When academics party, they party hard, this is common knowledge. It is of course, also the reason I said yes to an invitation to attend a party with academics. I hadn’t expected to be confronted with my own writing tips during this evening, although this is exactly what happened! In short: we danced, drank wine, and only talked about work a little tiny bit. Which in the case of talking about writing is a delight.
The party was organized by a professor friend with two teenage daughters who had pleaded with their dad: it would have to be a dancing party, not a sitting-down party (Dutchies, you will be familiar with ‘zitfeestjes’). Because they had already endured too many of their dad’s sitting-down parties this year and sitting-down parties are boring. Especially sitting-down parties with friends of their dad’s! (Insert eye-rolls here.) I didn’t attend these sitting-down parties, so I can’t say how bad they really were (though I tend to agree with the girls about ‘zitfeestjes’) but I was invited to this one where their houseboat’s living room had been cleared to make space for dancing.
After pouring the wine I was already almost toppling over. I concluded it wasn’t me, or the wine: this houseboat was definitely floating at an angle. Not quite Titanic-like, as we weren’t exactly going anywhere, nor were we sinking, hopefully, but there was a hint of drama in it, if you were willing to detect it.
I spotted an Italian friend, who introduced me to a former colleague of hers. He asked as you do at parties: how did we know each other? After a few seconds (‘How did we meet? It seems like a lifetime ago!) she shared that she had taken my online course and that we had kept in touch ever since. “Those writing tips I shared with you,” she said to him, “I learnt them from Amber’s course.” He nodded his head. When they worked at the same university, they had had many a conversation about staying the course with academic writing. “Those were really great tips!” he said.
The best one? Shorten your workday and work in small chunks!
Set boundaries around your writing time. Make it shorter than you think you need. Keep it sharp and snappy. Do not attempt to write for an entire day, or even an entire morning. Instead, use chunks of time: a couple of hours at a time max, interspersed with short breaks.
The colleague mentioned that the idea of shortening, instead of lengthening your day (always doing ‘more’) kind of revolutionized the way he writes. What an idea!
The second idea: match your work sessions to your focus and energy levels. Important and creative work first, always. Move that idea, those words, that paper ahead. Lots of energy today? Try slightly longer sessions. Running a bit low? Keep it tight. Make it doable: keep it fresh, do not let your energy drain.
Approaching your academic writing in this way will help you keep the momentum going.
Now, if you truly want to become unstoppable, have a look at the Stress-Free PhD Programme. It goes much deeper into all these ideas. Over the course of 6 weeks I will lead you through the process of developing your own, personalized, writing habit and workday. I share my stories and my process, and you will develop your own along the way. It will be fun (and useful!), come join me.