7 Writing Tips for Summer

This time last year I was just starting to write my dissertation. Crazy how time flies! I had held my colloquy in late April at the end of the semester, and then spent May doing some additional reading and research, trying to fix the kinks in my prospectus and figure out how to start my dissertation. By June I knew I needed to start writing, but I was tired, I wanted to sleep and enjoy summer vacation, and between my dissertation and teaching summer school I was just a scatterbrained mess. I needed to turn things around quick.

In June it still feels like you have ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD ahead of you. Especially if your uni doesn’t start until late August or early September. But you don’t have that much time. So now that I’m on the other side of things I thought I’d share my tips for how to stay focused and motivated on your research and writing over the summer so you actually get stuff done.

1. Create a summer work schedule

I used my bullet journal to track my schedule.
Use whatever planning system you prefer, but
get that time blocked out!

During the semester finding writing time feels a little easier. We have more things on our schedule so finding a couple hours here and there to write just seems to happen. In the summer, we often lose some of that structure to our schedule. In June last year I literally had nothing on my schedule. Summer school didn’t start until July. So I wanted to make a big push with my writing throughout June so that I’d hopefully get a good amount done before summer school started and build some momentum. In a meeting with my dissertation chair she gave me some priceless advice. For 2-3 hours every weekday focus on the diss. Write as much as possible in that time, but even if you spend that time reading through your notes or working on your bibliography, spend 2-3 hours every weekday on the diss. I’ve mentioned my chronic illness, fibromyalgia can be a real jerk when it comes to productivity, but I could almost always manage 2-3 hours every weekday. So I created a schedule that had me at my desk from 12-3pm, Monday through Friday. If you work better in the morning, you might choose 7-10am, if you’re a night owl, you might prefer 8-11pm. Find the time that works for you…and stick with it. If for some reason you need to do something else during that time, you reschedule it. But every weekday you work for at least 2 hours, 3 is best. Some days I did 4, but academic research and writing is hard, brain draining work, so don’t overdo it. The only time I went over the 3 hours was when I was really riding a wave with the writing and didn’t want to interrupt the flow.

2. Set measurable goals and action steps

Sorting through your sources takes longer than you
think, so plan more time for your tasks than you
anticipate needing. Best case scenario, you end
up with extra time on your hands if you get it
done faster!

So this breaks down into both goals for the summer and daily goals (which is where the action steps come in). If you’re just starting, your summer goal might be to sort through/code all your data or write your lit review chapter. Trust me when I say that things will take longer than you think, so don’t do like I did and think you’ll have the whole diss drafted by the time the semester starts. My lit review chapter took me forever! Longer than it should have but I’ll mention that more below. Use the summer to get through your biggest, most complicated tasks. Looking back if I had been more focused I could definitely have gotten through at least 3 full chapters (including the lit review), instead I think I managed 1 and a half lol. My goals weren’t attainable, that made it hard to stay focused. Learn from my mistakes.

Once you have your big goals, break them down into smaller goals and action steps, that will become your task list for the summer and will tell you what you need to do on a daily and weekly basis. Having smaller tasks that can be completed each day and each week will make it easier to stay focused on your work and get things done, and feel like you’re making progress. As for my daily goals, it was always to work for 3 hours, and try to get at least 1,000 words. Some days those thousand words took me all 3 hours to squeeze out. Others I got them done in one hour. On those days I either wrote some more, or I read my sources, reviewed my notes, outlined the next section, whatever felt like the most productive thing. And I always stopped for the day with a solid idea of what I would come back to the next day.

3. Choose your environment wisely

My desk was decked out with new motivational art,
candles, and desk accessories.

At the start of the summer, I moved my desk around, moving in front of the window so I’d get some natural light and also be able to see the trees outside my apartment. Considering how hot an Arizona summer is, this helped me feel a little less trapped and isolated in my apartment throughout the summer. So, take some time to sort out work work space. If you have a home office or desk, clean up any clutter that accumulated over the spring semester. Maybe give your space a refresh with some new stationary or desk supplies. If you have children who will now be at home all day, everyday, consider working outside the home (if you can arrange child care or if your kids are old enough to be on their own for a couple hours). You could work in your office on campus (if you have one), your uni library, a local public library, or a coffee shop. I don’t have kids, but I did often work on my diss in Starbucks once a week or so just for a change of view. Whether you work at home or out somewhere else, you might want to invest in a good pair of headphones. They’re good for drowning out kids playing, coffee shop chatter, or in my case almost daily landscaper noise. (Side note: anyone else live in an apartment complex where the landscapers seem to be out there everyday? Ugh.) I also made a couple playlists to listen to while writing and found some nice candles to burn on my desk while working. Create your own little oasis/bubble to work in.

4. Find the balance

This was my list at the start of the summer lol,
eventually I found the right balance. But it is summer,
so give yourself time to rest and relax too.

Balance is important. You can’t play all day, but you also can’t work all day. Throughout the summer I made sure to read a couple novels, go to the movies, sleep in, make videos for my YouTube channel, and just generally enjoy summer (as much as you can when it’s 115 degrees outside). I didn’t work more than those 3 hours a day, that left a lot of time to do other things. So don’t give up going to the gym, relaxing by the pool, reading for fun (yes, that does exist), cooking yummy meals, or whatever else you enjoy. And when you’re working, balance what kind of work you do. I never wrote for 3 hours straight. I would usually write for 1-2 hours and then review my notes/outline or reread sources. The few days that I found myself working extra long days I always felt exhausted and drained the next day. So find the right balance for you and stick with that.

Related to balance. I didn’t work on the weekends. I gave myself Saturday and Sunday off completely. Whether you take the weekends off or not, try to give yourself at least one day a week when you don’t have to work. 

5. Be social

Get out in the sun and fresh air. Don't
stay stuck inside all the time.

Don’t isolate yourself. It might be tempting to shut yourself away all summer and just focus on writing. That would be a mistake. Meet friends for coffee. Go out the movies with your family. Reconnect with people you haven’t seen since winter break because you’ve been so busy during the spring semester. In between writing sessions I scheduled lunches, dinners, coffee dates, movie dates, shopping trips, etc with friends and family. Not every day, but at least once or twice a week. And you can fit this in with other things you do to find balance (as discussed above). Hang out by the pool with a friend, go to the gym or a yoga class with your friends, cook with your family. I don’t have a family of my own, but my parents and sister live in the Phoenix as well. So I had lunch every Sunday with my mom and sister and then did my weekly grocery shopping with my mom after lunch. I would work on my diss at my parents house one day a week so I could hang out with their dogs and have a change of scenery. You can also mix work time with social time. If you have any friends in your program who are also working on their dissertations or another any of the million steps we take to get there, arrange to have weekly coffee chat/work dates at a coffee shop or take turns working at each other’s homes. Some days I liked being by myself to focus, but at least a couple times a week it was nice to see another human being.

6. Take care of yourself

Lazy mornings in bed with coffee is what
got me through the summer.

Sleep. Eat. Drink water. Move your body. Do what you need to do to take care of yourself. There’s the general things you need to do to keep your body functioning. Eating, staying hydrated, getting enough sleep, and moving. I’m not saying you have to do an intense workout (yeah, that’s hard for me to do with fibro). But stretching, yoga, a walk around your neighborhood, whatever you like to do will help you survive long stretches at your desk. And when you’re working, make sure you get up every 30 minutes or so and stretch or walk around your home. Don’t sit for 3 hours straight, your body will hate you for it.

But there’s also the things that keep your mind functioning and happy. This is where self-care comes in. Take regular showers and baths. It didn’t matter that no one saw me most days, I still felt much better with fresh, clean hair. Pay attention to skincare (if that’s your thing). Let yourself sleep in and/or have breakfast in bed a couple times a week. Watch a movie or binge watch a series on Netflix on the weekends. Meditate. Read your favorite blogs or watch your favorite YouTube channels. Don’t sacrifice the things you enjoy doing and that keep you happy. Healthy body + healthy mind = a productive writer.

7. Don’t try to be perfect. Write now, edit later

Above I mentioned that I spent too long working on my lit review chapter and didn’t make as much progress as I’d hoped. I got too hung up on making that first chapter perfect. It was never going to be perfect on the first go. I should have just slapped it all together, edited it quickly, and sent it off. Instead I agonized over it for far too long and got myself confused. So just write. Edit later. It’s much easier to work with text once it’s written. And it’s easier to edit in small bursts of time, whereas writing takes a longer, more focused work session. So write now, edit later. Take advantage of having more time in the summer than you’ll have when the fall semester starts.

Ok, that wraps up my best advice for staying focused on your writing over the summer. If you haven’t read my post on Academic Writing tips you can read that here. And my Dissertation Desk series, with all the lessons I learned throughout the dissertation process can be found here. They might help you with some of the things that I haven’t covered in this post. If you found this post helpful, I hope you’ll share it with other grad students. Stay focused and happy writing! 

Until next time,

Andrea

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