Prioritizing Time for Writing

  Not being in the classroom this term has meant that I am now left with time in the evening that I would have spent doing lesson plans or grading. Anyone who knows me knows that this simply will not do. I often have difficulty slowing down during vacations or gaps of time off (like weekends, or the holidays). You only have to scroll down a bit in this blog to see my nice post about being concerned about the days libraries are closed between Christmas and New Year and how my concern is centred around finding a way to justify giving myself a few days off. Grad school did a good number on me in the academic guilt department let’s just say.

I am very much a list maker and an organizer. I have now filled this new found evening time by signing up for a MOOC and consuming as many books as I can on pedagogy, new developments in instructional design theory, and educational policy. However, by not being in the classroom I also knew that I could now no longer avoid the quiet yet large text-filled elephant in the room.  I have often (read always) used my teaching as my excuse as to why I have not written more. Not just articles either, but even this blog. I dedicate myself so completely to my pedagogy and practice that I simply had no time to write all the things I have wanted/needed to write I would tell myself and anyone else who would hear me. Part of that is true I suppose, when you are teaching 200+ students over 3 or 4 sections with no grading assistance, time is pretty tight. But part of this also had to do with some sort of deep writers block, of unknown origin (well I am sure Freud or Lacan could figure the origin) but that is neither here nor there.

It was time to address the elephant. So I have decided to prioritize time for writing. From 7-8 pm on Monday to Thursday I am going to sit and write as close to a 1000 words as possible. Come November I am going to increase that to 2 hours a night/4 days a week and by December 3 hours a night/ 4 days a week (or as close as I can to that goal as possible). I found this advice in Paul J. Silvia’s 2007 book How to Write A Lot. This book, which seems more guided to those in the psychology field, does an excellent job of making readers address the many many excuses one gives oneself to explain why we don't write. Reading this book, I could identify with so many of them: my chair isn’t comfortable, my desk isn’t in the right place, I need a new computer, I need better pens, I just don’t have time, I don’t know if I can write, etc. 

  I have a list of things I have needed to write or edit sitting as a purple sticky note on my computer desktop for about two years now. So I am going to give myself time to write. This will include blog posts, though don’t expect four blog posts a week. You may get two or so. That’s because I need to work on two conference papers between now and mid-November. I also have a revise and resubmit that I have need to dust the moths and cobwebs off of and really get it back to the journal. I also have many article ideas that I want to explore. There’s at least five things in my “writing to do” document.

 I am grateful to have had the time to read and reflect on the need to prioritize my writing. I already feel so much better getting words on the page regularly. It’s now become part of a more holistic healthy lifestyle. I get up very early and I try to get to bed early to get 7-8 hours a night (though to be honest it is often more like 6). I make my lunch for the next day as soon as I get home. I take walks at lunch around campus for at least 30 minutes so I can contemplate and get away from the screen for a bit. I’m very curious to see how long I can keep all of this up but it’s been working for close to two months now so I think a habit has formed. The writing is a new element to this routine, but it is an element that I need to keep up. For example, I went to see a soccer game on campus last evening and I could have easily brushed off the writing but I didn’t, I put in some time at the library first before going to the game.

So I am curious, have you ever tried the one hour of writing per day schedule? Has it worked for you? If it didn’t, what has worked better? I want to see what other academic (or non-academic) writing schedules look like and what a community of writers can do to best support each other.

   Have a good evening and good luck with the writing!