Don't Fill Your Suitcase with Books

When I was a graduate student, I often filled my suitcase with books and articles I was going to read over the Christmas holiday. There were times when I'm sure I brought home as many as 14 books. It limited what I could fit in my suitcase and it nearly broke my back. And, if I'm honest, the books and articles rarely (if ever) actually came out of the suitcase.

Don't get me wrong -- holidays can be a great time to get work done. I've written a book chapter on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day before. I've written an article during my summer vacation. I've spent Thanksgiving editing. You may recall that last month I penned a blog post titled Holidays Are For Writing, encouraging you to use the unscheduled time productively -- and holidays can be a great time to get some reading and writing done. But the operative word is "some."

The reality is that you also need a break between terms. If you're going back to school in January, you need to be fresh and rested to start the year right. If you work through all of the holiday season, that won't happen. I give you permission to marathon your favourite show. Stay in your PJs all day, curled up on the sofa, and enjoy some brain candy. You've earned it. And hopefully your mother will agree and maybe bring you a cup of tea and some cookies!

You need to take time to be with family and friends. It's important for your mental health. It's important for work-life balance. So make sure you do all of the festive things that you enjoy doing -- whether it's baking cookies, volunteering at your chosen charity, visiting family, or filling stockings for the less fortunate. Now is the time to make yourself a priority. Sure, you're in an intense relationship with your thesis now, but eventually you'll move on. You'll see other projects. One day, that thesis will just be a memory. You can't break up with yourself however! So treat yourself well.

And if you are feeling inspired to be productive in an academic way this holiday season, be realistic. Choose one book instead of 14. Bring home two articles instead of a binder full. Choose something reasonable to accomplish so that you can feel good about what you've done instead of setting yourself up for failure and letting that suitcase of books become thesis baggage (which quickly leads to self-loathing).

Happy holidays!

Try a New Location

Got writer's block? Just can't get motivated? Try working in a new location.

Generally, throughout university, I was able to write my papers and study from home, sometimes at a desk and sometimes at my kitchen table. There were times, however, when nothing I did could actually get me going in that environment. On these days, I joked that I needed to "institutionalize" myself by going to the library. The change of surroundings was often enough to help me get writing again or begin committing to memory the historical details of musical compositions.

Today, things haven't changed much. I still often write from home (following my writing ritual), but if I have a looming deadline or there's a hint of procrastination brewing, I'll go to my office to work on my personal research projects. I try to make it as enjoyable as possible, bringing along a French Vanilla from Tim Hortons or going out for lunch to break up the day. Being in a dedicated work environment helps me to be productive, eliminates any distractions that may exist (like laundry or other housekeeping tasks), and allows me to enjoy my free time when I return home after a productive writing session.

So, if you're having trouble powering through in your usual location, why not try something new? A new coffee shop, the local library, a friend's office, the cafe of your local museum -- there are lots of options!

Where's your favourite place to get work done?

Power Through

Are you avoiding reading or writing? Has procrastination taken over? Try a power hour.

I first heard about the "power hour" as a time management strategy and procrastination buster about a year ago. As I recall, it was described to me as a way of completing tasks that you really don't like. You commit to working on a particular task for one hour and at the end of the hour, you can choose whether you continue or not. And if you decide that you're done like dinner, it's a guilt free ending because you were hyper-productive for an hour. I thought this was a great approach for my most hated cleaning tasks (aka all of them).

I really hate cleaning – washing dishes, vacuuming, dusting. Consequently, I avoid it like the plague. The result of this procrastination is that I just end up with a bigger job to tackle – more dishes, more dust, more recyclables to struggle with. Then it becomes overwhelming, which makes it even more difficult for me to get started and I start feeling bad about the situation. To break the cycle, I commit to a power hour. I’ll clean as much as I can in a one hour period and when the hour is up, I’ll do other things I enjoy doing without feeling any guilt. But sometimes I find that I end up cleaning for several hours because once I start and see improvements, I become more motivated to continue. 

Of course, the power hour can be applied to other types of work, including your writing project. Here's one description of how it works.

You could do a power hour of reading, a power hour of planning (preparing an outline), a power hour of writing, a power hour of editing, a power hour of typing your bibliography in the appropriate citation style... you get the picture. You can do a power hour of anything. And then go about the rest of your day guilt-free.

So, if you're overwhelmed by your project or feeling guilty about your lack of progress, why not try committing to one power hour each day? You'll get something done that moves you closer to your goal and for the other 23 hours of the day, you can enjoy life without having to beat yourself up.

Have you done a power hour?

Writing Rituals

I have a confession to make. It is impossible for me to get any writing done in my office. There are distractions everywhere. Even with the door closed, I can see movement in the hallway. It breaks my concentration. I sit and stare more than I type. The phone rings. The temperature isn't right. Students want to chat. Colleagues pop by. Emails ping. Papers beg to be filed away. There can be no quick trips to the cafeteria to caffeinate because people I haven't seen in months seem to come out of the woodwork on writing days.

And so on writing days, I am most productive when I am home. I have a writing ritual. It developed during my PhD and has served me well. Sure, some say you should write everyday and perhaps that does work for some people. But for me, the blitz marathon writing session works. I'm in a hyper-focussed state. I'm productive. I get it done.

Writing for me is best done at a dining room table. I attribute this to the fact that as a kid, I sat at the dining room table with my sister and mother (a teacher) while we all did our "homework." At the same table, my father (an entrepreneur) balanced the books or prepared estimates related to his construction business. That's where I developed study habits and learned to focus on the task at hand. During my undergraduate degree, I installed myself at an aunt's dining room table when writing papers. She totally got it. And I admit to being a little lost in my master's degree when there was no dining room table at which to work (I lived in residence). Large tables in libraries served as substitutes.

The space is helpful. I spread out my materials around my laptop and still have room for a notepad to write ideas and reminders.

I also have a particular coffee that I drink when writing: Illy. It's delicious, but expensive. It's saved only for special occasions — like writing. I make a pot and a promise: I will begin writing before I start the second cup. It hasn't failed me yet.

And then I transform into a marathoner, writing for hours on end. I write from the outline in my head or notes scrawled on paper, and then revise and expand. I always print a copy when editing because I can more clearly see how to re-order arguments, sentences, paragraphs, and sections.

It's my writing process and it works for me. And so I feel very strongly that it's important to establish your own writing ritual -- something that works for you and makes the process more enjoyable.



* This blog was originally published on the Cape Breton University website in February 2014. 

Reward Yourself

A little reward can go a long way when you're trying to finish that thesis, major research paper, or dissertation. I believe very strongly that you should take the time to identify goals and milestones, as well as the rewards that go along with them. If you celebrate your accomplishments, you're more likely to have accomplishments.

The key to setting rewards is to be sure they match the task at hand. If you write one sentence, you probably haven't earned an Ice Road Truckers marathon. But if you've read a 20-page academic article filled with jargon, I'd say you deserve a coffee break with an episode of Scandal on Netflix.

For writing, I think it's useful to have rewards at several levels. For example, for every five pages written, you might enjoy a movie or a few chapters from a novel (or coffee or whatever else motivates you). For every chapter completed, you might treat yourself to lunch or supper at a favourite restaurant with a friend. And when you complete the draft, why not enjoy a spa day followed by dinner at your favourite Indian restaurant with a bottle of Wolf Blass Brown Label! (I know I certainly did when I submitted my dissertation for examination!)

These rewards can be used in the research or data collection stage as well. Set your tasks for the day, block the time to do them, and when you've completed them, enjoy the reward you've identified. Got a stack of articles to read for a literature review? Read an article, watch an episode of Community, read another article, watch an episode of Community, read yet another article...

You get the picture: reward yourself. But remember that you can't have the reward until you've reached the milestone!