Motivation and Prioritizing

Motivation

Based on:

Silva, Paul J. (2007). How to write a lot: A practical guide to productive academic writing. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Monitoring Progress

      Setting a goal is just the beginning of being a successful writer. People who are successful at something monitor their progress – saving money, losing weight, training for a marathon, or selling cookies. “Most people have no idea how much – or how little – they're writing. Because they view themselves in a flattering, self-enhancing light, most people think that they're writing more often and more efficiently than they are. To write a lot, you need to take a cold, accurate look at your writing progress” (pg. 39).

       Besides seeing the reality of your effort, monitoring your progress can also be very motivating. Writing down your progress at each writing session helps keep your focus on the project. Monitoring your own behavior, research had shown, produces the desired behaviors – in other words – the desire to write down progress encourages progress. Financial planners and diet gurus play to this desire. To get control of spending, the spendee has to write down everything they purchase, or the dieter writes down every bite they take. Having to write down the details encourages more thoughtful spending or eating. Writing down your sessions encourages increased time and more productive work.

      Silvia uses a spreadsheet format with columns for date, session goal, word count, and a check for met/unmet goals. However, a notebook or chart on the wall would work just as well. It is the visual cue that is most important. If you like playing with numbers, you can then figure out the average words per day or percentage of session goals met. Then, try to increase that percentage each month.

8 Online Goal Progress Tracking Tools

15 Fantastic Apps to Track & Manage Your Goals

12 Things Successful People Do Differently

Reward Yourself

      B.F. Skinner studied reward behaviors in people. It is clear that self-reinforcement and reward is highly motivating. You might consider setting a reward when you set your large writing goals. For session goals, it may be something smaller – a a 2-minutes mediation, a “Risky Business” like dance and singing, or a cup of Earl Grey tea. By generating a feeling of accomplishment for reaching goals, you're more likely to want to succeed more often. But, do NOT reward yourself with skipping a writing session. That is like rewarding yourself for quitting smoking with having a cigarette!

Writer's Block

      Silvia believes that in academic writing, there is no such thing as writer's block. The narratives academics craft do not (in many cases) resemble the figurative, flowery stuff of fiction and poetry. “Writer's block is nothing more than the behavior of not writing” ( p. 46). Writing on a schedule, with specific goals, should take care of this. However, if you need some suggestions on how to put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard, read the article linked below (a short summary is provided):

Breaking Writer's Block: Ten Effective Methods for Better Writing by Phil Partington

1. Write about something else
2. Write about a picture
3. Keep a journal
4. Make an outline
5. Read
6. Take a break
7. Establish a writing habit
8. Listen to non-lyrical music
9. Research
10. Ask others for ideas

 Prioritizing 

It is very easy to get distracted by non-important but fun items on your to-do list. Stephen Covey, in Seven Habits of Highly Effective People proposed four quadrants of activity management to help people organize and prioritize the things they need to do. To often, we spend most of our time in the Urgent/Important square because we don't have a clear picture of our overall goals, projects and deadlines. Then, deadlines creep up and it become Urgent/Important and we rush to get it done. Those of us who procrastinate tend to locate ourselves in the Not Urgent/Not Important quadrant – choosing to do things that are immediately pleasurable, but don’t advance our goals or projects. You might consider using this graphic organizer as another way to think about your weekly writing and grad school roles – which will allow you to see both the urgent and the important tasks during the week.

 Instead of reading Stephen Covey's book, I would recommend his son's adaptation of the ideas for teenagers, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey.  It is shorter, illustrated, and less dry than the original.  Or, check out some of the interpretations of Covey's ideas below:

A Beginner’s Guide to Time-Management

Important vs. Urgent: 5 Ways to Focus On What Really Matters

When You're Right to Refuse (an academic's view)

     Another helpful hint that I have heard from #phdchat is to have a list of things that should get done, but don't require intense concentration.   For example, renaming and organizing files, deleting old emails, or skimming articles to see if they would be useful.  These activities can be saved for the times that your energy and concentration is low.  In addition, have a file of work that is always with you for the times that you find you are unexpected waiting (at the doctor's office, for your car etc.).    The most effective and efficient academics plan ahead and use even the smallest chunks of time, like the 15 minutes in-between conference sessions or the time waiting for a late appointment.