Writing plan and timing

Academics constantly juggle various writing projects. Some are at the stage of ideas and drafts. Others are returned in the form of proofs. In order to manage the constant flow of projects, manuscripts and deadlines, it’s a good idea to have a long-term writing plan. This enables you to prioritize between different projects and allocate sufficient time to the most important ones. It also enables you to make informed decisions as to when something should be written.

I mainly structure my writing on the basis of semesters. This typically involves 6–7 different writing projects of varying scope. From reviews a couple of pages long to articles consisting of about 25 pages. When working on major projects, such as a second book, I break down my work into chapters. This makes it easier to plan and manage the project. I don’t know how long it takes to write a book. But I have a pretty good idea of how long it takes me to write a book chapter 20–25 pages long. 

My basic principle when writing a number of different projects is “the most important one first.” I use two criteria to determine this: 1) How important is this writing project for my long-term goals and ambitions? 2) When is the deadline? The challenge for most academics is to not forget the first question. Many of our most important projects – our books and applications – don’t have a set external deadline. Nor do they involve any social pressure. An unwritten book or application doesn’t affect anyone else but ourselves. Hence, it is easy to postpone these and focus on things that are more urgent but less important (such as replying to emails). Despite the fact that we all know that this behavior is self-destructive. Or at least career-destructive. 

So, when I drafted my writing plan for the fall before I went on vacation, I started by putting chapter 5 and chapter 6 at the top. I then noticed that November 15 was the deadline for an international revision of my article “Miljöhumaniora på 1960-talet? Birgitta Odéns miljöhistoriska initiativ och skissernas historiografi” originally published in the spring of 2019. This text is to be included in a forum section in History of Humanities and should then be 4,000 words (i.e., about 10 pages; the original version of the text is about 25 pages long). This brought a dilemma to the fore. The Odén article is less important than my book chapters but has a set external deadline. Since I like having margins, I would like to submit it by the end of October. This means that the text needs to be written some time during the first half of the fall. But when is the most convenient time? 

To decide, I used another planning technique that – to the best of my knowledge – doesn’t have a name. The point of this method is to, as far as possible, combine writing tasks with other tasks directly related to these. The aim is to make writing as simple and frictionless as possible. According to this principle, a thesis review should be written in direct relation to an examination. Not six months later. With regard to the Birgitta Odén text, I had known for a long time that I would be presenting my research on her at the major conference on environmental history known as ESEH in Tallinn, August 21–25. This was the only time during the entire fall semester that I knew for certain that I would focus on Odén. When I realized that, the answer to the question when was suddenly simple. The Odén article was to be written first – even though it was not the most important.

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