Articles from our Newsletter

Teach Faster; Write More!

February 24, 2012

Teaching Takes Time that You Could Use for Writing It is easy to spend time on teaching and teaching prep. But how much time should be spent on these activities?  It’s easy to let teaching take up way too much of your time. Let’s look at it from the point of view of Stephen Covey’s …

Write Your Nest Egg

January 27, 2012

What can you learn from financial professionals that will help you be a more productive academic writer? 1. Make long-term and short-term goals Financially Speaking If your long-term goal is to have an extra million dollars when you retire, don’t wait until the year before you retire to put money into that account. A million …

Stop! Put Down that Pencil!!

December 7, 2011

I’ve noticed as I’ve coached hundreds of professors, that so many of you feel burdened by grading at this time of year. That fact moves me to issue the warning I issued regularly at Ithaca College. I hope this perspective speeds up your grading. What you are facing is grading final exams/papers/projects, right? The best …

The Pomodoro Technique ® – Get Your Timer On

August 12, 2011

One day, Francesco Cirillo, a university student in Rome, was sitting in his apartment kitchen. He looked across the table and noticed his tomato-shaped timer. Being Italian, he used the Italian word in his mind: “pomodoro.” He decided that, in order to get himself out of his work slump, he would challenge himself to work …

Academic Exhaustion Syndrome: Four Recovery Strategies

May 13, 2011

By Jayne London, Academic Writing Club Manager & Coach Jayne London, our Academic Writing Club Manager and coach extraordinaire, wrote today’s article, in conjunction with Gina.  There may be some flights of fancy in this article.  Blame those parts on Gina. Jayne is responsible for all realistic information. The semester’s over. If you’re anything like …

You Are The Experiment; Your Behavior is the Data

April 15, 2011

Last week I gave 5 talks in 4 days; two to faculty at UC Berkeley and two to graduate students at the same institution.  The fifth was a talk at Stanford to the engineering graduate students.  Although it sounds like a marathon, it turned out to be a perfectly delightful experience, because of the people …

Stay Out of the Comparison Gutter

March 9, 2011

It is a part of human nature to compare things. Comparisons are helpful: they allow us to take measurements, evaluate for truth, and create expectations. They can make us objective in our thinking, and that thinking can result in beauty and invention. When used to measure our achievements against those of others, however, comparisons can …

15 Tips for Postponing Writing Procrastination

January 11, 2011

15 Tips for Postponing Writing Procrastination By Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D. The Ph.D. of Productivity™ Reno, NV | www.meggin.com Heaven only knows that being writers, we can all procrastinate.  You could probably generate a whole list of ways that you have procrastinated.  But let’s not procrastinate – you’re actually reading this article (and using the ideas …

Ten Ways to Waste Writing Time

October 4, 2010

Hello, “I’m not going to stop the momentum I have from writing this summer.  I know I can write during the academic year.” “I will not wait until a school break to finish this article.  It should have been done yesterday.  I’m going to write every day during this semester.” At the start of the …

Stop Pussyfooting around and Just Say It!

April 22, 2010

Hello, The most common reason for people to join the Academic Writing Club or request coaching is that they are stuck, confused and overwhelmed by their writing projects.  I’m sure you’ve felt this at times – you have a sense of what you want to write, but you just can’t seem to get it “on …

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