10th September

It’s Friday, and it’s a writing day.

No meetings, minimized distractions, and an omnipresence to avoid saying ‘yes’ to anything today. Today, I write. Write, write, write!

Blocking out calendar time to focus on writing sounds desperately simplistic and scarcely worth a mention. Isn’t it obvious? How else is an academic, whose bread and butter is the ability to secure funding from the research that is output in the form of writing, supposed to get things done? As obvious as the writing day may sound, it is nonetheless an important concept for young professionals who are at the peak of their dubious ability to say ‘yes’ to absolutely everything that comes their way.

I first heard about such time management efforts during an early career conference back in 2017. It was my first year and first attempt at independent academic life. I was as stressed as I was intimidated by the room full of other scholars in my generation. Little did I know then that many of them were as petrified of the pursuit as I was. In any case, it was only when I heard a senior professor talking to our early career audience that I understood the power of named, planned, and protected writing days. The commitment in time is the conscious decision that then leads to the type of deep work I’ve spoken about on previous posts.

Alas, hand in hand with considering where those writing days may be for you, is the parallel pursuit of how you might say ‘yes’ less often. How might you say ‘yes’ but only when you mean it, and not when you’re trying anxiously and emptily to impress someone?

Where’s your writing day?

If you have a question for Marc, upload an audio recording for it to be featured on a later Q&A episode!