#22: How Academics Can Make a Summer Writing Plan That Actually Works

Do you always start your summer with grand ambitions, only to look back at the end of the summer and realize you only finished half of what you planned? If you’re ready to stop making unrealistic plans, this episode is for you. 

Here’s what Jane will discuss: 

💡The thoughts that are driving you to make unrealistic plans: “I need to catch up,” “I should write all day,” and “I should work on everything” — and how to change them. 

💡The two goals you should set so you can determine if your writing plans are realistic. 

💡Why having a restful summer is important, especially right now. 

Further listening: 

Episode 13: Why Waiting for a Sabbatical to Write Your Book Could Be Holding You Back 

📝 Ready to turn your dissertation into a publication-worthy scholarly book? Learn how you can join Elevate by visiting rightprose.co/elevate/

📲 Let’s Connect! Say hi on BlueSky and share your favorite gem from this episode. I’d love to hear your thoughts!

💗 Spread the inspiration. Know someone who would benefit from some guidance on their book-writing journey? Share this episode with them!

 ✉️ Want even MORE bookish advice, right in your inbox? Sign up for Shelf Help, the newsletter with actionable tips for scholarly writers. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome to Academic Book Writing Simplified. I'm your host, Jane Joanne Jones, a writing coach and developmental editor who's here to give you some tough love about the way you write. This podcast is for women and non-binary scholars in academia who are writing academic books, but feel as if the process is a little or a lot like a mystery. If you're ready to trade your confusion and frustration for ease, clarity, and purpose, you're in the right place. Let's head into today's episode. Hello, hello, and welcome to Academic Book Writing Simplified. I'm your host, Jane Joanne Jones. And today we are going to talk about summer writing plans. And, you know, I'm a little salty that we're talking about summer right now because it's about 40 degrees in New York and it does not seem like summer is ever coming. But it will. And it's going to be soon for academics, because by the time this is published, it'll probably be late April, and a lot of people will be winding down their semesters. So the reason I think it's important to talk about summer writing plans specifically is because they tend to be fraught. Because folks get all sorts of ideas in their heads about what they should be doing with all of their free time. And I say that with a hint of sarcasm because you don't have as much free time as you think during the summer. I see a lot of unrealistic plans. And then I witnessed the panic midway through the summer when academics realize that they cannot possibly get all of this work done that they planned because it's actually impossible. I don't want that for you. So in today's episode, I'm going to discuss some principles that should help you make a plan that will actually work. So here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna review some bad ideas about summer writing, and then we're going to replace them with better ideas so that you can make a plan that you actually feel good about and not one that is going to make you stressed before you even finish grading your final exams. Okay, so let's talk about it. The first bad idea, the one I hear the most that I want you to really erase from your brain, if you can, is that you need to catch up this summer. So this is not only a bad idea, but it's the mother of all of the other bad ideas we're going to discuss. I hear a lot of folks say this, and it's incredibly counterproductive because it reinforces the idea that you're behind. And that thought, I'm behind, is unhelpful. It makes you feel bad about your work. It makes you feel unproductive, and it makes you feel fearful, fearful that you won't reach the deadlines that you have to reach. And that's not the attitude you want to bring to writing. Think about how you write when you're stressed, when you're worried, when you feel like nothing's going anywhere. But that's not the right energy, right? And stress might give you, you know, a very quick, fleeting rush of adrenaline that can help you work faster for, say, a deadline that's like tomorrow, but it's not going to help you write for any sustainable amount of time. So you do not want stress to be your primary motivator for the entirety of your summer writing. So something I coach book writers on all the time is approaching your work from a place of neutrality. And that just means that you don't editorialize about it. So you don't focus on the fact that you're behind. You don't necessarily make things up and say, oh my God, I'm so far ahead of schedule. You just look at your work and think, I have work to do. That's it. Without any judgment about whether the work is going quickly or slowly or on schedule or not on schedule. Of course, you know that, but you don't have to remind yourself every time you sit at your desk. So approaching your work again from this place of neutrality. I have work to do. That's it. Try that instead of the I'm behind. Bad idea number two, that because you have a lot of time during the summer, you should write all the time during the summer. For instance, you should write for eight hours a day. Your whole workday should be devoted to writing. Okay, no, you're not going to go from no writing to all of the writing. You're not a Maserati. You're not a fancy sport car. You can't go from zero to 60 in 30 seconds. So you're also not going to go from scratching out four hours of time to write each week during the semester to immediately starting summer and writing for four to five hours a day. It's not gonna happen. And it's okay. You'll work your way up to longer writing sessions. And I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, I don't have time for that. I have to jump right in. But if you can't, then pretending that you can is really not going to lead to any positive outcomes. So figure out how you can start. Start there and then work your way up. And honestly, this working your way up, it's not going to take that long. Okay. So don't think that, you know, it's going to take months before you can sit down and focus. Once you get back into it, it will come to you relatively quickly. But don't put pressure on yourself for it to happen immediately. Okay. And I'm going to tell you how to structure your workday in a little while. So just sit tight. Bad idea number three. You should work on a lot of different projects during the summer, especially from a book writer's. So should you work on a lot of different projects during the summer? Should you have multiple articles in your pipeline, which is the conventional advice? Should you be working on your book plus thinking about your second book, plus planning a grant proposal, plus getting ready for a conference? And the answer is maybe. I know academics, like most workers under capitalism, want to glamorize being busy. And being busy generally means doing a lot of things at the same time. Summer, however, is an opportunity to do some deep work on your book. And you may not have this opportunity at other times of the year. Now, if you've been listening to this podcast, you know that I don't think you should wait until you have deep work time to start working on your book. There are plenty of book-related tasks that you can get done that don't require deep work. However, I also think you should be opportunistic when deep work is available to you. So if you have the time, you should use it to your advantage. And only you can decide what to your advantage means. Does it mean you're going to spend the bulk of the summer working exclusively on your book? Does it mean you're going to divide your time between two projects? And that might be really good for focus reasons as well. You may not be able to or want to focus exclusively on one project for the whole summer. That might not be how your brain works. And that's completely fine too. Or you might have co-authors that you're collaborating with. Again, this is why it's a maybe you should, maybe you shouldn't. But don't do it just to prove that you're productive or that you're busy or that, hey, I have a lot of irons in the fire. Is that the saying? I have a lot of irons in the fire. Do it because there's a meaningful reason behind you using your very precious summer writing time on more than one project. Okay. So how do you set yourself up for success during the summer? Here's how we're gonna start. First, you're going to establish some goals, a baseline goal and an aspirational goal. And this is going to help you with that bad idea number one, I need to catch up. Because you're gonna bring some reality to your planning. What do you need to have done by the end of the summer that is non-negotiable? Like this has to be done. I have to submit a proposal to my editor. I have to get my editor those two chapters I promised. What is the baseline? And then what's in an aspirational goal? What would be amazing to have done by the end of the summer? It would be great if I had three chapters. Like I really need to refine these two that are in progress. It would be great if I can get a rough draft of a third one. But then I want you to create hypothetical work plans for each of these goals. For the baseline goal or for the aspirational goal. To see what it would require for you to reach them. Often we get into the I have to finish X by Y date, and that's it. We don't think of the work required. We just dive in. And then again, midway through, we're like, there's no way I'm gonna get this done. So let's nip that in the bud and establish our hypothetical work plans early so we can see what we're actually capable of getting done. Next is to structure your workday properly. So remember how I said you probably won't be writing for four or five hours the minute summer starts? That doesn't mean there isn't other book-related work you can do. Be strategic about your time. Think about the reading, the data analysis, going back to collect new data, researching presses if you're submitting a book proposal, copy editing work that's almost done. Maybe you're in a writing group and there's time to read your colleagues' work. Think of all the things you can do during your workday and then structure accordingly. Maybe you want to protect your mornings, for instance, for uninterrupted writing time. And maybe you need to leave your house to do that. Think about what an ideal workday would look like, and then try to structure as many of those ideal work days as possible. And finally, saving this for the end because it's so important. Incorporate rest this summer. The semester's been a hellscape. I know I'm not supposed to curse here, but I'm cursing. It's been awful. There's no shame in taking a break to rest and recover. You should, I'm telling you, do it. In fact, you should schedule rest throughout the summer. And you can decide what that looks like. Maybe on Fridays you're going to work a half day. Maybe you're going to take a week off at the beginning of the summer, midway through, and again towards the end. Maybe you're going to do all of those things, but you should incorporate rest. That should be non-negotiable to you. And we all know that when we rest, we can show up better for work. We like to forget. It is amazing how many people I tell us soon they're like, oh yeah, that is true, even though I I don't like to admit it. It's true. There's no book worth writing that sacrifices your health and your well-being. Okay? So make sure you get that rest. It's good for you overall. And if you need an instrumental reason, you will think better when you're well rested. So there you go. There's your permission. All right. So I hope you take this advice. Go work on a summer writing plan. And as always, I will see you in the next episode. Take good care and talk to you soon. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. Remember, writing an academic book is challenging, but that doesn't mean you have to overcomplicate it. If you liked what you heard in today's episode, please leave a review. This helps get the word out about the podcast so more people will listen and we can continue the conversation. Take care and tune in for our next episode.