Writing in a time scarce environment
How do you view time when it comes to your writing? Take a moment and really think about this. Is your knee jerk reaction: I would write more if I had more time? I just don’t have any time to write? I need big blocks of time?
Is time a major theme of your writing narrative and the major block to your writing?
There is not enough time to do all that you are asked to do as an academic. That is a fact. You can’t fit your institution’s wish list into your working week. Yep, that is correct. I’ve discussed this so many times before on this blog. You are not failing in time management. The load does not fit the carrier. Now we have agreed on that, wholeheartedly, what do we do about the thing that gets left behind because of this? I’m talking about your writing.
Time to tool up
It is important to reframe the narrative about time and writing. In the Writing Accelerator I challenge clients to look at time not as barrier (as conventionally coached) but as a TOOL of writing. It is not something you lack, rather something you have to wield, with authority, and put to work. Time is not the enemy of writing, rather, your conceptualisation of how you execute writing and that the execution as designed by you requires oceans of time. These things are not immutable, rather, they are choices that we make and processes of production that have evolved unconsciously over a career.
What if you had a different design that did not break in a time scarce environment? What would that feel like and how would it look?
Getting a writing habit and process of production that does not cast time as the enemy is essential in academia today.
Want to get a quick start guide for mastering your time?