“As I transitioned from a postdoc to a faculty member, the biggest challenge in writing was finding the time to do it as my schedule became very fragmented. Early on, I participated in a 12-week Faculty Success Program with National Center For Faculty Development & Diversity (NCFDD), and they challenged us to write 30 minutes every day. This practice is not only a way to make consistent progress with our writing, but it is also a way to make sure we are engaging with our science daily. When we put our writing aside for weeks, we forget all the connections. But if we are writing every day, even for only 30 minutes, we keep those ideas in our mind for the rest of the day as we are doing everything else a scientist does. We see connections, get new ideas, and the practice allows us to stay in conversation with our writing.
We have to show up for our writing, the same way we show up for our teaching. It is critical for our success, and we have to hold ourselves accountable. Even if we are tired, even if we are not inspired, even if we are sad – we have to show up. Some days we’re going to feel more inspired and we will do more, other days we may not feel that inspired, but we still will have accomplished something.”
This entry was posted
on Saturday, September 24th, 2022 at 5:06 pm and is filed under Writer's Spotlight.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
As I transitioned from a postdoc to a faculty member, the biggest challenge in writing was finding the time to do it as my schedule became very fragmented. Early on, I participated in a 12-week Faculty Success Program with National Center For Faculty Development & Diversity (NCFDD), and they challenged us to write 30 minutes every day. This practice is not only a way to make consistent progress with our writing, but it is also a way to make sure we are engaging with our science daily. When we put our writing aside for weeks, we forget all the connections. But if we are writing every day, even for only 30 minutes, we keep those ideas in our mind for the rest of the day as we are doing everything else a scientist does. We see connections, get new ideas, and the practice allows us to stay in conversation with our writing.