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00:00:04
alrighty so before i begin one second all right there we go my keys are getting stuck before i begin speaking about writing practices i want to let you know
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about the graduate writing center and the services we offer as part of the gwc's online services this fall we offer 50-minute
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writing consultations writing groups that meet each semester boot camps for thesis and dissertation writers and of course writing workshops our next workshop
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will cover writing diversity statements and will be held on thursday october 8th from 2 to 3 p.m via zoom so to learn more about the gwbc
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services and to make an appointment for a writing consultation please visit our website so a few goals for today's workshop i would like us to first identify common
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characteristics of productive writing practices then build an awareness of our own writing processes and practices next i would like us to develop
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strategies that can help us maintain productive writing practices and finally we'll discuss some strategies for remaining productive when working remotely now um as i'm talking um since i'm
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sharing the screen i cannot see the chat so if you have questions please feel free to type your questions or comments into the chat and we'll respond to them
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in due course all right so i would like us to first identify um some common characteristics
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of productive writing practices um then oh wait hold on a second i am lost all right so let's take a moment to think about our personal writing proc uh processes
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and think about our own writing now and to say these are unprecedented times would be an understatement as professional academics
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as writers there are so many things calling for our attention these days for me grading oftentimes piles up i need to prepare for next week's
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lectures and my own research and writing demands more of my focus every day on top of that in between conference calls
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daily news updates social media and distractions around the house um i'm i personally am finding it hard to focus and consequently i keep pushing my writing back one
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or sometimes two or three days at a time and perhaps says writers um you've experienced something similar you know um so you've had similar
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moments these past six months where all this external stimuli has made it difficult for you to remain focused on your writing and stay productive what i would like us to do is to take a
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few minutes to think about our own writing processes and practices so first what have those writing processes been recently how have you been approaching your writing projects
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second what is effective about your current writing processes and practices and finally what would you like to learn or change about your writing processes and practices and you can either unmute
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yourself and share your responses or you can type them in the chat and we can discuss them so let's talk about
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processes and practices what have um things been like for for people have you approached your writing
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um what what's been most effective about your writing recently or is there anything that you hope to change or learn
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oh so hello luke um we have some things in the chat that uh some really good ideas people are mentioning if you'd like to share some of that yes absolutely yeah
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so matthew said um he is struggling the most with focus as you mentioned i think all of us relate to that uh katie i had to go to my office hours just to get enough quiet to folk yeah so
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trying to find that space where we can focus susie mentioned writing at the end of the day is too exhausting i hope to write in the mornings susie i can relate to that i'm a morning writer
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myself it's hard to find the time sometimes with everything being so busy but yeah i hope you can work that out that's ideal for me as well christina i had a bad habit of using the
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crunch time panic to propel me through papers rather than starting them early and giving them time to fully develop before a final draft so yeah kind of scheduling things and keeping yourself on schedule
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can definitely relate to that struggling with routine getting into that good writing routine ginger mentions that allowing myself to slip past daily deadlines and pushing them to my
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to tomorrow so that kind of inevitable procrastination just because things are so crazy now uh michael mentions the most effective thing about my writing is the increased use of preliminary
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outline to guide the research so yeah definitely using some of those um outlining techniques as part of your writing process it's very productive christopher
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mentions i've just now returned to school after a long break so i'm trying to get back in the swing of things christopher i can relate i was out of school for almost 10 years before i returned to graduate school it's definitely a
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transition give yourself a pat on the back just for doing what you're doing right matthew definitely agrees with christina uh so natura christina mentions i'm concerned about managing a dissertation
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which is a huge a huge thing apa citations focus so having to write things that are very detailed um struggling to always put my thinking
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and writing and also focus so i think focus is a big um a big thing that's developing here uh michelle mentions i don't have a
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writing process that's why i'm here i just write once a day but that is a process michelle i think that's a very good process just writing once a day but yeah there are so many messages in the chat link i can't
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possibly get to them i just wanted to say well you know that's that's great and it's great that you're all actively reflecting on how you've been approaching writing recently
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and some of the and being aware of some of the things that you know you might need to overcome and yeah these are some things we'll be certainly talking about today i know for myself my own writing process has been kind of
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slow um between grading and preparing for lectures as i said those have been taking up more and more of my time especially as the semester gets
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further and further along and so my finding my time being spent elsewhere in the classroom on blackboard and so that's time that i have to you know take
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inventory of and decide well how can i best maintain my own productivity while i'm reaching out to students and helping them with theirs good um anything else any questions
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so far before we move onward great wonderful so let's start thinking about some strategies for productive writing shall we um
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you know it's important to note that productive writing practices are mindful and they're reflective we should be aware of our practices as we've been doing in the present moment but we should also
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reflect on those practices and consider what does or doesn't work for us also productive practices are goal oriented and process oriented
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whenever we write especially in the context of academia we write with a goal in mind right we write to finish that dissertation chapter that
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article submission that conference paper it's also important that we understand the process about writing whenever starting a new writing project it's helpful to see the big picture and view writing
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holistically in order to map out and complete each step in the process to achieve our goals as well productive practices are those we engage with on a regular
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basis so we can keep writing and meet our goals it goes without saying that productive writing practices should be sustainable so we can keep returning to the to the same practices that work for us
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time and again in your opinion what might some other characteristics of productive writing practices be what if you you used in your own experiences
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or been taught as an undergraduate graduate student professional i look we have some answers in the chat coming in so mentions persistence which
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i can definitely relate to oh yeah i've always said it it's um it's a marathon not a sprint right exactly exactly and then following guidelines rubrics being disciplined
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um persistence yes use of annotated bibliography i love that i love it yeah any kind of organizational tools those are great um writing daily but it's tough to stick
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to it of course right every day for at least 15 minutes all right yeah you can do it if you're doing it daily that's going to be great so those are some of the things in the chat great wonderful yeah those are all
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important elements of being productive and you know maintaining our productivity as writers whether it is following a prompt or a rubric that our instructors
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hand down to us or if it is just writing for those 15 minutes a day um you know that's certainly progress and that's something that i you know certainly advocate for if we can find the time to write no
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matter how long it how long or short that time is then that's progress in my in my opinion good good good so
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let's briefly return to mindfulness in writing for a moment you know when we consider productive writing practices or what we think productive writing practices are it's important to consider what
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our current writing practices you know what what our current writing practices um are doing for our own productivity um as well as what you know what you know
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those little processes are that can help us achieve our goals so we can best identify what practices will work for us in the future you know it goes without saying that
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all writing practices are different so what works for one writer may not work for another therefore i recommend that we take the time to actively think about
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how we write and discuss our writing with others for not only feedback but also suggestions for staying productive and these conversations whether it's with
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faculty members colleagues peers writing consultants that can help us you know on the one hand see what's working best for us but it can also
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help maintain you know may help us maintain being reflective about what we're doing as writers and as with any goal it's best to think about what we hope
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to accomplish in both the long term and the short term you know studies show that following a schedule or a sustainable routine can help boost productivity
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therefore think about what writing goals you hope to achieve this semester and prioritize what writing projects you need to work on each week in order to achieve those goals
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so you know if you're thinking about creating a schedule create a schedule around the most important projects and budget time for writing revising and breaks
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you know i when i was uh a writer i left very few you know when i was a graduate student i should say i left very few very little room for breaks um and leaving room for
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regular breaks will allow you to reset and refocus while helping you stay on tasks um when i wasn't taking breaks i was just
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sitting down and riding for as long as i could and believe me it wore me out so definitely make time for those breaks um you should also budget time for any
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unforeseen setbacks that might pull you away from your projects um for example i own cats you might hear some in the background during this presentation but whenever i'm working
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i know that at around 4pm those cats are gonna start uh begging me to feed them dinner so if i'm writing around about 4 p.m i know that i have to take at least five
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minutes out of my riding time in order to get up stop what i'm doing and then feed them so that's one thing that it's those little setbacks that it sometimes helps to take inventory of and write that into
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your into your schedule into your daily schedule your to-do list so you don't forget about it and you know that they're that they're coming and so when they do happen
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it doesn't take it doesn't take you by surprise all right and um i will say that writing almost takes longer than we
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think it will so it's important to budget our time wisely and if you're a fan of visualizing your schedule and goals then apps like to do do and remember the milk can assist you doing that paper to do
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lists and a home office bulletin board are also very useful for setting your goals prioritizing your projects and visualizing everything that you know you want to get done
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so real quick um yes michelle has a question continuously don't meet my goals for example i don't write as much as i need to then i might have to readjust my
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schedule for a paper due date yeah yeah um if you know it you know we all almost all writers
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don't meet their goals all the time and if that happens it's important especially with the project coming up due it's important to evaluate maybe
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what held you back from achieving your writing goals for that day consider if it was something in your control out of your control so forth and then consider what you need
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to do the next time in order to overcome such setbacks should they occur again now if it's a scheduling problem let's say you know someone's writing and they have
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two or three meetings to attend via zoom or skype or what have you then it's important to it's important to think about how you can get back into
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the swing of things whether it means setting additional time to write during you know later in the day or make up that lost time the you know
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the other day after um but again it's important to be mindful of what's what's going on around us as writers and be reflective of everything that might be you know not only helping us reach our goals but what might be
00:19:02
preventing us from our achieving our goals so that's my um that's my suggestion there uh dustin what do you think uh yeah i completely agree with you um
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yeah it might be a scheduling problem like you mentioned um i was always one of those people who was very scared that i wouldn't be able to complete the test that i wanted to so i always started things really early
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that worked for me i mean way earlier than my classmates so sometimes they get really annoyed with me when it was like a week before something was due and i'd be like well i'm pretty much done
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yeah it's it's tough um yeah but just also you know as luke has been stressing you know these are just strange times so also don't beat yourself up too much do
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do the best you can but remember um you're already doing great things so cut yourself a little bit of slack i guess yeah absolutely all right
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um some one gold setting strategy that i've used myself for prioritizing my projects is the eisenhower decision matrix maybe you've heard of this before
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and this decision matrix can help us visualize and organize our workload as well as our priorities so we effectively manage our time
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so the eisenhower decision matrix comes from former u.s president dwight d eisenhower so 1954 he wrote he uh he was speaking at an engagement and he said
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quote i have two kinds of problems the urgent and the important the urgent are not important and the important are never urgent
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in other words important activities help us achieve our goals and urgent activities demand our immediate attention so this decision matrix
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is just another way for us to spend time on important not just urgent tasks the decision matrix itself is divided into four distinct parts that can help
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us determine what tasks in our to-do lists are important not important urgent and not urgent the first of these is important
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and urgent so any activities that are either foreseen or come up at the last minute for example filing thesis or dissertation defense paperwork with the graduate school or
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those weekly zoom or skype or microsoft team teams meetings that we might have um and so these activities they you know can be
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on our schedule far ahead we know they're important we know they're urgent or they just might happen in the blink of an eye and we have to divert our attention away from our writing to uh to respond to it
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for example the other week um i received an email from a colleague about missing documents i've emailed them a whole bunch of documents um the week prior and i thought i'd
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emailed them all the documents i was supposed to have but they couldn't find two documents so i'm working on writing uh working on my uh my uh my own uh article
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and email pings you know microsoft outlook and i read it i see that the that this person is missing these two documents that they should have so i immediately stop what i'm doing and
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for the next five to ten or so minutes i'm going through i'm frantically going through my files to find these two documents and then resend them you know to them so
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that's an example of another example of an important and urgent tasks that can divert our attention away from our writing goals second important but not urgent these
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are activities that help you achieve your goals and complete your work for example creating an outline for a conference paper that you will deliver next year let's say you
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submitted a proposal for a conference the proposal was accepted and now you just have to worry about writing the paper but the but the conference isn't until march it's currently september so you have some
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time to work on this important goal but it's not that urgent right now third not important but urgent these are tasks
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excuse me these are tasks that present prevent you from achieving your goals for example most emails even though some emails could be urgent and important like the one in my anecdote um
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or other tasks that have nothing to do with your work nothing to do with your writing but you know you have to get them done immediately in order to return to your riding
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i'm sure we've all experienced these at some point or another finally not important not urgent and these are any activities any activities that are just are just a distraction and prevent you
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from achieving your goals for example binge watching netflix scrolling through social media everything that's you know not related
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to your projects unfortunately i'm a victim of this i tend to spend way too much time on tasks that aren't have nothing to do with my work
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nothing to do with my projects and so they just fall by the wayside but i'm trying to get better great any questions about this so far about the decision matrix
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or anything that um we've had to discuss that we've already discussed that you would like me to go over again
00:25:53
all right looks like we're so far so good over here all right great thank you so much dustin so once we've prioritized our writing tasks once we've been mindful about our practices and
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processes once we've reflected on them once we've created a to-do list we've prioritized our tasks then we should develop that regular writing schedule that works for
00:26:19
us with all the demands that we as writers face during the academic year there's a temptation to keep pushing our writing back until the weekend or the next holiday break believe me
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that's something that i did too much of as a grad student and even now i tend you know with all of my responsibilities i tend to push my writing back
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to the weekend um i hate to say but during the weekend i have chores and errands to run and so by the time i get back home
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like around 10 30 11 00 in the in the morning i just want to relax i just want to do anything um so in that way my writing
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suffers uh for it so rather than pushing your writing back and try to write as much as you can during the weekend select a time window that works for your individual schedules
00:27:19
every day or every other day and make that your dedicated writing time and treat that time like a class or a meeting that you absolutely positively cannot miss and if you'd
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rather not set aside a specific time to work each day especially if your schedule is very very full identify a range of hours to devote to
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writing for example commit to finding a half an hour or 45 minutes between say 8 a.m and 12 p.m to write each day and you know that's something that i've
00:27:58
been doing a lot of this semester especially on the days that i teach you know i you know i teach two days a week but i teach from approximately you know nine in the
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morning to about 12 30 in the afternoon so my mornings for riding because i'm a morning person i get most of my writing done in the morning i
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can't devote as much time as i'd like to so when i get home in the afternoon i have to jot down specific a specific time frame to work on my writing and i've been doing
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you know between one and three at least 45 minutes that's what i've set for myself um but once you do that once you've selected this uh time frame periodically
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revisit your schedule to see if that time frame still works for you if it's still working for you on a specific day at different times throughout the week
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and so forth and revisit your schedule especially next semester when your classes in your work schedule might be different in order to maintain productive writing
00:29:20
practices one thing that i like to do is embrace many sessions every week so these are shorter more frequent writing sessions throughout the week uh that can help us break down larger
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projects into more manageable sections so perhaps you've heard of the pomodoro technique where you write for 25 minutes break for five minutes right for 25 more break for another five minutes so on
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so forth but start small at first you know uh maybe 15 minutes in a session then work up to 30 or 45 minute sessions
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and for these mini sessions i personally recommend committing up to at least three hours worth of mini sessions each week um but if you know you want to try out
00:30:10
many sections um for the first time maybe go for maybe aim for one hour per week and then increase that time that time frame
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every week after that you know many uh as well many writing sessions can also allow us to better undertake different writing methods that work for us for example the many pages
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method for example i will write three pages of my article today or the task based method um i will write the introduction to chapter three this week
00:30:54
right so those are those are clearly identifiable manageable goals that we can then apply the many writing sessions too but no matter what short term writing
00:31:07
methods we find work best for us keep in mind that methods can change from day to day and week to week depending on our schedules and our projects therefore be flexible with your goals
00:31:19
for riding because the decisions we make as riders can help us establish good sustainable habits at texas tech and in our professional
00:31:30
careers as with most recommendations for maintaining productive writing practices other writers suggest that we minimize distractions as much as we can such as
00:31:46
social media or youtube or netflix so set aside a few regular times for say checking your email visiting social media but give yourself a time limit and this
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also includes putting your phone away if certain apps distract you another example um from my experiences i have a couple of games on my
00:32:12
iphone that i play every day and every day i will get you notifications from those phones little ping and so in a pavlovian response i'm like oh i
00:32:25
have to check my phone um or if you know a notification from facebook pings and uh it's like oh i wonder who i wonder who responded to my comments so what i do is instead of keeping my phone
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next to my computer i will put it across the room so if i get a phone call or a text i can get up and see who it is um but i can't see other notifications
00:32:50
from web apps all right so any um any questions so far yeah when you were talking about the uh writing mini sessions
00:33:07
yeah where you um suggesting a three hour session per week or a total of many sessions totaling three hours or more a week oh the uh yeah sorry uh thank you um for clarifying yeah it
00:33:20
would be a total of three hours and many sessions per week um so if you wrote for you know 30 minutes twice a day or something
00:33:32
like that and broke it down into three days a week um that i can find you know that i find that really really useful and it can help you visualize the time
00:33:45
frame that you know works best for your schedule and then you can work to achieve that goal each week awesome thanks you're welcome good other
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questions so look it's not really a question but i think uh cl has a good observation uh i think it's important especially in these times to break away from the skeet screen at key
00:34:15
zoom meetings alone have made my headaches and eye strain flare up terribly yeah so just like that physical strain from you know being at the screen yeah oh yeah
00:34:27
absolutely i i get that too it's important to unplug and something i'll i'll talk about uh later on but yeah it is important to unplug you know i know the majority of my day is spent in front of a computer screen
00:34:41
so that can really take a toll on us um and it can give us that fatigue so it's important to take time to unplug and to unwind from it all um i'm sure there will be plenty of
00:34:55
academic research done in the coming months and years about zoom fatigue well someone someone uh someone take up that project immediately um yeah
00:35:09
yeah it's important to unplug and uh take time for yourselves all right so for the final part of my
00:35:20
presentation today i would like to share some useful activities for working remotely as i said the majority of my work day every day is spent at home in front of a computer
00:35:32
and that takes a toll on my motivation to get writing done um especially with all of the grading and class prep and meetings after our you know a few hours of that
00:35:45
i'm just like i do not want to get any work done so when faced with long periods of working remotely when we're removed from an on campus
00:35:57
can community when we're not physically in the classroom or we're not physically interacting with our peers and our colleagues and our mentors be consistent in your writing practices
00:36:11
when you develop a daily writing practice as we've been discussing be sure to touch your project at least once a day and contribute to its profs and to contribute to its progress no
00:36:22
matter how small that progress might be natalie goldberg recommends that we keep our hands moving and stay present with our writing all progress no matter how gradual is
00:36:35
progress to achieving our riding goals another way to maintain consistency in our writing practices is to hold ourselves accountable we can do this by joining joining a
00:36:49
virtual writing group or alongside writing partners via zoom or skype or some other um web conferencing platform
00:37:01
and doing so can help us maintain engagement with our projects and allow us to assess progress towards our goals and that's a good motivator especially when we have someone
00:37:13
that we're riding with or a group of people who are riding with as i mentioned previously um schedule time for writing and prioritize your projects
00:37:24
keep up a consistent and sustainable routine even if it means scheduling an uninterrupted meeting with your projects uh roquemore calls this the sunday meeting even though this
00:37:36
can take place any time of any time of day during the week um [Music] so for example let's say you know you have to get some writing done each
00:37:49
day make turn that writing session into a meeting quote unquote you know you're meeting with your writing you close your email you shut off social media
00:38:01
you put your phone away and you treat that as if you were uh talking about your writing with your advisor or with a colleague or a friend um and
00:38:13
treat that writing time um as sacred be very protective of of your writing time you know that can certainly be a challenge um but the more time you put into our writing
00:38:25
the more we get out of it so try not to use these meetings with our projects to complete other tasks all right now while apps and websites certainly can distract
00:38:46
us from achieving our writing goals there are some forms of technology that can support our writing so these include word processing software such as scrivener or latex or focus writer
00:39:00
others include apps that can track our internet usage such as rescuetime or block certain websites or apps this is the freedom app funny an app to
00:39:13
an app to block an app i love it um and you know the national center for faculty development and diversity offers several writing sources um
00:39:28
the coffee app provides ambient background noise as you write you know if you work well with background noise like i do um that's a really good website to visit then you can just have it on
00:39:40
in the background does anyone use any other apps or websites not listed here to help stay productive
00:40:10
um luke um osho mentioned studying music on youtube um i've seen those yeah i've seen those that go for like two three hours um yeah those are
00:40:23
useful like i said i love background noise i don't like to write when it's really quiet so having one of those you know long-form uh music you know videos in the background
00:40:36
helps definitely right and then some other uh people use google sheets for project management note to organize my classwork
00:40:48
um freedom i haven't heard of freedom yeah that uh that blocks that blocks apps and other other websites that um that uh might get in the way of our
00:41:03
writing time all right and then another one focus keeper okay i haven't heard of that that sounds like a lot of people like to have the music or some kind of ambient
00:41:17
sound in the background yeah um i know i talked about pomodoro and the eisenhower decision matrix um you can download apps for that as well um
00:41:29
i don't know last i checked i don't think the eisenhower decision matrix is available on android i know it's available for iphone but that could have changed so i'll double check that
00:41:43
and you can also look up that uh matrix earlier in the presentation but also online as well all right so if you haven't already
00:41:58
reviewed a texas tech site t division website or the university libraries website for helpful resources for working remotely i highly recommend that you do the it website provides
00:42:14
guidance for working remotely as well as resources for staying in touch with tech and remaining productive so you can visit their website
00:42:26
for more information and look at all of the um all the resources they have there similarly our university library has resources for keeping us productive while working off campus
00:42:40
such as digital document delivery of articles and book chapters as well as online resources such as databases and research guides that can keep us
00:42:53
invested in the research that we need to do before we write as well as while we're writing all right a few uh final resources for me for maintaining productivity
00:43:10
not only should we create a designated space for writing but that space should help us stay focused and motivated for example i cannot work in the same room as my television tried it once
00:43:23
failed spectacularly so i had to determine where i'm most productive and that was in the room farthest away from the tv otherwise i would just get on it and be like well maybe just one more episode of
00:43:36
that netflix show so consider what environment you need to write in successfully in that same way think about what time
00:43:50
of day you're most productive which can help you determine a regular riding schedule if i'm right behind you i'll get the door um like i'm right behind y'all i'll get the door i teach monday wednesday morning so even though i'm most productive in the morning i had
00:44:03
to figure out ways in which to stay productive later in the day so it's one of those it's one of those um things i just had to i had to do in
00:44:14
order to stay productive um earlier i mentioned that speaking with your peers and colleagues can help us reflect on our writing so leaning on your community and talking about your research and writing with others
00:44:28
can help maintain accountability and receive that all too useful feedback to help you stay productive as well and i believe this is very important to maintaining
00:44:42
uh productivity we've already mentioned it before uh knowing the log off from technology and take breaks from it while working on projects um
00:44:54
for example closing your email at a certain time of day or closing your email while you write and then check it periodically one thing that i do
00:45:05
is sometimes i'll close out of my outlook account as i'm writing and then leave it off for about 30 minutes and then at that 30 minute mark open it check it make sure there's nothing
00:45:18
important and urgent that i need to attend to or respond to and then close it again and keep on writing um and i recommend setting the time each day to officially log off from
00:45:31
technology and not check your email or other chat notifications and that's been hard for me to do you know my people i know
00:45:41
they say that's been hard to do because you know i'm still on my computer and my phone after the work day's over um but knowing the log off is important
00:45:55
so we can make self-care a priority during times like these when the line between work and home starts to blur we might find ourselves in front of our
00:46:08
computer screens or cell phones for way longer than we've anticipated research recommends that we should make self-care a priority and ensure that we
00:46:19
not only get enough sleep and exercise but breathing exercises and guiding meditation can help us stay grounded so headspace insight timer
00:46:32
calm i use calm personally to help keep me grounded throughout the day so i don't you know go you know zoom crazy finally um take time for you
00:46:49
celebrate your achievements and reward yourself when meeting your writing goals um because that can help us stay motivated and ensure that we keep writing and get our writing done
00:47:04
all right so that's my presentation what questions do you have about maintaining productive writing or what advice do you have for
00:47:14
your fellow writers i do have a question that i think falls under this category but it's got a different kind of feel from what you've been speaking about sure when we're working
00:47:34
on something really big and long term um do you have strategies for how to be mindful of things that might change over time like when i work on long papers i realize that the tone and the voice
00:47:46
that i use in the first week is a lot different from what i'm doing now and i don't know how that shifted and uh i would just love some some observations and advice on how to be aware of those things
00:47:57
from the start sure well i know one thing uh yeah definitely when we're working on those long-form projects you know yeah tone and voice can change dramatically especially the difference between
00:48:10
chapter one and chapter four um but i will say is if you are noticing uh the shifts of tone and voice you can either read your work aloud and
00:48:25
or have someone else read the work aloud for you so that way you can hear how your writing sounds and if it sounds similar to what you wrote two weeks ago versus what you wrote two
00:48:37
days ago um and i'll also plug the graduate writing center if you know having a writing con consultant work with you one-to-one and read your work uh
00:48:50
read your work aloud can help you pick up on those things so if you want to remain you know in order to remain consistent in our tone and voice our scholarly writerly voice
00:49:02
um that's a good resource to have as well so keep so you can hear it and determine what you might need to do in order to be consistent in your voice
00:49:22
but yeah that's the um that's the advice i have for that i'm not yeah it's been something i haven't really considered too much yeah it's good should definitely bring it up
00:49:38
all right here's a probably a pretty difficult question how do i keep my concentration on something i don't find interesting finished because it was an assigned task all right
00:49:51
because of the scientists that's a that's a good question um well if it's an assigned task and you don't want to do it
00:50:02
but it contributes to your goals or your professional development um then one thing you can do is think about what role
00:50:16
this task plays sort of in the bigger picture um that's something that i told myself a lot of when i was a graduate student um whenever i had to take a class that
00:50:29
maybe i didn't want to take or write that assignment that i didn't want to write i would say well even though this isn't interesting to me or i don't find it useful in the present moment i know that it's
00:50:42
going to help build up my skills as a writer or as a researcher or sort of in the broader academic sense you know uh it lit you know these things lended
00:50:54
themselves to my own professional development and job training so that's so if once i sort of flipped the way i saw this task then it became a little
00:51:07
bit more easier for me to get more involved and into it um that's my experience i don't know if dustin you've had similar experiences or anyone who's had a similar experience and can offer uh different feedback but
00:51:20
yeah that's a good question yeah i would just second what you are saying luke i mean um yeah if nothing else just realize that this is contributing to your final goal of you know getting getting
00:51:37
your phd or getting your master's degree whatever it might be and you know remember that that's important to you maybe give yourself some extrinsic motivation
00:51:49
you know if i finish this then i'm going to reward myself by you know doing something nice just yes things that you're already saying yeah definitely yeah yeah definitely um yeah as you mentioned
00:52:03
um again reward yourself um take time to celebrate those achievements and those goals no matter what it is you're working on
00:52:17
take time to uh pat yourself on the back good other questions other advice anything that i might not have talked about that you know has worked for you or perhaps you've learned throughout
00:52:33
um your academic careers that you like yes i have a q i have a question sure um i want to apologize for coming on late i'm in a different time zone perfectly okay um i just i really wanted
00:52:47
to know about and you probably covered this already but um how do i connect um not just through email but specifically with a person in the writing center because i would like to develop a rapport with someone
00:53:00
um to really review help me to review my work because i'm coming from uh the performing arts and uh i i am transitioning into
00:53:12
academia sure and so i don't have you know i take a time machine and minor in english if i could do it all over again but i didn't um but i need formal uh help
00:53:24
with you know grammatical structure and the and the formality of the structure of um academic writing i just don't have formal training of that so i definitely need help with that great definitely well welcome we're glad
00:53:37
you're here um i just sort of zip back to my second slide for the graduate writing center services so there we have now so that we
00:53:49
have put up some information about the services we offer online this fall but we also um our fall 2020 hours are at the bottom of the screen
00:54:00
and you know our website um you know you can learn more about the different services as well as making an appointment with a writing consultant and keep in mind if you have if none of you have used the
00:54:13
writing center before you know you're allowed uh up to three 50-minute appointments per week um and so that's um
00:54:26
a significant amount of time to talk with your writing about you know talk with your writing talk about your writing with the running consultant um so definitely take advantage of that take advantage
00:54:38
of our workshops to learn more about the different kinds of writing that we do in graduate school in academia and
00:54:51
when you know if you find that you're going to be working on uh those long-form projects outside of your classes check out check out the information about joining a writing group
00:55:04
when you get to the thesis and dissertation stage um learn more about sign up for the thesis dissertation boot camp because all these resources they're here for you we're here for you
00:55:15
and we want to ensure that your time at texas tech is a successful and productive one fantastic can we just ask one more question
00:55:30
absolutely it's one i missed earlier i'm sorry but um yeah what advice do you have about integrating and prioritizing reading versus
00:55:42
writing yeah this is a really important one sure oh yeah definitely yeah we can't be you know you know good readers make good writers i think
00:55:54
um yeah i would treat reading schedule similar to your writing schedule if you know you have reading that you need to do whether it's for a class or for a research project definitely schedule time for that
00:56:08
so if you know you need to read three four articles book chapters um what have you schedule time for that you know budget time for for that
00:56:22
reading um and then set that time off with writing if that makes sense um so maybe let's say i know i need to read
00:56:35
this article by next wednesday i will read for example five pages of that article per day before next week and then to determine
00:56:49
what times of the day you know you might have in order to achieve that goal to achieve that five page goal for that day or um if you if you know that you're
00:57:02
most productive in the morning see if you can't schedule that reading bef you know in the morning before you have other tasks that you need to do or before you know
00:57:14
that your energy starts to wane or if you find like me if you find that you're more you know i read better and i read more at night so i will often budget 45 minutes
00:57:27
an hour just to read something whether it's academic or not but i'm budgeting my time i'm building taking that uh taking that time and putting it into or repeat
00:57:39
put in my schedule and so you can uh in your to-do list your priority and you can prioritize your reading i think i just wanted to share with you so many of the participants are thankful for you and for all the work
00:57:59
you've done on this so i think i speak for all of them just saying you did a fantastic job it was really productive everybody really got a lot out of it all right well good i'm glad i'm glad you
00:58:11
all enjoyed it um thank you again for coming to hear me talk today um i know it's friday end of the week um so i will
00:58:23
say have a great day happy riding and uh stay productive everyone
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