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4 steps to get unstuck with your writing that are fun to implement

4 steps to get unstuck with your writing that are fun to implement

4 steps to make your writing easierAre you feeling stuck with writing your thesis or research paper? Do you sit down with good intentions and then get distracted? Do you feel like you don’t know where to make a start and wish you can experience a feeling of PROGRESS with your writing?

You are not alone! Many scientists struggle with it, and battle daily with procrastination, distractions, perfectionism and overwhelm. But don’t you fret! I have something for you!!

Now… Wouldn’t it be great to have simple and doable strategies to follow that are also fun to implement? Such strategies that consist of simple doable steps which you could implement even on a busy day or when you feel not so productive and inspired? What if you can make you writing as easy as … Facebooking?!

 

As I hear from scientists, Facebook is a common reason for getting distracted when sitting down to write a research paper or a thesis. Why is Facebook so attractive anyway? Why is it so easy to go on it and spend the odd 10-15 we might be having available between various things we do during the work day?.. I’ve analysed those reasons and created 4 strategies for you that are fun to implement and will help you get unstuck and make your writing easier! Enjoy!

 

1) Have a defined layout, structure or format to simply “fill in the blanks”

Facebook has a format that is easy to use and easy to add something. At the top it always asks you: what is on your mind? To comment on someone’s post is extremely easy and even inviting: it has already an allocated space and even your picture to entice you to add a comment.

When I coach scientists and researchers who have been stuck with writing their thesis/paper, proposal or grant application for weeks or even months, this is one of the first things I suggest:

If you are writing a paper and getting stuck with writing because you don’t know where to start or how to move on, choose the journal to submit your paper to! If you are unsure which one to choose, write a list of journals, brainstorm it with your supervisor or colleagues and decide imperfectly.

What it gives you is that you can now go to the website of that journal and download the guidelines and often even a format file. Often journal will tell you the format for the references and even the amount of words allowed. This gives you a structure to follow and you can literally start filling in the blanks! Just like Facebooking 🙂

Similar with the thesis, go to the grad office and ask them to give your guidelines. Create an (imperfect draft of an) outline. And start filling in the blanks. Ditto grants and proposals.

2) Make a list of tasks that would take you 15-30 min to complete.

It is easy to spend odd 10-15 min on Facebook that you have between a meeting and going for lunch, between your telecons, or between a lecture and taking a bus into town.

For your paper, thesis or proposal, break down your work load into tasks that would take 15-30 min each to complete. Make a list of those tasks or write each one of them on an index card, and have a stack of those index cards handy. For example:

  1. Draft Figure 1
  2. Complete Table 2
  3. Find the ppt slides from the last conference and copy and paste the relevant materials into Chapter 2 of my thesis
  4. type up 10 references
  5. etc etc

Now if you have an odd 15-30 min you can just look through the list or the stack of the index cards and pick a task that speaks to you. If you feel good and productive, pick a more difficult task; if you feel quite lousy today, pick an easy task. No matter how you feel or how little time you have you experience PROGRESS with your writing EVERY day. This creates momentum and allows you to carry on and continue with it until completion!

I regard the ability to break a big task into small manageable tasks and always knowing what is the very next step is as one of the greatest productivity techniques.

N.B. One of my private clients came up with an idea to discard the index cards or post-it notes where you write your 15-30min tasks into a so-called Ta-Daah!-Basket. You can actually see a pile of crumpled cards in the basket at the end of the day and you know you made progress with your writing.

3) Have your paper always in your sight and on your mind

Facebook tab is always open and it is just THERE, isn’t it? It is so easy to just click on that tab and do some facebooking. Or if you closed down the tab, it is so easy to open a new tab, type “Facebook“ and here it is.

But… Do you actually know WHERE is the folder with your paper?…

Make your writing project easily accessible. Open the folder and the file first thing in the morning. Have it right there AVAILABLE and easily accessible for all those brilliant ideas and inspirational moments to fill in more text.

Have your paper IN YOUR SIGHT, which will make it easier for you to have it on your mind. One of the things that I advice researchers I work with is to borrow from the library a hard copy of the journal you are writing for and have it on your desk as a visual reminder “Writing paper X is my one of my priorities” or print out the front page of that journal from their website and stick it somewhere you can see it everyday (on your bathroom door for example :-))

The same goes for the thesis, create the title page exactly as it will appear in your thesis, print it out and have it in your sight all the time.

4) Type it up imperfectly

On Facebook, when you post something on your wall, or make a comment on someone else’s post, you can actually edit it after posting. It is so easy and inviting to post on Facebook, isn’t it? This is because you know that you can always correct it. What you want to say may look perfect in your mind, but once you actually post it, it may not look as perfect. But no worries! You can always right click on your post and choose “Edit”!

And this is exactly what we want to use for you to experience progress with your writing project. You need to start putting down your thoughts IM-PER-FECT-LY, and then edit it.

And if you one of the people who say: “I need to have my thoughts perfectly crystallised in my head first before I can put them down on paper (or computer)”, writing up anything takes you a very long time. Right? And with an approaching deadline, for example a deadline for your thesis submission, you cannot afford to wait any longer until it is all crystal clear in your head. Also, with your research paper, although it often does not have any deadline, drafting it has been taking you far too long, and you don’t want to waste anymore time and want to finally move on with it.

So, here is the strategy we can borrow from Facebook: put your words down before it feels perfect. Even if it feels perfect, often after you’ve put it down on paper, it does not look as perfect as you thought. So you might as well put it down on paper before it feels perfect!

You might have heard me saying: “If you want to write up a paper, you need to be willing to produce a bad draft!” The papers are not written, they are re-written! This strategy is all about stepping through that fear of imperfection, and putting it down as you have it on my mind right now.

After you’ve created your first bad and imperfect draft, go away from it, then come back and start improving and polishing your writing. And as one of my clients shared after he implemented this strategy, it actually felt good to come back to his writing and improve it. So this is your added BONUS: you are going to feel good while doing it 🙂

Do you like this and other strategies you’ve seen on this blog? Do you want more step-by-step strategies, support, motivation and accountability to get a move on with your writing? Then check out Olga’s “Start writing and get it done” online course, the class is starting on the 3rd of August and stretches over 8 weeks time.
Sign up today to take advantage of the offer!!

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4 Responses to 4 steps to get unstuck with your writing that are fun to implement

  1. SC Aniz MN says:

    1) Have a defined layout, structure or format to simply “fill in the blanks”
    2) Make a list of tasks that would take you 15-30 min to complete.
    3) Have your paper always in your sight and on your mind.
    4) Type it up imperfectly.

  2. Adeiza says:

    These are great tips to unlock that inertia preventing me from starting and sustaining writing. Thanks Olga! However, its a little different for us here in Africa. We battle quite a couple of external issues which kill the drive. Mostly due to poor electric power supply, poor public utilities, and unbearable weather conditions (heat!) that all work to kill the drive. Please, do you have any particular advice or tip sets you could suggest, in this regards! Thanks

  3. Jewel Oi says:

    Appreciate what you have here. Thanks for sharing, Olga. You are a *star*.

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