A long term participant in A Meeting With Your Writing recently mentioned that it has been 4 years. Wow, where does the time go? I remember when I came up with this idea. I wondered what I would do if no one signed up. Or, worse, if only 3 people signed up and then I […]
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Thoughts on work, creativity, and “bureaucracy’s perverse attractions”
An article about university bureaucracy by Elaine Glaser in the Times Higher contained this thought provoking paragraph: In The Utopia of Rules, Graeber offers a convincing account of bureaucracy’s perverse attractions. It offers a chimera of absolute transparency, consistency and fairness. It is like a game with perfect rules – and which is also not […]
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Beginning of term chaos is temporary
It doesn’t matter if this is your first year in the job or your 20th. The beginning of term is chaos. This is temporary. It will only last a week or two. Then you will settle into the normal rhythm of term time. Adjust your priorities During beginning of term chaos you can temporarily suspend some […]
Read More »Are you resisting routine?
During last Thursday’s Meeting, one participant commented that she’d noticed an interesting benefit of A Meeting With Your Writing. Like so many of us, J is prone to changing her schedule a lot. This means making decisions about whether to write now or to do some other thing on the big list of important stuff. A Meeting […]
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Turn Summer Writing Plans into Autumn Writing Plans
In the post about Summer Writing Plans I suggested that you don’t necessarily want to finish things in the summer, but rather get them to the point where what remains can be done during a busy term. One of my objectives in writing that post was to help you set yourself up for writing in term time, something […]
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Are you tempted to binge write for the last few weeks of the break?
I’ve written before about the mis-use of the term “binge writing”. I don’t just mean writing for long periods of time, which is what you’ve probably been doing all summer. I mean binging: Are you tempted to push yourself beyond what you know from experience is the optimum amount of writing you can do well […]
Read More »Summer Writing plans
I was talking to a client about her summer plans. She wants to get a lot of stuff written this summer. She has lots of data. She wants to apply for a grant in about 18 months time. And heck, she finds it hard to write during term time and wants to prioritize that over […]
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What is an “efficient” writing practice?
A few conversations I’ve had recently, with clients and on Twitter, have reminded me that we have some interesting ideas about “efficiency“. It’s as if you have a gremlin observing your writing practice like a time and motion consultant. Maybe you feel more comfortable printing out articles and making notes by hand in the margin. […]
Read More »Writing is the social currency of academic life
In high school things like fashionable clothes, knowing the latest hit from a popular band, and being good at sports were the keys to popularity. Getting good grades might have endeared you to teachers and parents but it wasn’t really the currency of peer approval. The world you are in now is like an upside […]
Read More »Why I don’t recommend the Pomodoro technique
This little Italian tomato has been popping up in my tweet-stream, blog comments, blog posts I read, and other places around the Internet. It looks like a really cool technique. (There is a video on that site that explains the basics.) Lots of people are using it and getting good results. So why do I […]
Read More »Principles vs rules: Write every day?
Recently I came across this article on Study Hacks: Why “Write Every Day” is Bad Advice Here’s what happens when you resolve to write every day: you soon slip up. If you’re not a full-time writer, this is essentially unavoidable. An early meeting at work, a back-up on the subway, an afternoon meeting that runs long — […]
Read More »Making Writing Less Scary: Blogging might help
Developing the habit of writing is probably the best reason for starting a blog. People who blog about their academic work in progress find it very rewarding. You may also discover that there are lots of non-academics who think deeply about similar things. You don’t even have to blog about your research. In this post, I address some of your fears and give you some strategies for keeping the meanies out of the comments.
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