Squeezing Time Out of an Empty Clock
How to work on your book when you're busy
Aaaaaand it’s Monday again!
In the spirit of sharing all parts of this trek towards (possible) publication, I thought you should know that I did not have an ounce of time to write, research, or even plan this past week. But to keep the crazy ink monster—who lives inside my soul and insists that I work on this book—at bay, I did a few things that might be helpful for you too when you inevitably run out of time in a given week.
Ways to use every droplet of free time
Scour the internet and do very preliminary research to keep the ideas flowing and the motivation up. More likely than not, you probably have a smartphone near you at all times…so put it to work! Instead of scrolling through [your most guilty digital pleasure], look up that concept you’ve been thinking about or publishers that you’ve been wanting to look into. To keep this research limited to the droplet of time you have between Zoom meetings, dog walkings, or kid picking ups, only look something up that you don’t have to write down. If it’s really important research, then save it for a chuck of time that you ideally already have scheduled. Don’t try to jam it into the 5 minutes you have before the lasagna burns.
Talk it up. One of the best things I did this week was to bring up my book idea to a friend of mine who also happens to be a scholarly writer (maybe you know some people like this). I told him very simply what was bothering me most about the process at the time—what kind of book to write—and we ended up having a short but illuminating conversation about the pros and cons of academic book publishing. I was really surprised to hear his perspective on it, especially when he said that he wouldn’t pursue a university press if he wasn’t going for tenure. His reasoning behind it was that the amount of labor that goes into an academic text, without the prize of tenure at the end, isn’t worth it. I’m not sure I agree entirely but he does make an important point. A train of thought to be continued elsewhere.
Write every thought down. If I don’t write things down, I forget them. I know this about myself and yet I still think I can get away with not taking notes if I just think about something harder. This never works and I always regret it because some of the best ideas, or sparks of an idea, arrive precisely when I least expect them, which also happens to be when I’m least prepared to write them down. If you have a phone that you can take notes on, that’s very helpful. I personally prefer the actual act of writing things out, there’s something about that action that commits the idea to memory differently and allows me to recall it more quickly. But I advocate for any method that you have at your disposal so long as it allows you to write that shit down.
Those are my tips for recouping every last bit of time juice from the work-week clock. Let me know if you have other strategies that work for you and if you get a chance to try any of the ones I mention here!
Happy Mondaying.