By Meira Levinson

Photo by Estée Janssens on Unsplash

Whether you’re working on job documents, class papers, theses/dissertations, or other materials, writing over break can be hard. My previous post discussed tips for getting started. This post offers strategies for managing your time and getting your work done once you’re sitting at your computer. As usual, pick tips that work for you, disregard those that don’t, and if you’re unsure, feel free to try some out on a limited-trial basis.

Writing Over Break: Accountability

I discussed writing groups and buddies in my previous post; these are two great ways to build accountability. Some others are:

1. Establish deadlines with your professor/adviser

Either they or you can choose the deadlines (or you can choose them together), but make it clear what work is due by which deadlines. Be as specific as possible. For example, for a dissertation chapter, you might want to schedule a “rough draft” deadline, then a “polished/revised draft” deadline, and then a “final draft” deadline. If your professor doesn’t have time to read multiple drafts, s/he doesn’t have to—this can just be a case where they notice whether or not you’ve sent it to their inbox. The goal here isn’t necessarily feedback (although that’s always great)—it’s external accountability. Establish together what the procedure will be leading up to and following the deadline: will your professor email you a reminder a week in advance? Email a receipt acknowledgement, perhaps with encouraging words? Email you if they did not receive it by the deadline? Choose something feasible for your adviser but that will hold you accountable.

2. Group/peer deadlines

There’s a huge value in articulating deadlines to people outside of ourselves: it holds us accountable, and makes the stakes feel higher by making the deadline feel more “real.” Sometimes, our professors can be this outside person—sometimes not. If you don’t feel comfortable using your professor to set accountability deadlines for yourself (and plenty of students don’t), try using peers or online communities. This can be as simple as texting your goals and deadlines to a family member or friend, or as formal as joining an online writing group that commits to regular writing. Facebook hosts many such groups (search “dissertation writing group,” for instance); you can of course also form your own. These differ from the writing groups/buddies mentioned in my previous post: while writing groups swap writing and writing buddies write side-by-side, accountability groups can simply offer a space in which you articulate (and hold yourself accountable) to your goals/deadlines.

3. Self-established deadlines

These are deadlines that you establish by yourself, for yourself, without looping in your adviser, writing buddies, or anyone else. I’ll be honest. These have never—never—worked for me. But they do work for some people. For those of you for whom they don’t work (you know who you are), see above.

4. Apps

There are some great apps that offer additional accountability options, if that’s your speed. Some, like Forest, work through a carrot/stick approach; others, like Habitica, fuse reward-based accountability with time management.

Speaking of time management …

Writing Over Break: Time Management

1. Schedule breaks

We all need breaks—even if just to stretch for five minutes and not kill our backs.

2. Set timers

If you’re taking a break, set a timer (unless it’s just, you know, a bathroom-and-stretching break, in which case timers may be overkill). You wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve said to myself, “I’m just going to read the news for 5 minutes” and then when I look up at the clock it’s been an hour (I’m sure none of you can relate).

3. Set *writing* timers

At first this sounded counter-intuitive to me. I mean, the whole point of getting in the zone is to get in the zone, right? Without breaks? But setting timers for your writing—as versus for your breaks—can actually spur you to write more, and faster. I found it also gave me permission to write: some apps meant to help with this (commonly called “Pomodoro” apps, after the Pomodoro technique) have a default setting of 25 minutes. Even on days when I felt overwhelmed and busy, a mere 25 minutes still felt doable—it’s a good way to get yourself going if you’re having trouble getting started. It also sped up my writing: my writing tends to expand to fit whatever block of time I give it. When I had 25 minutes—even if I knew, logically, that it would be followed by another 25 minutes and another—I found my writing shrunk to fill that block of time; I jotted my ideas down faster and distilled them quicker. If you want to use this method, you can use use an app (some are free, others not) or simply set alarms on your clock (although there’s something oddly motivating about having a timer in the shape of a tomato).

4. Project-hop

This is one of those strategies that can either really work for you or really not. Personally, I’ve found that it sometimes helps to channel my distraction by jumping from writing project to writing project. If I see that I’m losing my focus on one thing (and stretching / timers don’t help), rather than channeling my distraction into, say, watching Colbert clips, I can switch gears temporarily and work on a different project—having in mind that I’ll return to my first project soon (or after a 25-minute Pomodoro). This might mean pausing in dissertation chapter writing and working on a more mindless task like citation formatting; it might mean hopping from a dissertation chapter to a conference abstract or personal statement. I do try to keep the tasks writing based (as versus, say, browsing CFP’s or scheduling doctor appointments) so that I stay in the general zone. Again, this strategy is definitely not for everybody; if you’re reading this and thinking, “Oh my god this would be the worst thing for me” then ignore this idea. But for those of you who naturally tend to work this way: I’m here to validate that it can be a productive and mindful use of your time.

5. Scaffold tasks (& establish moving deadlines)

As teachers, we scaffold writing projects for students—we break larger projects down into smaller, building-block tasks. We should do the same for ourselves. This means:

Actionable, feasible tasks

Scaffolding gives you concrete tasks and allows you to plot those tasks onto real-time in your calendar. This way, when you sit down to your block of writing time, rather than having a broad, vague task before you (such as “write chapter 1”) you have a very focused, clear task (“list sources need for chapter 1” or “order books for chapter 1 from library” or “outline chapter 1”). Some tasks may take up your entire writing block (e.g. outlining a chapter may take a few hours); tasks that are smaller can be subdivided within larger writing blocks (if you have a 3-hour writing block, for example, you can schedule multiple short tasks).

Moving deadlines; static workflow

Unlike the rigid deadlines you establish with your adviser (or others), when you plot scaffolded tasks onto your calendar (i.e. within your writing blocks), it may help to think of them as moving deadlines. Your goal can definitely be to finish task #1 by the end of its appointed time slot; however, if you don’t, it simply shifts to the next time slot—pushing task #2 one slot over. This works especially well for tasks that build on each other (you can’t send your draft to peers for feedback until you write it; you can’t order library books until you research which ones you need). The key is to not get fazed as micro-deadlines for scaffolded tasks shift. Think of it as a moving target. The more important thing is to have a set workflow in place: knowing which tasks you need to do first, second, third, etc. For this reason, it may be helpful to keep your scaffolded workflow organized in a place that’s not your calendar; if you’re like me, placing “outline chapter 1” on your calendar only ensures that when you don’t complete it on Monday as planned, it disappears from sight come Tuesday. Keeping your workflow organized in a separate location—in an app (Habitica, Trello, or one of the numerous free to-do apps available out there) or even a good old-fashioned notebook—can help you stay on task when you sit down to write.

Know when to move on

Sometimes, as detailed in the bullet above, tasks are order-dependent and if task #1 is not complete by the end of its allotted time slot, it simply must carry over to the next slot before task #2 happens. However, at other times it can actually be helpful—from a time management perspective—to say, “I’m going to do as much as I can of task #1 in its allotted time, but when that timer rings, I’m moving on to task #2 no matter what.” I’ve found this works best when:

• I give myself permission to “come back later” to task #1 (but just focus on task #2 for now),
• Task #1 is an unlimited sort of task—the task that can expand like a lava-monster into a black hole of time (e.g. researching other relevant scholarship on my topic),
• Task #1 is anxiety-provoking,
• Task #2 is anxiety-provoking (and thus I’m inclined to avoid it, because task #1 is more fun), or
• I’m super close to a deadline.

Moving on to the next task forces us to get at least a little bit of each task done. It also helps us embrace the “good enough” principle: that our work doesn’t need to be perfect, just good enough to submit. Since “good enough” is hard for many grad students to gauge (myself included), moving on to the next task can serve as one way to establish a default “good enough” bar. In general, learning how to gauge when something is “good enough” as versus “perfect” is a valuable skill that considerably helps with time management. I’ll discuss concrete tips for how to gauge “good enough” in the fourth post in this series, which discusses revising, editing, and completing your writing.

Schedule your writing stages

Speaking of revising and editing: make sure you schedule time for those stages when you’re planning—and plotting on your calendar—your scaffolded writing tasks. Ideally, I break my writing into five overarching stages:

1. Outline/notes. Before I sit down to write my paper, I develop its core ideas and structure.

2. Rough draft. My goal is to get as many consecutive words on paper as possible, communicating my ideas messily, informally, and if need be, with gaps to fill in later (more on this strategy in my next post).

3. First draft. I polish up the rough draft to the point—and only to the point—of it being readable and complete for a non-intimidating outside reader (such as a peer). The draft is still not perfect, and may feel “unfinished” or “incomplete” to me, but it is contiguous and legible. At this stage, I send it to my outside reader (e.g. adviser, writing buddy, friend/family member) and ask for feedback.

4. Second/revised draft. After receiving feedback, I revise accordingly to strengthen my draft.

5. Final/edited draft. The last, final stage is editing—whether someone else takes a look or I self-edit. This is where all the micro-issues (spelling, grammar, word choice, sentence structure, citation formatting, etc.) get smoothed over.

I’ll go into more detail on tips for revising and editing in the fourth post of this series, but I mention this now in order to say: include distinct tasks of revising and editing when you plan out your scaffolded tasks. You don’t have to use the same stages that I do. Rather, when you establish deadlines, as discussed above, set deadlines for (at the very least) a rough draft, a revised draft, and a final, edited document.

Tune in for the next post in this series, Writing Over Break: Getting Past Common Hurdles.