BECOME A MORE PRODUCTIVE
WRITER
Scenario 1:
With a deadline
(e.g. grants)
Scenario 2:
Without a deadline
(e.g. many papers)
Strategy One
Start with a plan.
Strategy Two
Write every day.
Strategy Three
Write in stages.
Strategy One
Start with a plan.
The planning fallacy
Kahneman, D., & Tversky, A. (1979). Intuitive prediction:
biases and corrective procedures. TIMS Studies in
Management Science, 12, 313–327
“The planning fallacy refers to a readily observable
phenomenon: the conviction that a current project will go as
well as planned even though most projects from a relevant
comparison set have failed to fulfill their planned outcomes.”
in Roger Buehler,* Dale Griffin, and Johanna Peetz.* The Planning Fallacy: Cognitive, Motivational, and Social
Origins.
WOOP
Oettingen, Gabriele (2014). Rethinking Positive Thinking: Inside the New Science of
Motivation. Penguin Group.
Her research finding, supported with 20 years of empirical work:
Positive thinking / visualizing the desired outcome alone does not produce the motivation
to take action.
What does work: “WOOP”
1.
WISH: Write down your wish in 3-6 words
2.
OUTCOME: Write a detailed description of the Outcome that will fulfill your
wish. How would you feel if you achieved it?
3.
OBSTACLES: Write a detailed, emotion rich picture of the main obstacles that
may prevent you from getting the Outcome; include your own internal
tendencies (e.g. procrastination, perfectionism).
4.
PLAN: Make a plan to address each of the obstacles
Create a written plan
How does this writing project help me meet one of my
important goals?
Create a project plan
•
•
•
•
•
Read the instructions from the funder /journal/ editor /meeting!
Create a detailed statement describing the final result.
List the required steps / components / milestones
What obstacles might I encounter?
Make a plan to address the obstacles
Draft a schedule using backward planning
• What will I do next to get started, and when will I do it?
backward planning
start with the deadline, and ask: “What do I have to have done by
yesterday day in order to be ready for this day?
Go to that day, and ask the same question, and so on.
Finalize
references
 Externally imposed deadlines
 Block off days not available
 Set milestone dates
Send penultimate
draft to coauthors – (due
11/14)
(on call)
Final budget
approval from
department
(on call)
Receive final
comments from
co-authors
Read aloud to
myself
Final copyedits
completed
(trip……………………………..)
Submit to my
university
Grant Due
at NIH
Create a written plan
W
ish
How does this writing project help me meet one of my
important goals?
Create a project plan
• Read the instructions from the funder /journal/ editor /meeting!
O• utcome
Create a detailed statement describing the final result.
List the required steps / components / milestones
O• bstacles
• What obstacles might I encounter?
Re: The Planning
lan
• Make a plan to address the obstacles
Fallacy
P
Draft a schedule using backward planning
• What will I do next to get started, and when will I do it?
Strategy Two
Write every day: why, when, and how?
Strategy Two
Write every day: Why?
“Common sense”
•
•
•
•
Keeps the project “top of mind”
Twists and turns identified sooner
Eliminates warm up
Reduces stress from last minute work
Evidence
• Turns on the reticular activating system
• Feeds the default mode network
• Boice’s daily writing experiments
Regular writing evidence
• Writing in brief sessions daily is
more productive than engaging in
infrequent “binge writing”
• Evidence: 30-60 minutes a day
produces more high quality writing
than infrequent binges
• This does not preclude frequent
longer sessions
Robert Boice
Emeritus
SUNY at Stony Brook
Strategy Two
Write every day: When?
Write “first thing”
in the morning
• It's easier to go from PROACTIVE, DEEP
WORK to reactive work, than the other way
around
• Fewer potentially new interrupting tasks will
have appeared
• Highest supply of:
– Willpower
– Decision making ability
– Energy – for most of us
• You take advantage of your sleep related
default mode network output
• You have started the day successfully, which
increased your energy and improves your
mood, which can carry over into the rest of
the day.
If you can, write at the same time each day
William Faulkner: "I only write when I am inspired. Fortunately I am inspired at
nine o'clock every morning."
Mon
8
Tues
8
Wed
Thurs
Fri
Sat
8
8
8
8
WRITING
12
12
12
12
12
12
5
5
5
5
5
5
8
8
8
8
8
8
Strategy Two
Write every day: How?
Joan Bolker: Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen
Minutes a Day. Henry Holt & Co., New York, 1998
 Set easily reachable goals
 Start with as little as 10 minutes a day
 Slowly build to capacity
 Use a paired treat / reward
 “Grandma’s Mashed Potato Law”
 Don’t exceed your target
 Write every day
Write down what you are
going to do
25 + 5
25 + 5
25 + 5
25 + 15
Repeat as needed
Manage
interruptions
Francesco Cirillo
http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/
the Pomodoro technique
Pomodoro apps
• Web /desktop
– Tomato Timer
– Focus Booster
• iOS
– iPhone Pomodoro Timer by Navel labs
• Android
– Pomodroido by Artifix
• Blackberry
– Pomodoro Helper by Chin
• Your local hardware store….
Still can’t start?
Create a first task that creates no resistance.
•Work on grant
• Draft specific aim 1
• Open Word document

Monitor your progress
Strategy Three
Write in stages:
1. prewrite
2. create a bad draft
3. edit to final product.
Prewriting &
Creating a
bad draft
Editing to the
final product
Strategy Three
Write in stages:
1. prewrite
Prewriting: generating ideas
• Method:
– Record all ideas that come up
– Don’t worry about whether ideas will make it
into the final product
• Informed by literature review, past work,
and data analysis…
Challenge: the prewriting maze
Trapped in “data analysis paralysis” and “just one more paper to read”
Prewriting maze-busters
• BEFORE you do any reading, write down:
– what you know, or think you know about the topic
– questions you already have
• LIMIT the literature review
– Select a limited number of papers to read at this stage
– Keep a list of papers to come back to
• STOP and move on to create the bad draft before you
feel finished with data analysis and lit review
Strategy Three
Write in stages:
2. create a bad draft
Features of a “good” bad draft
process:
• Focus only on getting ideas out
• Write in complete sentences (not phrases or
lists)
• Use a tight schedule
• Avoid going off on tangents: keep a
companion “idea document”
• Produce a complete draft
Strategy Three
Write in stages:
3. edit to final product.
Editing strategies
1. Create a schedule
a. To begin, an overall schedule by sections
with some buffer time built in
b. Every week or so, create a more detailed
plan for the coming short time period
May 1 – Creation of overall schedule for Sept 1 submission
Date
Task to be completed on this date
May 16
May 30
June 13
June 20
June 27
July 11
July 25
Aug 1
Aug 8
Aug 15
Aug 23
Aug 30
Finish grading
first draft of ALI model rules and principles
revised draft of Chapter Six,
revised draft of Chapter Seven,
revised draft of Chapter Nine,
revised draft of Chapter One,
revised draft of Chapter Four,
revised draft of Conclusion,
revised draft of Chapter Eight,
revised draft of Chapter Two,
revised draft of Chapter Three,
revised draft of Chapter Five,
Sept. 1
submission of full revised manuscript to publisher
August 1 – detailed August schedule
Deadline
Task
Tues, Aug. 5
preliminary review and feedback on RA’s charts
Assignment of new task to each RA
Fri, Aug 8
revised draft of Chapter Three,
Addition of S R materials (Wed)
Addition of board details? (Thurs)
Tues, Aug 12
revised draft of Chapter Eight,
Fri, Aug 15
addition of extra NM disputes
Division of chapters that need to be cut in half
Addition of end-of-century summations
Tues, Aug 19
revised draft of Conclusion
Wed., Aug 20
prepare and post syllabus for seminar; reference letter for student
Fri., Aug 22 revised draft of Introduction
Tues, Aug 26
full-read through; line-editing, transitional intros & conclusions between sections
Fri, Aug 29
clean up footnotes & charts
Sept. 1
submission of full revised manuscript to publisher
Editing strategies
2. Get started by retyping the most recent
draft, making changes as you go
3. At the penultimate stage:
– Read aloud to yourself (Peter Elbow)
– Ask others to read
4. Near the end, create a “punch list”
o Re-read instructions to authors /
submission procedures
o Final copy editing, reference checks
o Get institutional approvals, as needed
o Complete the submission
*
Contact me anytime with comments or
questions:
srj.susanjohnson@gmail.com
See my website for free articles and a blog
focused on these topics:
www.thrivingamidstchaos.com