Six week writing experiment

 Last week I used some of my research time to reflect on the six week experiment I've been doing thanks to Helen Sword's book on academic writing and to my colleague who let me borrow her copy when I first came across it while cat sitting over the summer. 

A slow starter by nature, I paused for quite some time on Sword's first chapter and its tasks, specifically, a combination of her suggestions to 'experiment with writing at different times of the day' and to 'write at a time that feels "wrong."' The idea here is to try and make new habits and to see whether writing frequently (and thus not waiting for the perfect time and space in which to write / research) can work for me.

After frowning at my diary a lot, I decided to try and schedule this 'wrong time' writing for 1 hour every morning before work (5 days a week) and to keep half an additional day per week for research too. For the past few years I've already been working towards having 2 x half days of research rather than putting all of my eggs in the once-per-week-research-time basket (a certain fail for me). I planned to try this for four weeks and then adjust if it wasn't working. In actuality I ended up doing a six week experiment instead, as two of the weeks right in the middle were interrupted by temporarily moving house and some extra admin at work. 

The six weeks of writing in the morning was difficult for many reasons but I persevered, battling several demons along the way. In short I found the following:

1. Despite feeling regularly uncomfortable about the time slot I'd chosen (9-10am), I actually stuck to the schedule and began looking forward to it.

2. Despite the struggle to get started at this 'wrong' writing time for me, after the first 10 minutes each day, the time ceased to matter and I became absorbed in my research & writing.

3. Because I kept track of how long I actually wrote for, why I couldn't write for the whole time when that happened, and what I accomplished / worked on each time, clear patterns became visible. This was exceptionally helpful when I came to the point of pause & reflect at the end of six weeks. The advice to track some of these details also came from Sword.

I've now moved on to Sword's chapter on 'Rhythms and Rituals' and it fits where I want to go with the next phase of the experiment. I've tweaked a few things and for the next month I plan to research / write only 3 x per week instead of every work day, but for slightly longer sessions each time. This change will address the biggest issue that's cropped up--that 1 hour isn't enough time to sink my teeth into some of the bigger tasks I have, and that the half day I try to keep for research is the day most likely to be disrupted in my week.

Still, my focus is changing; I no longer feel I need to 'save up' research time and only write in 1-2 very long stretches per week. Also quite a surprise is that I've decided to keep going with the mornings. The time of day still feels 'wrong' for me--I am definitely not a morning person, and my chronic migraines mean that I wake up with a skull full of sand or fog (depending on the day), but the building of this ritual has been so positive, any discomfort of timing melts away quickly and makes it time worth using for research. It's also a welcome rejuvenation to each work day I start focused on my own writing instead of diving straight into emails or meetings. I'm excited to see how it goes!