One thing at a time?

I don’t know about you, but when I was growing up my mother was big on finishing one project before starting another. And I notice a lot of cultural pressure not to give up on things when they get difficult. To push through the tough spots.

But in my life, I’ve found that this kind of advice isn’t very helpful.

Seriously, what tends to happen when we get stuck and try to “not give up”, “push through”, “drive on”, or whatever, is that we start feeling guilty and inadequate. And we get paralyzed.

Instead of actually finishing the thing we are working on, we get stalled. And because we think it would be weak to just stop that thing and switch to another project, we don’t do anything. We stare at a page. Or we do something else because sitting down to write is so daunting (or painful, or scary) that we just can’t face it.

And then we feel bad about procrastinating.

Which just increases the negative feelings we have about writing. And makes it even harder to sit down and do it.

Before you know it you are in this nasty spiral of negative thoughts. And a lot of those thoughts are about how you just aren’t smart enough to be a successful academic. Or that you don’t have what it takes. And when that starts to feel too awful, you’ll turn your attention to Them and their demands, which are unreasonable.

Stop this spiral, I want to get off!

As laudable as it sounds, finishing one thing before you start another is not efficient and effective for many people. If it’s working for you keep doing it. And stop reading this post and get on with your writing.

But if the beginning of this post sounded like your life, here’s a permission slip to leave that unfinished paper in a folder for a bit and start something else.

You are smart enough for this job. And you do have worthwhile things to say. And pursuing your goals will magically meet Their demands. (If you haven’t read Publish or Perish? yet, you might want to do that. It’s free. And it says a lot more about why this is true.)

Multiple projects can lead to more finished projects

I first discovered this in relation to knitting. And it also applies to writing. It doesn’t matter if you don’t knit. One creative project is much like another. And writing an academic article is a creative project. So stick with me here while I go through an extended analogy.

I have had various points in my life where I have stopped knitting altogether for several years. Looking back, I realize that sometimes this was because I got bored or frustrated with a project and put it down. And because I thought I couldn’t start another project until that project was finished, I didn’t start another project. But I didn’t pick up the project in progress either. I just didn’t knit.

I know academics that have done the same thing. They have months or even years when they just don’t write.

A few years ago I started knitting again. And I met a whole new community of knitters online. And many of those knitters had several projects on the go. Some of them had unfinished projects in their knitting baskets (or cupboards, or under the bed) that had been sitting there for over 20 years.

But they were knitting things. And they finished things.

I tried it. I gave myself permission to knit something else if I didn’t feel like knitting a particular thing. And magically, I started finishing more projects. If I had time to sit and knit, I would pick up the project I most felt like working on at that moment. And I would make progress. It would be closer to finished.

And because every time I sat down to knit I enjoyed it, I found it easier to find time to sit and knit.

If you enjoyed writing, wouldn’t it be easier to find the time?

Think about what you are doing instead. Administrivia? Excessive preparation for classes that you then resent the students for not appreciating? Sitting on more committees?

If you are enjoying meetings more than writing, something needs to change.

Not all time is the same.

Sometimes you have a whole day to devote to writing (or knitting). Sometimes you have an hour. Sometimes you have a week or a month.

And some times of the day are better for creative work than others. Some of us are really productive in the morning. Others are better late afternoon. Others write really well at 2 a.m.

That doesn’t mean that if we have an hour in the wrong time slot that we can’t use it for advancing a writing project. But rather that we can only do our best creative work at certain times of day and that at other times of day we would be better to focus on some of the less creative parts of the writing process. Like proofreading. Or checking references. Or editing.

Not all parts of the project require the same kind of attention

I’m going to go back to the knitting. When I say that I have multiple projects on the go, those projects are not all the same type of project.

Lace is complicated. You have to count and really pay attention. I love to knit lace and find the process almost meditative. But I have to be undisturbed. I can’t knit lace on the bus. Or in the doctor’s waiting room. I need to be alone. No interruptions. And it takes a while to get into the rhythm so it isn’t good for short time periods.

Socks are a different story, especially plain socks where I just go round and round and round for ages. I can knit those almost anywhere, even for very short periods of time. On the bus. In a waiting room. In a meeting. I even know people that knit socks in the dark at the movies.

They are small. They fit in my purse. I can knit comfortably even squished in a bus seat in the winter. I can also knit socks while talking to other people. They are easy to put down and pick up so I can do them when I might be interrupted.

Then there are projects that fall in between. Maybe I need undisturbed time to get them started but once I’ve established the pattern, I don’t mind distractions or interruptions. Maybe parts of a sweater require a lot of concentration but others don’t. And starting a sweater sleeve is much like knitting a sock — small, portable, easy to pick up and put down. But when the sweater gets bigger, it becomes less portable.

Your writing projects are like that, too.

Some stages of a writing project are more intense than others. Sometimes you need a good solid chunk of time to get into it and get the ideas out. Other times, you can work on a small section for an hour and make substantial progress.

Other times, you have a list of little things you need to check that you could work on in 15 minute slots if necessary. You could start on that list during an office hour and not feel bad if students actually come to see you, yet accomplish something if they don’t.

Having several projects on the go, means that you can pick the one most suited to the time available.

And this means that there is more time available for writing. You don’t just have the high quality creative time. Suddenly other bits of your day or week have potential as writing time.

Not only that, but when you get stuck on one project, you don’t have to sit there staring at the page, descending into the spiral of negativity and procrastination. You can put it aside and pick up some other project. A project that is at a more interesting stage. And the fact that you enjoyed that writing time, means that you will continue to make time for writing.

If the key to finishing writing projects is sitting down to write, then whatever you can do to make it more likely that you will sit down to write is a good thing.

Not all aspects of the project are enjoyable

Some knitters have real difficulties with the second sock or the second sleeve. It feels like you’ve already done this and it isn’t so interesting anymore.

And sometimes when you put down a project in frustration it is still in the knitting basket several years later.

Sometimes you have to take the time to spread all the WIPs (Works in Progress) out on the floor and figure out what needs to be done to get them out of the basket. This should be done at least annually.

With academic writing projects, that might be a good activity for transitioning from the teaching dominated winter to the research dominated summer. But whenever you choose to do it, make sure that at least once a year you take an inventory of what projects you have underway and what needs to be done to move them to finished.

You don’t have to finish everything. Hopefully by having the freedom to work on multiple projects at once, you have found more time to write and you have a lot of things on the go. If one or two of those are really not working out, abandon them. Do the equivalent of ripping them out and putting the yarn back in the basket for a different project.

If there are projects that are stuck, try to work out how to get them unstuck.

Is there some aspect of this paper that is not in your area of expertise but is essential to the argument? Find a colleague with the necessary expertise and ask them to collaborate with you.

If you can’t figure out what is blocking you, get some feedback on the draft. Present it at a conference. Or at a brown bag seminar in your department. Send it to a couple of trusted colleagues and ask them for comments. Arrange to go out for a beer with a colleague or a graduate student and talk about the ideas you are working with in this paper.

If the next phase of a particular project is one of the more mundane aspects of preparing a paper for publication, seriously consider hiring a research assistant to do that work. Proofreading. Checking references. Updating the literature review. Fact checking. All of these are within the capabilities of your graduate students and are excellent training in the realities of academic work. No graduate students? Senior undergraduates are capable of some of these things. Acknowledge their contribution in a footnote on the first page.

Good enough is enough

We’ve already talked about this. Some of those papers will be fine. There will always be things you can do to them but at some point you have to let them go.

When you get to good enough, ask a colleague to read the paper and provide feedback. Do the same for them. If there are no major problems, send it off. You will have an opportunity to revise it when you receive the editors and reviewers comments.

And you have other papers to work on while that one is out for review.

Your aim is to have papers in all stages of the process at all times. This is the best way to have a steady stream of things coming out.

Other posts you might find helpful:

Charlie Gilkey, Productive Flourishing, on Heatmapping Productivity

Charlie Gilkey, Productive Flourishing, on Getting to Good Enough

Havi Brooks, The Fluent Self, on the Truth About Procrastination