
Instead of using that to craft pre-rehearsed answers, I hopped onto my handy 750words account (where I do most of my writing) and just started free-writing on each question. I didn’t bring my notes with me or anything, but it helped me relax, knowing that I understood my own thoughts.
Writing enables you to relax and be confident that you know your own thoughts. It makes you a better teacher. It makes you a better speaker.
Writing regularly makes you feel more comfortable in your identity as an academic.
It’s still hard to practice
Knowing that it makes you a better academic isn’t enough to actually make it easy to write regularly, especially during term when you have so many other, more immediate, demands on your time.
A Meeting With Your Writing, part of the Academic Writing Studio, is designed to support you in building this habit into your busy week.
Imagine what it would feel like to write on Monday. To know, as you go through your week that you have already written this week and that you will write again next week. Imagine what it will feel like to know that you will have time next Monday to work through (in writing) those ideas that are troubling you, if you don’t find time before then. Imagine how you might feel at the end of term if you have been writing every week. Click on the image to learn more and join us.
Related posts:
Is “number of hours” the right measure? on the importance of meaningfulness to how busy or tired you feel at the end of the week
Originally published September 4, 2012. Edited May 31, 2016.
Yes, you are so right. I have a wealth of picky things to do every day. Few are ever the same and they’ve always made me push writing to the last thing. Today I Got Writing Done.
First, I put a list of my writing projects (all 5) on the wall, so that when I lift my eyes I see it. Yesterday and today I blocked out time on my Outlook calendar (aka my To-do list) so that I only read email in three half-hour slots. I slotted in the most critical picky tasks, and that left me four hours of writing time. One project is now finished (ta-daa) and is out to the faculty for feedback. Another project (really a complex plan) is very much farther along than it was on Tuesday.
OK, so I cheated. So I stayed another hour and a half after work today to get real progress on that plan. When I am doing “thinking writing” (from that post of yours about writing to think) I need quiet and freedom from interruption. But I will not argue with results.
Four hours is not going to be the usual amount of time I can free up. But if I can free up a two-hour block, maybe I can make good progress with only a few after-work hours. Which might mean not working on the weekends … oh yes, your strategy works!!
Fantastic!!! So glad to hear it.