Up In Consulting

Elevate your writing and move up in your career

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

How to Make Time for Your Scholarship

  • By Jane
  • September 10, 2020
  • Uncategorized
  • 0 Comments
How to Make Time for Your Scholarship

Do you feel like you have enough time for your scholarship right now? Are you worried that you won’t be able to make time for your writing until you’re back in your favorite coffee shop, latte in hand and “concentration” playlist queued up? You don’t have to wait for the stars to be aligned to get back to your writing. In fact, there are a few things you can do right now to get writing back on your calendar. 

 

Stop worrying about your slides.

 

I can say with a lot of certainty that many of you are agonizing over your remote teaching. You’re researching the best microphones, light rings, and screen recorders for your online courses. I’ve seen video trailers for courses and all sorts of fancy slide decks. 

 

If this is fun for you, do it. But no not allow a perfectionist fantasy to lead you down the “perfect image for this slide” rabbit hole. Develop a slide template and shift your focus to being present for your students. Buy the top-rated microphone in your price range and move on. I wrote about effective course prep here. Being a supportive, empathetic instructor is what matters right now, and that requires minimal preparation.

 

Schedule your work session as a meeting on your calendar. 

 

I have a client who gave his writing time a name and made it a recurring appointment. That way, when people ask him if he’s busy, he says yes, because he has a meeting. You can do the same. It’s up to you to honor this meeting, so set an intention for what you’d like to accomplish during the work session. You’ll be more motivated to work if you have a reason to work. 

 

Establish your MVS – Minimum Viable Session

 

This isn’t the time for aspirational writing goals. Set a minimum viable session, or the smallest amount of work you can do to feel as if you accomplished something. It can be touching your work three times a week or working on your research for 30 minutes a day. Make sure the MVS is realistic so you don’t give yourself reasons to dismiss it. In fact, you can make it so low that you’d feel uncomfortable not doing it. 

 

Here’s an example: I’ve been journaling every day for the past 60 days. My MVS is a single sentence. That’s it! When I look back on my writing, there are just a few days where I only wrote one sentence. But that carrot of the single sentence made any excuse I came up with laughable. After all, it was only a sentence! Two months later, I can say I have a journaling practice, and I feel downright prolific. 

 

Decide where you’ll slack.

 

I’ve been reading the book Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done by Jon Acuff and he uses the term strategic incompetence, first developed by Josh Davis in his book Two Awesome Hours. Acuff states that to implement strategic incompetence, “you need to decide ahead of time which activities in life you’re going to be bad at” (37). Now, before I move on, let me be clear: not everyone has the luxury of messing up. Some people — namely minoritized individuals or people with no seniority — are severely sanctioned for the slightest mistakes. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t identify the places you can slack with little adverse consequence. 

 

Here are two places I slack: First, I rarely straighten my desk. I’ve decided this isn’t a priority for me. I also limit my weeknight cooking. I’ve become strategically incompetent at food preparation! This means I buy frozen vegetables because they don’t require chopping or cleaning, and I stick to a fairly predictable menu during the week. Less work in the evening also means more time to relax. You might be asking yourself what the hell that has to do with writing. Well, I’m not sitting at my desk during the day dreading all the cooking I have to do. I’m also limiting the decisions I have to make which alleviates stress and increases focus. Finally, I’m relaxing in the evening so I’m refreshed in the morning. You write more efficiently when you’re feeling refreshed, right? 

 

Within the next week, I encourage you to try at least one of these tactics. Then, write about the outcome. How did you feel? What did you write? How will you maintain your new habit? 

 

Which tactic will you try first? 

Share

Related Posts

The Differences Between Academic Articles and Book Chapters

May 5, 2021

The Difference Between Dissertations And Books

April 14, 2021

Effective Writing Plans for Books

February 27, 2020

How Long Does It Take to Write an Academic Book?

February 20, 2020

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
  • Uncategorized
  • How to Make Time for Your Scholarship

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

© 2023 Up In Consulting

  • Home
  • About
  • Elevate
  • Testimonials
  • Blog