Blog

How to plan your research days

Hello everyone! It’s been quiet here for a bit, not because my drafts folder isn’t full of future posts but because I’ve been on research leave working on a book (yes! it’s the book of the blog!) and I didn’t want to write anything about writing because… well, longterm readers will remember the disaster of the Writing the Article series (the link takes you to the start, but here is the sorry end). That was a great example of failing in public, for which there is absolutely a place. But I’m really excited about this book, and I’m not the only author so I don’t want to let my co-authors down.

BUT: I’ve been on research leave for about a month now, and I’ll be on part time writing leave until Easter, and so I wanted to talk about one planning technique that is absolutely working for me. 

I plan my life via my calendar–but I also find a list useful somtimes too (see this post for more to-do list techniques that actually work). And when I started, I was planning meticulously every day what I would do, what I would achieve etc. Like this:

IMG_1671.PNG

I’m a bit more in the flow of things now, so the March plan is much more barebones, but still, I still try to plan three things for every writing day.

  1. Plan exactly how long I will write for, and what I will write (or edit!).
  2. Some excercise.
  3. A meet up with a friend.

This means I’ll actually get something done every time I sit down to write. Usually I plan to write for 2 hours and produce about 1000 words; but this week I’m focusing on editing instead because I’m half way through one project and nearly finished the other.

It helps give my day structure. It gives me regular rewards. It keeps me mentally and physically healthy. Too often research days disappear into a smear of procrastination and tiny tasks, or they go well and you disappear into the text only to emerge three days later with a bad back and having forgotten how to do human contact. Neither is good for you.

Job applications, examining and peer reviewing also count as writing or editing time, so I’m factoring in all the things I’ve promised to submit and read this month too–I have a PhD thesis to read, a short story competition to judge, and some posters to review for a conference this week on top of editing my own work.

Excercise can be going to the gym or a yoga class (and generally I’m finding a class is a very good way to make sure I don’t forget!), but it can also be a walk or some gardening.

This plan is simple enough to work, flexible enough to work for your life, and sustainable. I hope it helps you when you next have a day, a week or a few months to do some research!

 

SHARE

Succeeding in a Research Higher Degree

Doing a Research Higher Degree (like a PhD) is hard, but lots of people have succeeded and you can too. It’s easier if you understand how it works, this blog gives you the insider view.

Contact

Related Posts

The blog is back

Not only is Writing Well and Being Well for your PhD and Beyond now in to my publishers, but we have a publication date and a preorder link.

Read More

The story of my thesis

If you have ever been to one of my workshops in the last decade, you will probably have done this warm up. In fact, if you came to a multi-day writing retreat I ran, you would have done this at the beginning of each day. It is the most powerful, most flexible, simplest tool in my writing tool box.

Read More

How to unstick your reading list

As I was getting to the end of the recent book, I was buying books at my usual pace but not reading them (as that brainspace was completely taken up with reading my own draft or references for the draft).

Now the book is in and the summer has started, I felt excited to dive into all these books but I also felt stuck. I couldn’t get into gear, let alone find my groove.

So I rummaged around in my toolbox, and came up with this list of techniques. None of them are perfect, but little by little we are turning the dial back to reading.

Read More

Get the latest blog posts