How to have a productive summer by working four hours a day

It’s summertime and the living is pretty…. Or, at least it should be!

How can you have a remarkably productive summer and return to the school year feeling refreshed and like you had a break? To do this, you need to plan to be productive and to plan to leave time to enjoy life. The thing is, if you plan to work all the time, you are likely to feel guilty every moment you aren’t working. And, who wants to feel guilty all of the time?

Plan to be productive

To plan to be productive, first you have to decide what you will accomplish over the summer. Make a list of all of the things you would like to do this summer. Include everything – from revising book chapters to analyzing data to submitting articles to finalizing your syllabi.

Once you have your list, decide when you are going to complete these things. Start with the most important items first. How long do you think it will take you to turn that dissertation chapter into an article? How long will it take for you to come up with a draft for your next book project or grant proposal? Now, map those tasks onto your summer weeks. What will you do between May 15 and May 31? Between June 1 and June 15?

Prioritize your Tasks

Once you map your tasks onto your calendar, you likely will realize that you have more tasks than time. But, believe me, it is better to realize this now than at the end of the summer. At this point, you still have time to prioritize. What is most important? What items have deadlines? What can wait until the Fall or until next summer? What can’t wait? What can you drop or delegate?

Make a Schedule – and stick to it

The next step is to come up with a work schedule. When will you work and when will you play? Many people work best in the mornings; others are best late at night. How many hours will you work each day? How much time will you spend writing each day? When and where will you do your writing?

If you wish to return to the semester relaxed and refreshed, I recommend trying to work every day for just four hours. That’s right – just four hours! You see, academic work is trying and if you try to work all day, every day, you most likely will get burned out. Instead, if you try to work for just four hours every day, you will have the rest of the day to re-energize and are less likely to burn out.

Limit your working hours

Believe me - you can have a very productive summer if you work for four focused hours each morning. The thing is – you do have to focus during that time. And, it works best if your time really is limited. Last summer, for example, I worked while my children were in summer camp. This meant that I had from 8am to noon each day to work. My husband and I have agreed that, during that time, I will be allowed to concentrate and focus on my work. I will not clean, cook, do laundry, watch television, or surf the Internet during that time. I have all the rest of the day to complete household tasks and to relax.

Make time for yourself each day

As academics, we all need time to process our ideas, thoughts, plans, emotions, and experiences. It is crucial that you carve at least an hour out of each day for yourself when you can process all of your thoughts. This time allows you to make plans, to come up to solutions to theoretical puzzles, and to relax your mind.

If you have children, finding alone time can be tricky. But, there usually is a way. When my children were small, I took them to the gym each day – where they had a daycare where I could leave the children while I exercised. Now that they are older, I take them to the park where I can walk around the track while they play. Other ideas would be to put a DVD on for the children while you meditate or run on your treadmill. In my mind, me-time each day involves exercise, but others may prefer to garden, sew, crochet, knit, paint, or work on model airplanes. So long as it is an activity that allows you to think and reflect, it should work.

If you doubt my suggestion that you can be productive working just four hours a day, I encourage you to try it and see what happens. And, let me know how it goes….

Getting Through Your Writing Resistance: Ten Ways to Write When You Don’t Feel Like It

Don't feel like writing today? If writing is part of your job or your passion, it is important to find ways to move through your writing resistance. Here are ten ideas.

Ten Ways to Write When You Don’t Feel Like It

1. Set the timer for fifteen minutes and promise yourself you will try for at least fifteen minutes.
2. Look at all the writing tasks you have and pick the easiest one.
3. Change location.
4. Unplug the Internet.
5. Turn of the screen and freewrite.
6. Take a walk around the block.
7. Call a friend and tell her you are going to start writing now, and ask her to call you in an hour to see if you did it.
8. Post on Facebook that you are starting to write now and will report back in an hour.
9. Arrange to meet a friend at a coffeeshop and write together.
10. Write longhand instead of on the computer.

How to Be Productive and Achieve Tenure by Writing for Two Hours a Day

You can be extraordinarily productive by writing two hours a day, five days a week. Many writers find my suggestion ludicrous and instead aim to write eight hours a day. Unable to write for eight hours, they berate themselves and spend lots of time thinking how much less productive they are than other writers.

I have tried many different ways of convincing writers that it is so much better to write for two hours a day and move on to other things than to try incessantly to write all day without success. The former leads to feeling accomplished and productive on a daily basis, whereas the latter leads to burnout and less productivity. It may not make sense, but it is true: writing for two hours a day is a much more effective long-term strategy than trying to write for eight.



In this post, I will try again to convince readers (and writers) that this is true, using myself as an example. This past semester, I wrote every day, Monday to Friday, for two hours. I did lots of different things during those two hours, but I mostly drafted new text, revised old drafts, and took notes from books and articles. Between January 1 and May 1, in four months, I drafted a total of about 42,000 words of new text. That is the equivalent of four articles. It took me about 80 working days, so that is an average of about 525 words a day.

The Caveats: Drafting, Revising, Editing, Reading,...

Now, for the caveats. These 42,000 words include writings I have done before and pulled together. Much of my work is based on interviews, so I write up summaries of my interviews after I do them and place those summaries directly into my drafts. So, let’s be conservative and say I drafted the equivalent of three 10,000 word articles this semester. This is a conservative estimate because I also wrote 15 blog posts, revised two articles, and did a 2500 word book review essay that I am not including in the 42,000 word estimate.

The other big caveat is that those 42,000 words need editing. I estimate that it will take me another four months to get those 42,000 words into shape and ready for submission. It often takes me as long to revise an article as it does to write the first draft. So, that’s three articles in eight months. Of course, that writing is based on reading that I did during this semester and have done previously, and includes some earlier data analysis. So, let’s add on another four months for data analysis and reading, although keeping in mind that I also write daily while analyzing data and reading. All told, it seems as if writing two hours a day, five days a week for one year is enough to analyze data the data for three articles, draft those three articles, and revise them for submission to a journal.

Submitting three 10,000 word articles a year certainly fits into my definition of prolific. Of course, articles are rarely accepted on first submission, so let’s put in some time for revise and resubmits. If we suppose you will have two revise and resubmits for each article, that adds on two months for each article before it is accepted at a peer-reviewed journal.

The math: 525 words a day = 3 articles a year for 4 years = 12 articles

If you submit three articles each year for four years, you would have submitted twelve at the end of four years. If you leave two months per article for revision, that adds up to twelve accepted articles in six years – enough for tenure in many top research institutions. It adds up to twelve sole-authored articles in six years by writing two hours a day, five days a week!

The trick is to start writing two hours a day every day from the moment you begin your tenure-track position. The good news is that many people are revising articles on the basis of their dissertation and thus already have data collected and analyzed, and drafts of articles ready to submit, making this process go even more quickly.

If you focus on writing every day, you can’t help but be productive. Trying to write more than humanly possible will lead only to frustration and burnout. The best way to be productive and stress-free is to write every day for two hours a day on a consistent basis.

How to Have a Productive Summer: Three Tips that Work

Most academics I talk to this time of year are looking forward to summer, when classes are over meetings are few and far between and we have lots of time to write. We can finally pay attention to that writing project that has been inching along all semester. Now that summer is here, we can jump in and devote ourselves full-time to writing and research productivity.



The joy with which we start our summers, however, is not always paralleled by a strong sense of satisfaction at the end. Many academics recall summers past when they planned to finish the book, send off the articles, and submit grant proposals where the plans did not materialize. In this post, I explain how you can have a productive summer, and how you can emerge from summer feeling refreshed, accomplished, and ready to take on the new academic year.

Tip #1: Make a Research and Writing Plan

The very first step to a productive summer is to make a plan. And, no, I do not mean that your plan should look like this: “FINISH BOOK!” Instead, a plan must include a lot more detail. Your plan needs to be divided into weeks and broken down into manageable tasks. Most of us have about 12 weeks in the summer. Thus, your plan could look like this:

Week 1:

• Read three articles on due process
• Write section on due process for Chapter One
• Make plan for completion of Chapter One
• Complete at least two tasks on completion plan for Chapter One

As you can see, you do not have to know exactly what needs to be done to complete chapter one to make your plan. Instead, you can include making a completion plan as part of your plan. Once you finish with week 1, you can do the same for Weeks 2 to 12.

The benefits of making a plan are that 1) you develop a better idea as to what you can reasonably accomplish; 2) you set clear benchmarks for yourself and ensure you are making progress; and 3) at the end of the summer, you have a realistic idea as to what you have and have not accomplished.

Tip #2: Develop a reasonable summertime writing schedule

You will not be working 24-hours a day over the summer, no matter how few external obligations you have. In fact, you likely will not even be working consistent 8-hour days. The reality is that academic work is hard and requires an extraordinary amount of mental energy. Most people are unable to devote 8 hours a day, 7 days a week to academic writing, reading, research, and data analysis. People that try to do this quickly burn out.

Each of us has our own internal limits to how long we can reasonably expect ourselves to work. It is difficult to come to terms with our own limits. However, once we do, it can be remarkably liberating. I am the first to admit that I can write for no more than three hours a day on a consistent basis. Not too long ago, I learned that I can either spend all day at the office trying to get that three hours in, or I can simply spend three hours in front of my computer first thing in the morning and get my three hours of writing in.

Once I have done my three hours of writing, I have done the hard work for the day. At that point, I might collect articles I need to read, respond to emails, pay bills, or do any of the other myriad tasks that occupy my day. If it’s the summertime, I stop early to ensure that I make time to enjoy all of the benefits summer offers.

You too must come to terms with your limits and figure out how long you can expect yourself to write, read, and research each day. If you have no idea, one strategy is to track your time for a week or two to see how much writing, research and reading you actually do. Be careful, however, to note that you have at least two kinds of limits: how much work you can expect yourself to do in a short period of time and how much work you can do on a regular basis that is sustainable. You may be able to write for 8 hours a day for one week, but then find yourself unable to produce a coherent sentence the second week. That indicates that you overspent your limits.

Once you figure out your limits you can develop a reasonable schedule. Keep in mind that many people are very productive over the summer working four hours a day, five days a week.

Tip #3: Write every day

The only way you can ensure that you actually have a productive summer, i.e., that you emerge with real progress on your writing projects is to sit down and write. The best way to ensure that you write a lot is to write every day, five days a week.

Thus, when you make your plans and your schedules, make sure that you plan to write every day of the workweek. If you have never tried daily writing before, this is the perfect time to start!
Have a fantastic, productive, relaxing, and refreshing summer!

Taking Control

When I explain time management techniques to academics, many respond by pointing out that one of the things they love most about academia is unstructured time, and that they are not willing to give that up. These academics look at my weekly plan and gasp: “Aren’t you giving up your freedom by so closely managing your days?” “What if a colleague stops by to chat when I am supposed to be writing; Do I send her away?!”



My color-coded calendar that marks my writing time in red, my teaching time in orange, and my administrative time in purple leads some people to believe that I have given up my freedom by structuring my days. They see that I have set aside specific times for writing, reading, preparing for class, teaching, and going to meetings and wonder why I would want to structure my unstructured time.

My answer is simple. If you are getting what you want done and enjoying a stress-free, productive life as an academic with lots of unstructured time, then time management is not for you.

If, on the other hand, you find yourself working long days and through the weekends and still never feeling caught up, then time management could be a useful tool.

Time management is not simply about being more productive; it is about deciding in advance how to make the most of our most valuable resource: time. When I plan my week, I include time to take long walks, to exercise, to have lunch with my husband, to pick up my children early from school, and to prepare home-cooked meals for myself and my family. I am convinced that, without time management, I would not find the time to do things that I think are important for my emotional and physical health.

In my current schedule, I have about five hours of teaching and three hours of meetings per week. With the remaining 32 hours of my 40 hour work week completely unstructured, I can decide ahead of time when, where, and what I want to do each day.

For some people, planning each day and week may sound a bit like their time is being too controlled. I like to think that taking control of my time is acceptable so long as I am the one making the executive decisions about how I will spend my time. With time management, you, after all, are the person making the decisions about how you will spend your time.

By deciding in advance, you can make sure you make time for leisure, reading, yoga, long lunches, trips to the dentist, or whatever other social, emotional, and physical needs you may have. You can decide before the week begins if you will spend your mornings reviewing articles, checking email, writing the third chapter of your book, or surfing the internet. You can also decide if you will grade papers this week or next, if you will revise your article on Monday or Tuesday. You can even decide if you will clean your house on Thursday afternoon or hire someone to do it.

I see unstructured time as a great privilege, because it allows me to decide how I will structure my days.

How to Figure Out the Publication Expectations for Tenure: Four Strategies That Work

Imagine this: Your first year on the tenure-track, you sit down with your department chair and ask him what the expectations for tenure are. He hands you a written document that indicates that you have to publish six articles in specific journals, and that you must be first author on at least four. He provides you with a list of acceptable journals and makes it clear that this is the hurdle you have to cross for tenure. You meet with other senior colleagues in your department and across the university, and everyone agrees on the research component of the tenure expectations. You know exactly what you need to do and the only thing left to figure out is how to do it.



This situation, for better or for worse, is remarkably uncommon. Most new faculty are never told exactly what they need for tenure. Senior colleagues are reluctant to give an exact number of how many articles you need to publish, whether you need articles in addition to a book, which journals are considered important, and whether or not book reviews, conference presentations, and book chapters in edited volumes count for anything. Your senior colleagues are most likely to tell you that the tenure expectations are individualized and that a wide variety of portfolios can make an excellent tenure case. Some mentors will advise you to focus on the book, whereas others will tell you to get out a couple of articles first.

As a new faculty member at a research institution, I found this very frustrating. I thought to myself: why can’t they just tell me what I need to do so that I can do it? If you are in this sort of situation, where you are not clear on what the expectations are, one thing is certain: it is in your interest to find out anyway. How do you do that?

It turns out that there are a number of ways for you to figure out what a solid tenure case would look like. You just need to approach this as you would any other research project: ask around, investigate, and look at a variety of cases. Here are four strategies for you to figure out what your research portfolio should look like.

Ask around at your institution.

In your first semester, you should meet with your department chair and with your faculty mentor. Ask both of them to give you advice on what the publication expectations are. They might be vague, but they will communicate something to you. You also can ask other colleagues around the institution, especially if you can find people who have served on the College and University Promotion and Tenure committees.

Look at the CVs of people recently promoted in your department.

If there is anyone who has been promoted in the past five years in your department, you should look at their CV and figure out what they needed to get tenure. You may even be able to ask them to share their tenure materials with you so that you can see exactly how they put their case together.

Look at the CVs of people recently promoted at other comparable institutions.

Most departments post their faculty members’ CVs online. And, since promotion and tenure require updating the CV, many recently tenured faculty have updated CVs online. Look at several CVs of people who were recently tenured in your field and figure out what they had that allowed them to make a compelling tenure case.

Develop your own expectations, and share them with your senior colleagues.

After you have compiled all of this information, use it to make explicit expectations for yourself. Suppose, after these conversations, you determine that you would need a book published at a university press, two single-authored articles in top tier peer-reviewed journals, one co-authored peer-reviewed articles, and at least six conference presentations. Take this information back to your department chair and your mentor and ask them if that would make a reasonable tenure case in your department. Tell them that you have set these goals for yourself, and that you would like their feedback on your goals. Their responses should be enlightening.

This last step is very important. Senior faculty are often reluctant to tell you exactly what you need because they don’t want to be wrong, but also because they do not want you to limit your options. If, however, you decide for yourself what your goals are and make it clear that you want their feedback, they likely will be willing to provide it.

The quest for tenure can be stressful, and the lack of clear expectations make it more so. Figuring out what the expectations are yourself can be one step towards achieving clarity for yourself, and, in the process, to relieving some of the stress.

Don’t Want to Write Today? Five Solutions You Can Use

I always schedule my writing for the morning. But, some mornings, I just can’t focus. I open up my laptop, turn off the Internet, open up a Word document, but the words don’t flow.

Does this ever happen to you? If it does, what should you do?

Should you push through and write anyway? Or should you do something else instead? There is no right answer to this, but there are a variety of things you can do when you are having trouble moving forward in your writing.

Solution #1: Write anyway.

Give yourself a time or word-count goal. I often say I'll write for only fifteen minutes. Those fifteen minutes often turn into thirty or forty minutes. Just the act of writing becomes comfortable and you will find yourself on a roll. If a time limit is too harsh, try writing 500 words. Either way, you will have written more than you would have had you turned the Internet back on and given up.

Solution #2: Change your writing task.

Sometimes I get to my laptop, and my task-list tells me I need to write two paragraphs on agency and resistance, but I don’t feel like doing that. That’s fine. If this happens to you, go down your task list and pick another task you’d rather do.

If you find that whenever it is time to do this particular task you don’t feel like writing, pay attention to this pattern and try and figure out what is going on. Maybe there is some deeper reason for why you don’t want to do that task. Maybe you don’t feel capable or perhaps you are ready to move on to a different theory or method. It will be easier to figure this out once you take notice of your patterns.

Solution #3: Change your writing time for the day.

If your calendar tells you to write at 10am and to go to the library at 1pm, and you don’t feel like writing at 10am, try swapping one task in the calendar for another. Make sure that you don’t just knock writing out of your calendar, though!

Take note of this when you do this, as it may be the case that simply changing the time you plan to write could provide a quick fix for you. If every time you plan to write at 3pm, you don’t, it might be time to rethink when you are scheduling your writing time.

Solution #4: Use a pen and paper.

Sometimes the laptop is just not very conducive to productivity. When this happens, going low-tech can be the best option. Put away the laptop, and pull out some old-fashioned pen and paper and feel the ideas flow.

Many writers find that certain kinds of writing, such as outlining an initial draft, are easiest to accomplish using just a pen and paper. Using a pen and paper is one sure way to avoid a blank screen.

Solution #5: Skip your writing appointment.

Even though I believe strongly in the idea that you should write every day, every so often, I decide not to write. If you are writing consistently each day and one day you just don’t feel like it, it is perfectly acceptable to make a conscious decision not to write that day.

Of course, you don’t want to get in a pattern where you are making a conscious decision not to write every single day. However, it could be the case that you just need a break. It might also be the case that five days of writing a week is not sustainable for you, but four days is. If you notice that you are skipping your writing appointment every single Friday, it might be time to move or cancel that Friday writing appointment.

Resistance to writing is very common. Sometimes the resistance is at a deep level and you need to work hard to figure out how to move through it. Other times, a few simple tricks such as those listed here can help you keep your writing appointment for the day.

When in doubt about the importance of writing every day, remember Brian Clark’s Ten Steps to Becoming a Better Writer - the first of which is “Write.”

Whatever tricks you use, I wish you the best in your writing.

Slow and Steady Wins the Race: Five Steps to Meeting Your Deadline without Losing Your Sanity

Picture this: You have a deadline you absolutely must meet or else… So, you drop everything and work every waking moment on your project. Right?

Wrong, unless your deadline is this evening at 5pm. If your deadline is a month, two weeks or even a week away, it will be much more productive and healthy to work slowly towards your goal instead of sprinting at the last minute. Here are five steps you can take to ensure you move forward without over-exerting yourself.


Step # 1: Make a timeline for completion.
Make a timeline that takes into account how much time you have left before your deadline and how much work you have to do. How you do this will depend on your task, but let’s use a conference paper for an example. Suppose you have a conference paper due in two weeks – ten working days. You could either decide to a) write one page each day for ten days or b) break the project down into smaller parts. If you do b) (which I recommend), you could decide to write the Intro on Day 1, the Literature Review on Days 2 and 3, the Methods Section on Day 4, etc…

This timeline is very important both for keeping you on track and for pacing yourself so that you are not sprinting at the last minute because you spent Days 1 to 7 on the literature review.

Step # 2: Set a daily routine.

Every day has 24 hours in it. We cannot change that, but we can make conscious choices about what we do with our time. It is not feasible or productive to try to work on your project for 24 hours a day. It is feasible, however, to work on it in several spurts during the day. It is up to you to figure out when you can work on your project and when you can get all of the other things you need done. Daily routines will vary tremendously, but let’s suppose that you have ten days to write your conference paper, and you are still on winter break. Your daily schedule could look something like this:

9am-11am: Write
11am-12 noon: Check email and respond to anything urgent
12 noon-1pm: Lunch
1pm-3pm: Write
3pm-4pm: Check email, pay bills, make phone calls
4pm-5pm: Make a plan for next day, gather reading materials for the evening.
5pm-6:30: Go to gym
6:30-7:30: Have dinner
7:30-9pm: Catch up on any reading relevant to project.
9pm: Relax, go to sleep.

Step # 3: Break down your project into manageable tasks.

Having a daily routine is great because you know when you are supposed to be writing. However, it is also important to figure out in advance what part of your project you will be working on. Any project can be broken down into specific tasks. Having the project broken down will make it easier to move forward when it is time to write.

Let’s use that conference paper as an example again. One of the parts of the paper will be the literature review that you would be doing on Days 2 and 3, according to the plan above. This needs to be more specific. For example, the literature review could include a section on Foucault. For that section, you might need to a) gather your notes on Foucault, b) read two pieces that use Foucault, c) draft the section, and c) revise the section. Breaking down your conference paper into small, manageable pieces will make the task seem less daunting and easier to approach.

Step # 4: Set a time to do each task in your calendar.

After you have broken down your project into small tasks, the next step is to put those tasks directly into your calendar. From Step 2, you already have designated particular writing and reading times. So, you could put “Gather and summarize notes” in one writing session and “Read two articles” in a reading session.

Step # 5: Execute.

Of course, your fool-proof plan is not very useful if you don’t put it to use. The final step, then, is to execute your plan. This may seem obvious, but I point it out for two reasons. 1) It is crucial to plan first, and act second. 2) Most of us have made plans and not carried them through. There are many reasons for this, but better planning will make it more likely that you do carry out your tasks.

Best of luck meeting your goals!

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How to Find Your Writing Groove… when you’ve lost it.

We are coming to the end of the holiday season, which means the end of over-indulgence on food and drink and a return to work and all that accompanies it. Some of you might have worked steadily throughout the holiday season, but most of us took an intentional or unintentional pause and find ourselves looking for ways to get our writing groove back. This post is directed to those people who have taken a break and are ready to get back on the writing wagon.

Rule # 1: Plan First, Write Second

There are two kinds of writing-related thinking, and they are hard to do at the same time. The first kind revolves around planning what to work on and the second kind is actual execution. Planning ahead makes execution easier. If I sit down at the computer without a plan, I end up spending the better part of my precious writing time figuring out what I am supposed to work on. This inevitably leads to procrastination, and little productive writing. Instead, when I sit down and my planner tells me I am supposed to be enhancing the data section with additional quotes for my article on transnational networks, then I know exactly what to do.

To get back on the writing track, spend some time before your designated writing time planning out exactly which tasks you need to accomplish. Planning your writing tasks ahead of time facilitates the execution of them.

Rule # 2: Designate a specific time as your starting point

Saying that you will write on Monday morning is a good thing. Deciding you will write on Monday morning from 8am to 10am and putting it in your calendar is even better. When you treat your writing time as an important appointment with yourself, you are much more likely to stick to it. Take a good look at your calendar and decide exactly when and where you will begin your writing.

Rule # 3: Make writing a habit by doing it every day at the same time

When you sit down and plan out your week, try and find a time that you can dedicate each day of the week to writing. If you get into the groove of writing every day from 7am to 8am, it eventually will become a habit and it will be easier to stick to your writing schedule. If you develop a routine of having coffee every morning and sitting in front of your laptop, eventually, your brain will know that after coffee comes writing. By the same token, if you make your way to a coffeeshop to write after dropping the kids off at school each morning, your brain will begin to recognize this routine.

Rule # 4: Make planning for your week a habit by doing it every week

A weekly plan serves as a roadmap for the week, and it will help you move forward on your writing tasks when you have a better idea as to where you are going and what you have to do to get there. Start this semester off right by making a weekly plan for your first week back at work.

Some people sit down and do their weekly planning meetings on Friday evenings, others on Sunday mornings. It does not matter when you do it, but it does matter that you do it and it helps if you do it at the same time each week.

Taking breaks from writing for holidays, rest, celebration, or any other reason is important and provides much-needed relaxation and renovation. If your break was intentional, congratulate yourself for taking care of your mind and body and preparing yourself for the new year. If your break was unintentional, it likely is the case that your mind and body needed a break and took one for themselves, even as you tried to get them to work. Either way, release yourself from any guilt about what you have not yet accomplished and focus on setting reasonable, achievable writing goals for yourself.

I wish you a productive, happy new year.

The Two Week Method of Writing Academic Articles

Can you really write an article in two weeks? Of course you can, but you are pretty unlikely to be able to write a publishable article in that short of a time. Nevertheless, two weeks is a good amount of time to give yourself to work on a project before taking a break from it.

One strategy that has worked well for me is to write for two hours every day for two weeks on a single short project: a book chapter or an article. Working consistently for two weeks, I can come up with a very rough draft of an article. After working on it for two weeks, I put it aside. If it is in good enough shape to share with a trusted colleague, I will do so. If not, I put it aside and come back to it in a week or two.

How does this work? The 2-2-1 method: (Two weeks, two hours, one project)

•           Work on a single project for two weeks at a time. You can have other smaller projects, but one will be your top priority.
•           Work on your top-priority project for two hours a day. This work should mostly be writing, but also can include taking reading notes, revising, arranging the bibliography, etc.
•           At the end of two weeks, decide if it is ready for you to solicit feedback, send to an editor, submit for review, or just set aside.
•           Get it off your desk and wait at least one week before you give it another two weeks. This will allow you to approach your project with fresh eyes.

When I revisit my article or chapter after setting it aside, and, hopefully, with feedback from a colleague, I give myself another two weeks to work on it to create a better draft. I continue to do this until it is ready for submission. Once I have submitted an article to a journal, and I receive the feedback, I give myself two weeks to revise it. Depending on the number of revisions required, I may re-submit the article, set it aside, or ask a colleague to review it.

This method works for me only if I do two things: 1) Write every day for at least two hours Monday to Friday and 2) Have this article as my priority for the entire two weeks, meaning I work on it every day, first thing in the morning.

Depending on the project at hand, the level of complexity, my familiarity with the research, and the richness of the data, writing a complete, ready-to-submit draft of an article takes me between one and six two-week sessions.

Working on something for two weeks at a time allows me to approach the project with fresh eyes the next time I pick it up. It also forces me to stop and ask for feedback when I am having trouble moving forward.

The 2-2-1 method may or may not work for you. If it does, great! If it doesn’t, it is still important to decide ahead of time how much time you will commit to a project before you begin. Without setting these internal deadlines, you risk creating a situation where you revise and revise an article without ever submitting it.

Are You a Perfectionist?

Academic publishing requires diligence, attention to detail, conceptual innovation, and hard work, among other things. It does not require perfectionism. In fact, perfectionism can impede academic writing and publishing, and it is important to be able to identify your perfectionism and figure out how to get past it.

What is Perfectionism?

Perfectionism revolves around two false premises: 1) that writing the perfect piece is an attainable goal, and 2) that anything less than perfect is unacceptable. Although we all want for our work to reflect the excellence to which we are committed, it is crucial to get away from the idea that our work must or even could be perfect.

One reason your writing does not have to be perfect is that your intention is not to have the final say on a matter, but to contribute to an ongoing dialogue. Your attempts to publish in peer reviewed journals and books are your contributions to a conversation, not the end of the conversation. Your writing should be provocative and thought-provoking so that people will respond to it. If it were perfect, there wouldn’t be much to respond to.

Perfectionism leads to Procrastination

For many academics, perfectionism leads to intense procrastination. There are two ways that this works: 1) you are reluctant to write until you have the perfect thing to say; and 2) you are hesitant to share your finished work until it is perfect. If you refuse to write until you have the perfect idea, you likely will find that you write very little. And, if you fear submitting your work before it is perfect, you may find that you never submit it.

One of my colleagues recently shared with me that she finds it difficult to write before she knows what she will say. She will sit down at her computer and be unable to think of anything innovative or even relevant to her project. So, she will busy herself with other tasks – laundry, cooking, paying the bills, cleaning – until she comes up with just what she wants to say. When she finally comes up with the idea, she rushes to the computer and writes it all down. I asked her how often she actually comes up with ideas while doing all of those other tasks. She admitted it had only happened twice this semester.

Although it is true that we sometimes can think of great things while we are engaging in other activities, if we wait until we have something ground-breaking to say, we will find ourselves writing only on those rare occasions. Instead, a much better tactic is to put that perfectionism aside and to allow ourselves to write every day, even if we don’t think we have very much to say. You just have to trust yourself that good ideas will come while you are writing. Trust me, they are more likely to come if you sit down in front of the computer and begin to type or pull out a pad and a pen than if you give up and decide to do laundry all day instead.

Perfectionism Keeps You from Submitting Articles

Another colleague of mine recently told me that he has been sitting on a near-finished article for several months. He continuously finds reasons not to submit it to a journal, even though his tenure case depends on him publishing articles. One of the reasons he is reluctant to submit the article is that this article is central to his research agenda, and his research is at the center of his self-identity as a social justice activist. He, like many academics, sees his article not just as a reflection of his work, but as a reflection of himself. He does not just fear his work being evaluated by external reviewers, but fears putting himself up for evaluation. Since he sees his article as a reflection of himself, and not just his work, his perfectionism is in full gear.

Of course, your work is not you; it is what you produce. When you pour your heart and soul into your work, however, it is hard to separate the two. The first step to getting around this type of perfectionism is to recognize that it is occurring. Once you are aware that your reluctance to submit is related to your feeling that you are your writing, you can begin to have a conversation with yourself that allows you to see that you are much more than your writing. Your writing is just one aspect of your identity. And, it is an aspect of your identity that you need to share in order to enrich. Although you may keep a private journal to record your most intimate thoughts, your academic writing is not meant to be kept private: it is intended to be shared and critiqued. What ends up being critiqued is not you, but your writing.

Perfectionism is pervasive among academics and can lead to a lot of anxiety and stress. However, many academics are able to be happy and successful despite their perfectionism. The key lies in recognizing your perfectionism and figuring out how to deal with it.

I’d love to hear from you: what are some ways you have dealt with perfectionism?

Why “Focus on the Book” Is Bad Advice

To achieve tenure at most research-oriented institutions, you either need to publish a series of articles or a book in addition to some articles. The exact number of articles you should publish will vary from one institution to the next. What does not vary much is the fact that “only” writing a book is often not a good strategy for achieving tenure.

There certainly are many fine institutions that have granted faculty tenure on the basis of their having published a single book. Many bright junior faculty are successful at achieving tenure with the only line on their CV under “Publications” being a scholarly book. Nevertheless, I assure you, you do not want to be that person. First, I will explain why. Secondly, I will describe how to publish articles in addition to a book.

I have spoken to many junior colleagues whose mentors and advisors have told them: “Focus on the book.” They encourage them to transform their dissertations into a book that will be published by a major university press. They tell them not to worry about publishing articles or even attending conferences, because their main focus should be on publishing the book. Every time I hear someone tell me they were given this advice, my heart sinks. “Focus on the book” is bad advice for several reasons:

• 1) Having your entire tenure case rest on one piece of work puts an enormous amount of pressure on you to craft a grand piece of scholarship. For many academics, this stress is ultimately counter-productive, as the pressure to write an opus magnum makes the project seem too overwhelming.

• 2) If you do not publish articles or attend conferences, how will people know who you are? When you submit your tenure packet, you have to list the names of six to ten people in your field who can vouch for your contribution. If your only contribution is a not-yet-published book, it will be hard to find people who are familiar with your scholarship.

• 3) Publishing articles in your field can help you get a book contract. The editor of a very well-known university press once assured me that having a high-profile publication on your CV is indeed impressive to acquisitions editors.

• 4) It takes a long time to write a book. Spending years and years on one project with no tangible results can be depressing. If you send articles out, you can feel a sense of accomplishment with each stage of the article submission and publication process.

If you are still with me, perhaps you now believe that new faculty should not pour all of their energies into writing their book. How, then, do you balance multiple projects? I have three suggestions for successfully balancing more than one project at a time.

• 1) Different stages: It generally works best when you are working on two projects at different stages. For example, you might be revising a chapter of your book while you are conceptualizing an article draft. Having projects at different stages allows you to capitalize on the writing energies you have and to work on projects in the order that feels best.

• 2) Different times: I prefer to have one project as my priority for no more than two weeks at a time. For example, the last two weeks my priority was a substantive chapter of my forthcoming book. This week, my priority is revising the first chapter of another book. These are two different projects that I can turn back and forth to and from. The down time also allows me to request feedback on one project and work on the other while I am waiting.

• 3) Different sizes: If you have a big project (like a book), it can be helpful to have smaller projects that can be finished to keep you going. Working only on a book manuscript for two years without seeing any results can be a long time. In contrast, an article can be published relatively quickly (or at least more quickly than a book)!

Having more than one project going on at the same time (such as a book manuscript and a journal article) permits you to focus your energies where you will be most productive. If you get stuck while writing your book manuscript, you can turn your attention to the article you are working on. If you finish an article draft and ask a colleague to read it, you can return to the book manuscript while you are waiting for feedback.

Rather than focusing all of your writing energy on one book manuscript for six years, it works better to switch back and forth between articles and the book manuscript. The first thing you publish from your dissertation should be an article in a highly visible journal. The steps it takes to publish the article – writing it, revising it, getting feedback, and finding a home for it – will give you a better idea of how your scholarship will be received by scholars other than the members of your dissertation committee. Finally, success at publishing an article can be a great motivator to finish and publish the book.

The Importance of Planning: Taking Charge of Your Writing Success and of Your Career

While I was writing my dissertation and during my first year as an Assistant Professor, I got my writing tasks accomplished. However, there was no method to the madness. I felt as if I was traveling down a river in a raft, keeping afloat, but not really in control of my progress or my direction.

I had heard about writing and accountability groups, but did not think those were for me. I finished my dissertation in a timely manner and, and had an article accepted my first year on the tenure track. I figured I was doing just fine, so long as I could keep up the pace.

The winter of my second year on the tenure-track, however, I found myself feeling a bit isolated and not very motivated. It was the first winter where my husband and I hadn’t taken a vacation to somewhere sunny since we met, and that wasn’t sitting well with me. One day, working in my gloomy office, I got an email from Kerry Ann Rockquemore inviting me to join an online writing group. I decided to give it a shot.

In the online writing group, each person states their goals for the month and reports their progress daily on the forum. It was eye-opening for me to sit down and map out what I wanted to do over the next month. I told the group I was working on my book proposal, and that I hoped to finish the proposal and one of the sample chapters by the time winter break ended.

Slowly, I learned to set reasonable goals for the month, the semester, and for the pre-tenure years. I enjoyed the support and community of the electronic forum, and found that my relationship with my work slowly was beginning to change.

Once I began to write every day, report my progress to the writing group, and keep track of my writing goals, I began to feel as if I was in the driver’s seat. Achieving tenure became something I consciously was working towards, instead of something I simply hoped I would be able to achieve.

By keeping track of my progress each day, week, month, and semester, I learned how much I could expect of myself. Logging in each day kept me conscious of how much time I was actually spending writing, and how much time I spent doing other things. Slowly, I began to realize that writing should be my priority, and that I could and should do it every day. It was a real revelation to me that I could write on my teaching days, and that writing at least an hour every day kept me connected to my projects.

Setting new goals for each month allowed me to approach each new month with a fresh attitude. I slowly learned to develop reasonable expectations for what I could accomplish in a month, and felt a sense of deep satisfaction each time I met my goals for the month.

At the end of the semester, I could look back over the semester and see how much I had accomplished. Taking the time to tally up my accomplishments each day, week, month, and semester allowed me to stop and reflect on what I had done, and to feel better about where I was going and how I was going to get there.

Keeping track of my progress allows me to set and achieve reasonable goals. Once you know how much you can produce in one semester, and once you become familiar with the average timeline for publication, you can develop reasonable expectations about what you can accomplish during an academic year or, if you are on the tenure track, within the time you have left before going up for tenure.

Now that I know my rhythm, my pace, and my average productivity, I can set reasonable goals for myself for each semester, each year, and over the course of the next five years. I can look at that plan and see that achieving those goals will fulfill the research requirements of my tenure case.

Planning for academic success takes out a lot of the uncertainty, worry and self-doubt that plague many academics. It allows you to be in the driver’s seat, and to be in charge of your productivity and of your career. Keeping track of what you can accomplish in a day, a week, a month, a semester, or a year allows for you to plan in the short and long term.

I find that planning for success takes out a lot of the anxiety over success. I know what I can expect of myself and what standards I can hold myself to. In my case, it turns out that those standards are in line with what my university expects of me.

What about you? How much can you expect of yourself? For those of you on the tenure track, how do your own standards for productivity line up with those of your university?

When Is Your Prime Time?

For me, mornings are a very special time. At the crack of dawn, before my family wakes up, and a little later, right after everyone leaves the house are the two best times for me to write. Mornings are special because they only happen once a day, and they are the times I can be most productive. It took me a while to figure this out for myself, but now that I am certain of when my prime time is, I do whatever I can to ensure that I write each morning.

If I miss out on writing early in the morning, it is very likely that I will not get any writing done that day. In addition, since I know how productive I can be in just 30 to 60 minutes early in the morning, I feel as if it is a waste to use that time any other way. Why spend my most precious moments of the day running errands, responding to emails, shopping online, or filling out university-mandated forms when I can spend them writing? For me, the morning is prime time, and that is when I write.

Once I have done my writing for the day, even if it is a busy day and I can only get in 30 minutes, I can face the remainder of the day knowing that I have started off using my time wisely. I have already made progress on that which is most important to my long-term success: I have written.

Everyone has their prime time, and it likely occurs at roughly the same time every day. Do you know when your prime time is? If you don’t, ask yourself the following questions: When you are most alert? When is your mind the clearest? When do you find it easiest to focus on one task? If you still don’t know, the best way to find out is to try. Spend every day next week, Monday to Friday, trying to write as soon as you get up. If it doesn’t work, try a different time.

Those who have families may find it difficult to write first thing in the morning. Some people are able to wake up very early and write for 30 to 60 minutes before the rest of the family wakes up. Others spend their mornings getting everyone else out of the house and then get their writing done once everyone leaves. Others have to drop kids off at daycare and school, and seek refuge in a coffee shop after dropping everyone off. Still others make sure that writing is the first thing they do when they arrive in their office.

Some people are not at their best in the mornings, but feel particularly energized after an afternoon workout. Physical activity is a great way to cleanse the mind. I knew of one woman who had to teach early in the morning, making it difficult to write first thing in the morning. So, she wrote in the afternoons. After teaching her two classes, she went straight to the university pool, where she swam for 45 minutes. After swimming, her mind was clear and fresh, and she was able to sit down and write for two hours. One great thing about this strategy is that she knew she would write after swimming, so her time in the water was also time she could prepare mentally for her writing session.

There are some people who truly are night owls and can write late in the evening after everyone in their family has gone to bed. Honestly, I know many people who tell me this is the best time for them to write, but who find it difficult to make it happen every day. However, I think it can work for some folks. The trick is to find ways to make it happen. If your prime time is late at night, an evening walk, workout, cup of hot tea, or yoga session might be a useful pre-writing routine. It is also probably a good idea to have a light dinner and to figure out a way to make lunch your main meal of the day as a large meal may make you sleepy and less productive. If you plan to write at night, it is best to avoid the after-work happy hour, although I do know a woman who writes at night with a glass of red wine on her desk. If you do write in the evenings, allow yourself time after writing to relax and clear your mind before going to sleep.

One of the keys to writing every day is to figure out when your prime time is. Once you know when the best time for you to write is, and you make it a habit to write every day at that time, you will begin to see that time as non-negotiable. If you only have a prime time of 60 minutes each day, why spend it on anything other than the most important task of your day?

Five kinds of mentors new faculty need

In Robert Boice’s book, Advice for New Faculty, he points out that successful new faculty share a few crucial characteristics. Successful new faculty:

1. spent three hours or more per week on scholarly writing.
2. integrated their research into their undergraduate classes.
3. did not spend major amounts of time on course preparation (after their first semester, they averaged 1–1.5 hours of preparation per lecture hour).
4. lectured at a pace that allowed for active student participation.
5. regularly sought advice from colleagues, averaging four hours a week on discussions of research and teaching.

In this blog, I want to focus on #5: Regularly seek advice from colleagues. When I first read that suggestion, I thought to myself that there was no way my assigned mentor would be willing to talk to me for four hours a week. I was right about that. However, what I did not realize is that I needed to expand my idea of what a mentor was. There are at least five types of mentors new faculty need to be successful:

1) Departmental mentors: These are senior colleagues in your department who can help you to understand and navigate the sometimes turbulent waters of your department. They can do this both by providing advice and by coming to your defense behind closed doors. To do this, they need to talk to you. It is crucial to meet with your departmental mentor at least once a semester.

2) Institutional mentors: These are senior colleagues at your institution, who may or may not be in your department. They play a similar role to your departmental mentor, but are particularly savvy about the way the College and/or University operate and can provide you with crucial guidance. I suggest you meet with your institutional mentor at least once a semester.

3) Teaching mentors: These are senior colleagues who are dedicated to undergraduate and graduate education and can provide you with important feedback on your teaching, as well as ways to become a more effective teacher. This person likely will be in your department, as your departmental colleagues are most familiar with your curriculum. Many universities and colleges require Assistant Professors to have peer reviews of their teaching at least once a year. Whether or not this is the case at your institution, it is important for you to meet with a teaching mentor to discuss your teaching at least once a semester.

4) Peer mentors: These are your junior colleagues or people that you know from graduate school or conferences who are at a similar career stage. These relationships are often easier and more casual, yet can be just as important as those with your senior colleagues. Your peers can provide you with feedback on your work, help you to overcome emotional difficulties, provide you with publishing and speaking opportunities, and lend a sympathetic ear. You should meet with one of your peer mentors, by phone or in person, at least once a month.

5) Disciplinary Mentors: These are people more advanced in their careers that are in your subfield, yet not at your institution. As a new faculty member, you need to make contact with people in your field outside your institution both so that they can know who you are and so that they can inform you of important publishing and speaking opportunities. These are people who you eventually will ask to write letters of recommendation for you, and who may serve as external reviewers on your tenure case. You will need to provide a list of about ten people to serve as external reviewers for your tenure file. I suggest you make that list now, and make a plan to meet, in person, or over the phone, each of those people between now and the time you go up for tenure.

All of that said, I will make one final recommendation. Meeting with colleagues is important, but can also be time consuming. To make time for regular meetings in my busy schedule, I try to schedule most of my meetings over meals, especially lunch. I take time to eat lunch every day anyway, and having lunch with a colleague can both be enjoyable and a way to fit meetings into your busy schedule. I also schedule meetings right after teaching, as I generally am not very productive on any other fronts right after class. As for phone conversations with colleagues at other institutions, I often schedule those at times when I can talk while taking my afternoon or evening walk.

Schedule your writing into your week

One of the best ways to become a prolific writer is to write every day. If you write every day, you will make progress on your manuscripts, you will become a better writer, and it will become easier for you to write. To ensure that you write every day, however, it is crucial that you schedule it into your calendar.

Yes, I mean, literally, take out your calendar for next week and set aside time for writing every day. I am sure you are a very busy person with many responsibilities. However, if you are reading this blog, then you likely are looking for ways to be more productive. And, one of the best ways to become more productive is to schedule your writing time and treat it just like any other appointment. Here is how.

Schedule writing every day. Take a look at your schedule for next week and figure out when you might have between 15 minutes and two hours to write every day for five days a week. I prefer to work Monday to Friday, and to leave the weekends to spend time with my family. If, however, you absolutely must work on weekends, it still is advisable to write for at least 15 minutes during the week so that, come Saturday afternoon, you do not have to spend all of your writing time re-acquainting yourself with your manuscript. Spending at least 15 minutes a day with your manuscript means that it will always be fresh in your mind.

Schedule at least 15 minutes but no more than two hours. If you think that there is absolutely no way you could make any progress in 15 minutes, I encourage you to try to think of something you could do in 15 minutes. For example, I imagine you could proofread your introduction, free write, update your references, or revise a footnote in 15 minutes. On a previous blog I listed “Seven Ways You Can Write Every Day.” I also suggest that you do not schedule your writing for more than two hours at a time. If you do have a day with no other obligations, it is likely more productive to schedule two hours of writing, followed by two hours of reading than to try to schedule four hours of writing. After reading and writing for four hours, schedule in a long break that involves food and exercise and try to go in for another round. Alternatively, you can take the afternoon off, knowing that you have just had a very productive morning!

Treat writing like any other appointment. This means that, if you have scheduled writing from 8am to 9am on Monday, and someone asks you to meet at that time, that you have to say, “No, I can’t meet at 8am, how about we meet at 9am?” You, after all, will be very busy from 8am to 9am, working on your manuscript. If you are nervous about claiming you are busy when you are “just” writing, keep two things in mind: 1) If you are at a research university, writing is part of your job; and 2) It is quite unlikely that anyone will actually ask you what you are doing when you tell them that you cannot meet at a particular time.

So, go ahead, take out your calendars, and schedule between 15 minutes and two hours of writing into your week next week.

Five Steps to Setting Semester Goals

There is no denying it: the Fall Semester is here. The beginning of the semester is always a hectic time for academics. We often are anxious about all we have to do in the moment – finalize syllabi, set up appointments, prepare for classes, and re-arrange our schedules – as well as all we have to do over the next few months.

Although you probably are in a frenzy to get ready for the upcoming semester, I am going to suggest that you add one more task to your immediate to-do list: Set goals for the Fall Semester. In this post, I am going to lay out why you need to do this now and explain exactly how to set your goals.

Academic life revolves around semesters which start and end several times over the year. The beginning of a new semester, then, is something that academics experience over and over again. However, even for those of us who have been teaching for many years, new semesters continue to be times of high anxiety and insecurity. We may have taught our classes several times before, but we never know how this batch of students will be. We may have been in our department for years, but it is often unclear what issues or challenges our department will face this year. For new professors and graduate students, the horizons are even less clear. The unknown, logically, leads to anxiety. Setting goals for the fall semester will allow you to see a bit more lucidly what lies ahead and will relieve some of your anxiety by permitting you to come to terms with what you can and cannot accomplish.

Thus, even though it is one more task in addition to all you have to do, I highly recommend you take thirty minutes to sixty minutes out of your busy schedule and sit down and write out your goals for the Fall Semester. Here is how you do it.

Step One: List all of the tasks that you would like to accomplish this semester. Look over your calendar and through your emails to make sure that you do not forget any important tasks.

Step Two: Separate those tasks into categories. The categories I use are: Research, Teaching, Service, and Personal. Dividing these tasks into categories will help you to prioritize your tasks according to your professional trajectory. For example, if you are at a Research I institution, and your Teaching and Service categories are much longer than your Research categories, you may need to figure out how to move things around.

Step Three: Arrange your tasks by month. It’s almost the end of August, but go ahead and put in August anything that needs your immediate attention. Anything with a September deadline goes in September, and anything with an October deadline goes in October. Once you have dealt with the tasks that have deadlines, you can decide where to put the remaining tasks that do not have firm deadlines.

Step Four: Arrange your tasks by weeks. If you have four writing goals for September, then you can place one in each week of the month. If you have two, then give yourself two weeks for each. The point is to decide NOW when you will turn your attention to each task. This will help you to keep on track and to feel less guilty about not dealing with everything at once.

Step Five: Cut. If you have tasks that do not fit into your semester plan, now is the best time to decide that you will either put them off for another semester or remove these tasks from your list of goals. Believe me, it is much better to make this decision now than to have this weigh on your shoulders for the rest of the semester. If the project is something you really would like to do, make it a priority for the Spring semester. If it is something you wish you could get out of, find a way to do that diplomatically. For example, you could say: “I just made a detailed plan for my semester, and have come to realize that I simply do not have the time to complete this work this semester.”

I wish you the best as you plan for the Fall Semester.

Five Reasons Academics Should Set Writing Goals

Some writers may see the setting of goals as the purview of corporate types and far too unromantic for creative tasks. I, however, have found setting writing goals to enhance, not stifle, my productivity and creativity. Setting goals allows me to prioritize my time and tasks and to make sure that my most important tasks are accomplished.

I set goals both for tasks I will accomplish over the course of the semester, month, and week as well as goals for how much time I will dedicate each day to writing. For example, my goals for the Fall Semester include: 1) Drafting two chapters of my book on deportees; 2) Checking and coding my interviews from the Dominican Republic and Brazil; and 3) Making the final revisions to my book on immigration policy. My goals for next week include: 1) Putting the final touches on a conference presentation and 2) Submitting the final draft of a co-authored book chapter. During the Fall Semester, I plan to write for at least one hour a day and code interviews for at least 30 minutes a day.

I learned about goal-setting from Kerry Ann Rockquemore, and have found setting goals to be enormously helpful in terms of my productivity. In this blog, I give five reasons why I find setting goals to be useful.

Reason #1: Setting goals allows you to track your progress, and to feel more productive.
For example, when I set goals for the semester, at the end of the semester, I can see how much I have accomplished. In academia, often, no matter how productive you are, it never seems to be enough. When you learn to set reasonable goals, however, you can feel good about having accomplished them. Often, I might feel as if I have not done very much in a semester. However, once I look over my goals and look at all I have accomplished, I feel more productive.

Reason #2: Setting goals on a regular basis allows you to figure out how much work you can accomplish and helps you to avoid becoming overburdened.
Many academics find themselves unable to meet deadlines and running breathlessly to the finish line. Some people enjoy these marathon sprints. I, however, prefer to move slowly and steadily. Having set goals for the past three years, I have a very good idea as to what I can accomplish in a month, a semester, or a year. Thus, when I am at my limit, I know when to say “no” to additional obligations.

Reason #3: Setting goals helps you to stay on task.
If, at the beginning of the semester, you have an R&R, copy-edits on a manuscript, two article reviews, and a new chapter to draft, you can prioritize those tasks by setting goals. I set my goals and make plans for what will get done when on the basis of deadlines and the time tasks will take. If you start the semester working on the new chapter, you may never get to the R&R or article reviews – which are likely time-sensitive tasks. You will probably feel better about your progress if you get the smaller tasks done first and then move on to the larger, more daunting task of drafting a new chapter. Setting goals helps you to plan and organize your time effectively.

Reason #4: Setting goals helps you to move along at a steady pace.
For example, I usually set a goal of writing at least one hour each day. On days when I have fewer other obligations, I set a goal of writing for two hours. As I know I have a goal of writing at least 60 minutes each day, I make sure to find that time each day, Monday to Friday, to write. This helps to keep my projects fresh in my mind and make it easier to pick up where I left off whenever I need to.

Reason #5: Setting goals helps you know when to stop.
As I mentioned above, I have a good sense of how much time I can dedicate each day to writing, and how much I can accomplish in a semester. When I reach my writing goals – in terms of time or tasks – I stop. Stopping when I know I have done enough allows me to enjoy the time I spend doing non-work related or non-writing related tasks. Having set goals and met them allows me to enjoy the rest of my life guilt-free.

Setting goals is not necessarily about being more productive. It is about learning how to find the time in your life to do the things you want and need to do. In my life, writing is important, but so are teaching, parenting, my friends, my family, and my community. Setting goals allows me to make time for each of those.

How To Write and Enjoy Life at the Same Time

After being on leave for over a year, returning to my tenure-track position at the University of Kansas seems a bit daunting. While on leave, I have been completely in charge of my own schedule, and have been able to arrange my days such that I have had plenty of time for research, writing, my family, my exercise routine, and enjoying life. Happy with this balance in my life, I am determined to achieve a similarly fulfilling lifestyle upon my return to teaching and service. Here is my plan.

Keep Writing a Priority
My ability to be productive on my writing projects is a direct consequence of having kept a strict writing schedule for this year. Each morning, I write for two to four hours. When I am back in Kansas, I plan to write every morning, Monday to Friday, for two to three hours between 8 am and noon. As there are four hours between 8am and noon, I am leaving myself extra time for breaks and for attending to any important business. Writing, however, will be my priority each morning.

Make Time for Family
During this year abroad, my children have either out of school by 1pm or not in school at all. This means that we have spent nearly every afternoon and most weekends together. When I have had interviews or out-of-town research, I have spent less time with the kids. But, that has been the exception much more than the rule. Often, we have traveled together as a family. In general, we have spent much more time together this year than we normally do, and we have become closer as a family as a result. I recognize that keeping a schedule such as this is unrealistic for when we return to Kansas. However, I will make time for my family by going home to eat lunch with my husband as often as possible and I will pick my kids up from school each day at 6pm and spend the afternoons with them. Weekends, we will have plenty of family time.

Keep Exercise in My Life
This year, we have traveled to many absolutely gorgeous places and it has been a great pleasure to get my late afternoon exercise on trails overlooking the sea, on the beach, by flowing rivers, and gazing at enormous volcanoes. The scenery in Kansas does not lend itself to much praise. However, the pleasure I derive from daily exercise is not limited to the wonderful scenery, and is something I plan to keep up while I am in Kansas. I will incorporate exercise into my daily life by walking to and from work and my children’s school as often as possible, and by signing up for some exercise classes at the Rec Center.

Make a Schedule And Stick to It
The best way to make sure that my days include writing, exercise, and family time is for me to make a schedule and stick to it. I will schedule my writing every morning, my exercise each afternoon, and my family time each evening and weekend. That leaves me plenty of time between noon and 6pm to attend to my other responsibilities. I will make a schedule that allows me time to attend meetings, meet with colleagues, make phone calls, go to the library, do online research, prepare and teach my classes, and respond to emails each afternoon.

Back at my full-time job, I will not have the freedom that my fellowship has afforded me. Nevertheless, I am confident that I can maintain a reasonable schedule and an emotionally and physically healthy balance between my work and my personal life. Life, after all, is too short not to enjoy it as much as possible.

The Five-Year Plan for Tenure-Track Professors

As anyone up for tenure can attest, the time between your first day as an Assistant Professor and the day you have to submit your tenure file flies by. Colleges and universities vary on the procedures and dates, but in general, you have five years to put your tenure file together.

I know you are supposed to have six years, but it is actually only five. Let me explain. Suppose you begin a tenure track position in August 2010. By August 2011, you will have completed your first academic year, and by August 2015, you likely will have to submit some parts of your tenure file – such as the names of external reviewers. The review of your tenure case will be complete at the end of your sixth year. This usually means you have to start the review process about a year beforehand.

As you have five years to prepare, you need a five year plan. In this post, I will focus on the research side of the equation, as this is most often the most important part. However, this will vary by institution, and you need to figure out what is most important where you work.

Step One: Set your goals. The first step to creating a five year publication plan is to figure out what you need to accomplish to have a successful tenure review. How would you like for your CV to look in five years?

You can find out about departmental expectations by asking your mentors and colleagues. You also should look at the CVs of people who recently have been awarded tenure both in your department and at other institutions. If you think that it is possible that you might leave your current place of employment before going up for tenure, you need to be aware of standards at other institutions. And, even if you don’t plan to leave, you still need to be aware, as things might not work out for you at your current institution, and it is important to be marketable. Once you figure out the departmental and disciplinary expectations, you can set your own publication goals.

Step Two: Make a plan for achieving your goals. Let’s say, for the sake of this blog post, that your goal is to have one book and three articles in print by the time your tenure file is reviewed. You must now figure out how long that will take to accomplish, starting from the ideal publication date. You need to plan.

For example, if you would like for your book to be in print by August 2015, when you submit the names of external reviewers for your tenure review, you need to work backwards from that date. For your book to be published in August 2015, you need to submit the final version to the publisher by August 2014. For that to happen, you likely need to submit the original version by August 2013, which means you should submit the book proposal no later than February 2013. There you have your first concrete goal: Submit your book proposal to potential publishers no later than February 1, 2013.

You can then do the same thing with the articles, based on the time it takes for articles in your field to be accepted and published, and the number of articles you reasonably can submit in a year or a semester. Keep in mind that articles are almost never accepted upon first submission, so allow time for revision and re-submission.

Step Three: Map your plan out onto a calendar. Once you have decided, for example, that you will submit your book proposal by February 2013, your first article by February 2011, your second article in August 2011, and your third article by February 2012, then you can begin to map out the steps required onto a calendar.

For example, if your first goal is to submit an article by February 2011, then you can use the time between now and February 2011 to ensure that your article is ready for submission. You might use August 2010 to make a plan for the revision of one of your dissertation chapters, September 2010 to do the literature review, October 2010 to re-analyze the data, November 2010 to write the first draft, and December and January to finish the revisions and get peer feedback.

You will need to do this for each of the goals you have set. However, if you have never mapped your goals onto a calendar before, it might work best for you to focus on one goal at a time. For example, once you have revised one chapter of your dissertation into an article, you will have a better idea as to how long it will take to do the others. Then, you can develop a feasible plan for the remaining articles.

Step Four: Execute the plan. The best way to meet your publication goals is to work on them consistently. If you spend at least one hour every day from Monday to Friday working on one of your publication goals, you are much more likely to meet them than if you only work on them on the weekends or only work on them over break. If getting tenure is important to you, and getting tenure requires publishing, it behooves you to do something that gets you towards publishing each and every day. Usually that “something” is writing. It also includes data analysis, reading background literature, and letting ideas percolate. However, most academics find it fairly easy to spend hours and hours reading and running data, yet find it harder to spend time actually writing. For this reason, it is important to write every day to ensure you achieve your goals.

If you have already started your faculty position and did not make a five year plan, it is not too late. You can make a plan based on what you would like to have accomplished by the time you go up for tenure or promotion, no matter how much time you have left.

The planning process can be stressful as you think of all you have to do. At the same time, it can be calming, as you come to terms with what you will and will not be able to accomplish over the next five years.