Up In Consulting

Elevate your writing and move up in your career

Up In Consulting
  • About
  • Elevate
  • Testimonials
  • Blog
  • FAQs

Developing Mindful Writing Goals

  • By Jane
  • January 5, 2015
  • Productivity
  • 0 Comments
Much of the advice around writing productivity focuses on maintaining a daily practice of writing. For many, a daily practice means either writing for a set amount of time every day, or committing to put a specific number of words to paper. While both of these strategies are useful – and necessary so that you can block time off on a calendar – they are not good enough if you want to give careful attention to the content of a project while also moving it forward

I suggest that you not only schedule your writing, but that you also think about the content of your writing as part of your daily output. This means you need to be clear about what your goals are for each writing session. To this end, your objective should not only be to write X amount of words or write for X amount of time. Instead, you should also think about what you will actually put down on paper. Perhaps you are going to put down all of your thoughts on a particular piece of literature for your literature review. Or, you are going to incorporate three respondent quotes into the data section of your qualitative research article draft. Align your quantitative goals with clear qualitative goals.

Aligning a quantitative writing goal with a qualitative goals means we don’t think of writing as just “putting in our time.” Instead, we remind ourselves constantly that writing is mindful work, and that what we actually accomplish in writing isn’t measured in words or minutes. It also insures that you have some ideas to think about after you have completed a writing session. You’re leaving your session on a high note, after you have engaged deeply with an argument or piece of data. You are also primed to set a goal for the next day’s session.

Sitting down for an hour is not the real goal. The time spent is the task necessary to achieve the goal, which is to complete a manuscript. While these quantitative measures are important, you can’t take them to the bank. Nobody will publish your work because you’ve spent 45 minutes a day writing it.

We should write as much as we can, whenever we can. The time spent will make us more confident writers, or at the very least we will dread writing less. But remember, the time spent should be in service to the ideas developed, not the other way around. 

If you need help with time management, developing goals or bringing your goals to your calendar, contact me at [email protected]

Share

Related Posts

Simple Productivity Is Open for Enrollment

June 25, 2020

Mastering Basic Productivity Techniques

June 19, 2020

Using Time Audits to Improve Your Workflow

November 20, 2019

Trash Your To-Do List

November 14, 2019

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Social

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn

Archives

  • October 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • January 2021
  • September 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • June 2018
  • April 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014

Categories

  • Academic Writing
  • Asking For Help
  • Book Reviews
  • Book Writing
  • Editing
  • From Course Paper To Article
  • general-testimonial
  • Goal setting
  • Impostor Syndrome
  • Journal Articles
  • Monday Motivation
  • Overcoming Barriers
  • Planning
  • Productivity
  • productivity-testimonial
  • Quick Tips
  • Revising
  • Saying No
  • Services
  • Stress
  • Uncategorized
  • Writing Tips

Meta

  • Entries RSS
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Productivity
  • Developing Mindful Writing Goals

Let’s get writing.

Subscribe to get the latest writing and productivity tips. Like happy mail for your planner.

Success! Now check your email to confirm your subscription.

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

  • Privacy Policy
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn

© 2022 Up In Consulting

  • Home
  • About
  • Elevate
  • Testimonials
  • Blog