In case you follow the writing plan from the previous post...

In case you decide to follow the options in the writing plan in my previous post, I wanted to remind you that we now have gift certificates to the Academic Writing Club. Ask for membership to the Club as a holiday gift, and get something you really need, for a change. The Club will help you implement your writing plan on a daily basis.

Or maybe some nice dissertation advisor or department chair will realize that the Academic Writing Club will increase their graduation rate and decrease time to degree, and give all the graduate students a gift. Well, I can dream, can't I?

The Academic Writing Club Gift Certificate!
Give the gift of peace of mind . . .

Now you can give (or ask those who love you to give you) a gift certificate to the Academic Writing Club. You can give 1, 4, or 12 sessions, each consisting of 4 weeks of membership in the Academic Writing Club.

To learn more, go to (or tell your loved ones to go to): http://writinggift.notlong.com

Or print out and give this hint page (a pdf) to someone who loves you!

How to Shut Off the Overly Busy Mind

When you try to write, do you find that your mind races -- jumps from thought to thought and you just can't seem to settle down and write productively? Well, you're certainly not alone -- my mind simply won't rest.

Our wonderful Writing Club Coach, Rene, has some great ideas for those of us who have an overly busy mind. I think you'll enjoy her tips for how to regain your focus and be more productive with your writing.

Enjoy!

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How to Shut off the Overly Busy Mind
by Rene Hadjigeorgalis, Academic Writing Club Coach
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Have you ever been in a situation where you just could not shut your brain off? This is our tendency to not let it go mentally and to insist on analyzing and re-analyzing something until we have done it to death.

The busy mind is not a good thing. Continuously and obsessively thinking about something to no end doesn't get us our solution. Just like our body, our brain needs rest to function well and to figure out the answers we are looking for. But, you say, I go to sleep and I keep on thinking about it (whatever it is)? Yes, you do, because the busy mind is persistent. It will forge on while you are driving, while you are exercising, while you sleep even! And of course it is alive and well when you are trying to write. How to turn it off? Where's the switch?

The key to quieting the busy mind is to recognize that the brain has a mind of its own (no pun intended). It will keep on thinking and thinking and ignore your inner pleas to at least think about something else! To derail the busy mind, you need to engage the brain in some other thinking activity. Here are some suggestions:

1. Free write This is particularly helpful if you are having trouble concentrating because your brain is stuck on some other issue.

Okay, persistent little brain, here are your 15 minutes. Just write and write without stopping about whatever the issue at hand is. Make a list of what you need to do to deal with the issue. Tell your brain in this writing that you will not forget about the issue, that you are working on it, that there is a solution, but for the next 30 minutes you need to work on something else and then you will come back to think about it. Writing about it gets it out of your brain and onto paper so that your brain can think about something else.

2. Read an entertaining/engrossing book. This is particularly helpful when you retire at night and can't stop thinking about something. Now, to make yourself sleepy you are supposed to read something not so entertaining, but this doesn't work if you have psycho-brain going. Mr. Thinker Brain is just going to get bored with the text and start thinking about the problem again.

By engaging the brain in another interesting activity you distract it from the thinking chain.

3. Play some Sudoku or other kind of thinking game. Personally, I have never gotten the hang of Soduku, but I find it very engrossing and hard to think about anything else while I am playing it. Crossword puzzles and word searches work well also.

4. Do some concentration exercises. Here is my favorite. Pick up a book and a nice sized paragraph and count the number of words in the paragraph without using your finger to follow along. Easy peezy lemon squeezy you say. Ha! Try it and see if you don't have to really concentrate to not lose count.

5. Meditate This is a great practice to cultivate, but meditation won't work for you in your hour of need if you have not already practiced it. Start today, start small (1 minute, 2 minutes). Or take a yoga class and learn there (see below). Meditation is something you definitely want in your toolbox when you are hit with the busy mind.

6. Practice breathing deeply in and out for 5 minutes Set a timer. I have found that when my brain is really in overdrive, 5 minutes doesn't do it, but it is almost impossible not to calm down your mind and body if you continue to take long, slow breaths for 5-10 minutes. 7. Take a yoga class This is also an activity that requires your concentration. I find that it is easy to continue on with the busy mind during a spinning class, but less so in yoga where, quite frankly, you will just fall over. An evening hatha yoga class of about 90 minutes can really do wonders to clear your mind and improve your sleep.

8. If stress is what you are feeling rather than an overactive mind, get some vigorous exercise -- very long walk, run, biking, swimming. It will tire you out and provide a release for all that energy.

What tips or tricks do you use to calm your busy mind?

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If your overly busy mind makes writing a challenge, we have just the answer for you! The Academic Writing Club provides the structure, guidance, accountability, coaching feedback and interactivity with peers that you need in order to write productively.

With the Club you will discover how much more you can get done, and how much less painful writing can be when you have the right support.

In addition to the online program, you will get extra tips on how to become a more productive writer and how to maximize your time in the Club, in our free teleclass, "Six Strategies for Successful Academic Writing."

All this, plus our free telephone group coaching Q & A session, will help you jump start and continue your productive writing throughout the year. (You will receive recordings of both teleclasses in downloadable MP3 format). Just the teleclass and very popular telephone group are worth the Writing Club fee!

Check out the Writing Club at: http://www.academicwritingclub.com/

or to join right away go to:
http://www.academicwritingclub.com/#joinnow

Anti-Procrastination Tips

An Academic Writing Club member recently posted these anti-procrastination techniques on the message board.

Here are the tips I try to use to get myself to work:

1) WARM UP ROUTINE -- Instead of starting with email, news sites, or any of the other things that I find lead to hours of procrastination ... I try to have a "prep time" for writing as warm up:

• I put on the same mix cd each time I write (mental cue)
• Open the diss chapter (NOTHING ELSE except EndNote -- Close email and web browser)
• Then clean off my desk
• Warm up my coffee
• Set the kitchen timer for the min. amount of time I want to write
• Finally -- And this may sound quite odd, I light a prayer candle (I use the Virgin of Guadalupe, because I have deemed her patron saint of anthropologists, given the role she played in colonization and the Catholic church's stance on indigenous Mexicans). Although I am not really religious -- I say a little prayer (a mantra would be good to) to just write something, regardless of whether or not it is good. Then I write.

I find if I get the ball rolling with this routine, it really helps me to actually write.

2) WHY AM I PROCRASTINATING? At the same time, since Friday was a complete loss, I am trying to be more mindful of what I am feeling (or rather, what precisely I am anxious about) when I am avoiding work. If I allow myself to be aware of what I am feeling, I find I can combat it more easily.

3) REWARD CHART See Gina's newsletter this month I give myself points for writing before a certain time, writing a second session, writing a certain length of time. Also, because my problem is too much time, too few outside responsibilities, and isolation from virtually ALL of society -- I give myself points for doing other things, too .... Racking up the points makes me feel good and then I give myself weekly rewards for getting certain levels of points.

4) JUST 10 MINUTES Jayne [Writing Club coach] has a good point about just 10 min ... I find when I completely miss a day the next day is less productive, too. If at least sit down for 15 min, I do better. Likewise, I also will procrastinate until midnight ... and whatever time I spend then isn't as productive, and still makes me feel guilty for wasting the day when I could have done 30 min in the am & had a great day.

5) DRESS FOR WORK Sometimes I find it helps me if I get out of my pajamas, shower, and put on the type of clothes I would wear to campus for a talk or to teach. It gives me the mindset of "going to work" as a professional.

6) BOOK COVER MOCK UP In my case, the goal for my dissertation is to then publish it as my first book ... I made a little mock up of the "book cover" just in Word with clip art -- Printed that out and have it hanging above my desk. A friend of mine who is a screen writer, prints and frames the title page of his scripts before he begins working -- A visual reminder of the end product to get beyond the tedium. I try and take the time to look at the book cover & visualize being at the point where I'll have that friggin book in hand with my name on the cover!

I don't know if any of this will help ...or if sound like a nut case ... but those are my little mind tricks ...when I use them (!), they make a difference.

Writing - a "bone-crushing, nausea-inducing festival of self-loathing"

I love this description of the writing process by Tom Shroder, Editor of the Washington Post Magazine:

I'm sure there are writers who don't find writing to be a bone-crushing, nausea-inducing festival of self-loathing. I just don't happen to be one of them. Faced with a blank screen and a deadline for even the shortest, simplest piece, I am seized with the overwhelming desire to clean out my garage. Or do anything other than writing (up to and including root canal).

The problem seems to be standards. I have some. And I'm terrified I can't live up to them. I've found that to make myself write anything at all, I have to begin by lowering my sights, and simply try to write something bad. Don't even write, I tell myself, just type.

He goes on to introduce a piece on Ralph Ellison, who never finished his second book.

As his page count rose, so, too, did his standards. No matter who told him his work was brilliant, it was never brilliant enough for Ellison.

Actually, I like Tom Shroder's weekly "Editor's Notes". But I'm sure no matter how many times I told him they were brilliant, he'll still be cleaning his garage as the deadline approaches.

Trains and planes: creativity bursts on public transportation

I just got back from a business/pleasure trip to Philadelphia. I took Amtrak from Union Station in D.C. to Philly; a 2-hour train ride. I cannot believe how much work I got done on the train! It's not just the amount of time I spent writing; I was able to revise my book in a much more creative way. What is it about public transportation that is so conducive to creativity, at least writing creativity, for me?

One Writing Club member had this opinion:

I think people get work done on public transportation because we surrender our control to the driver of the vehicle, which frees us to focus on our other concerns. Also, being in a bubble of sorts (a train car, a bus, a car) kind of feels like a safe place. The fact that the trip won't last for ever puts a limit on how much a person will work (an outside timer or sorts).

I agree with everything she says. There is something safe about knowing that you are waiting for a specified period of time, in a place where there are few distractions, that jumpstarts previously blocked areas of the brain. Any other ideas?

I just wish I could bottle it and take a spoonful today...