1. Eight apparently paradoxical tips for writing
more productively during the normal work
week (with less anxiety and guilt)
Ruth Bridgstock
‘You’ve got pussyfooting from 10 to 11,
shilly-shallying until 12, then hemming
and hawing for the rest of the afternoon.’

2. The eight apparently paradoxical tips...
3. Get too many goals
4. You don’t have to do anything
5. Have shorter work periods
6. Don’t aim to finish it
7. Schedule your play time
8. Go have another coffee
9. Fail often
10. Feel like a fraud

3. 1. Get too many goals
Get some writing goals
Get some advice on which goals to pursue
Publish 3 kinds of things:
- what I love to write
- for the benefit of my field
- strategically - for the A*, A outlets
Get too many goals – the principle of ‘structured procrastination’

4. While I was procrastinating about this presentation, I:
- finished a review for Pedagogies: An international journal
- sorted out my flights to the UK in August
- claimed my taxi fares from the Singapore conference
- outlined a book chapter
- applied for some research seeding money
- did a whole bunch of reeeally boring statistical analyses
- had a meeting about writing productivity
- attended a development session about writing productivity
- learned a new Handel aria
- watched a blockbuster movie (terrible) and two episodes
of ‘The West Wing’ (sublime)
- went running twice
- bought a pair of these

5. 2. You don’t HAVE to do
anything
The tyranny of the shoulds:
‘I should’
‘I have to’
‘I must’
The principle of choice... a sense of freedom
‘I choose’
‘I will’
‘I want to’

6. 3. Have shorter work
periods
Chunk projects into bite-sized actions
For incorrigible procrastinators:
keep chunking until you get the terror down to a
manageable level
When you start, aim to try the task for just 5 minutes
Practice your writing every day
No binge writing!!

7. 4. Don’t aim to
finish it
Just keep starting... ‘what can I do now?’
Engage in task quality triage
Q: does it have to be perfect? Can it be just OK? How about
if it’s half-assed?
Can anyone really tell the difference?
reward yourself for starting
(but be careful that extrinsic rewards don’t demotivate you)

8. 5. Schedule your
play time
Get an ‘unschedule’
Enter into an agreement with yourself to enjoy life &
guilt-free play
...which will have the paradoxical effect of making
you more productive at work!

9. 6. Go have another coffee
Get a team together!
The motivational and
educational benefits of
co-authoring
Ru’s PhD writing team
Writing productivity groups – coffee spot is about 3
the carrot and the stick metres in this direction

10. 7. Fail often
You WILL get rejected
- journal acceptance rates
are typically 5 – 30%
Wear your rejections as
badges of honour
Writing is a developmental process.
It’ll be a better piece of work in the end.
NB. Sometimes you will fail at writing productively
EVEN WHEN YOU USE THESE TECHNIQUES!
Dust yourself off and keep going...

11. 8. Feel like a
fraud
‘Imposter syndrome’ and
faking it til you make it
Being open to new learning opportunities
Don’t let uncertainty or the fact that something’s new stop you!!

12. The eight apparently paradoxical tips...
3. Get too many goals
4. You don’t have to do anything
5. Have shorter work periods
6. Don’t aim to finish it
7. Schedule your play time
8. Go have another coffee
9. Fail often
10. Feel like a fraud