The Optimal Number of Writing Projects

The majority of my clients have multiple writing projects on their scholarly agendas (one has 60 yes, 60-does the mere thought of that cause your blood pressure to spike?).

The pressure to complete their projects--or at least work on them--comes from many sources: students, mentors, mentees, post-docs, deadlines, journal editors, the creeping, haunting presence of tenure, promotion, their own egos, their own perfectionism, internalized imposter syndrome……

And on and on.

Often, these pressures compel us to work on five or six or even more articles at a time. And in writing calculus, five or six usually equals zero.

And you know this.

Too many, however, respond to the internalization of the expectations of others in something of a panic instead of seeking to find the optimal number of projects they can touch on a given week and still be successful.

On a given week. Somethings are going to have to be postponed.

Really.

It is scary to face these internalized voices, to upset people, to admit that we are not going to get to it all this week.

Or this month.

So instead, you try to do it all, and then, wind up doing too little. Or nothing. It is too overwhelming. Soon, you may retreat to the alter of Ben and Jerry’s Chunky Monkey for oblivion and absolution, or whatever its equivalent is for you.

What you need to do is let go and accept that you can’t do it all and be still be successful.

Or sane.

Based upon over a decade of working with scholars on their writing and publishing, success and happiness, I have learned that most of us can only focus on two and three writing projects a week.

Some four.

Some one.

Know thyself.

Lean on your processes. Lean into your systems. Breath.

And yes, easier said than done.

And that is why I have a coaching practice J.