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Many creatives use a month-long challenge to encourage productivity.

My personal favorite is still Skull-a-Day by Noah Scalin.

Last year, this blog covered the month long illustration challenge of INKtober and showcased Walt Cahill’s whimsical cycling illustrations.

Many of us would love to undertake a month-long challenge.

But work, family and hobby demands often get in the way.

Two days ago, I came across the National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo.

In this event, I saw an opportunity to adopt certain principles of NaNoWriMo to use in an academic context that would not detract time and energy away from my current work/research demands – but would, in fact, be a productivity kick-starter!

What is NaNoWriMo?

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) happens every year, It is an Internet-based creative writing challenge to write a 50,000-word novel from 1^st to the 30^th of November.

The National Novel Writing Month website started this challenge in July 1999 with only 21 participants. In 2010, 200,000 people wrote 2.8 billion words and in 2015, 430,000 participants completed 50,000 manuscripts.

This is a great challenge to get inspired, build a regular writing routine, overcome writing anxiety and writer’s block, and also be part of a highly active online community.

Using NaNoWriMo for academic writing

During NaNoWriMo, it is the length of the draft, not the quality that is the main goal. Editing and polishing the document comes later.

Producing writing is a constant pressure for academics and PhD candidates.

Essentially PhDers are assessed on their writing output. PhDers are required to, at a minimum, produce an 80,000-120,000-word high-quality dissertation and at least one peer-review journal article in order to fulfil their candidature. Having additional publications, conference proceeding and other written documentation are also expected.

That is one of the reasons I started this blog – to force myself to write regularly.

I love the idea of a writing challenge. I have not been producing as much writing as I did when I first started my research and my usually productive writing routine has slipped.

Although NaNoWriMo is a novel writing challenge, I am going to use it as an opportunity to apply some of its principles to jumpstart my academic writing productivity.

Many NaNoWriMo ideas are transferable to an academic writing challenge.

So I went on an online binge to glean some of the most useful NaNoWriMo approaches.

As an  R &D homage to the original NaNoWriMo, I’ve called my initial checklist (below) NiAcaWriMo – or Nina’s Academic Writing Month.

Here’s what I came up with….

NiAcaWriMo

Have all equipment and materials prepared.

This includes working tools like the keyboard, monitors, laptop/desktop, notebooks and any other paraphernalia needed. Delete Netflix or any other distractions. For me, this also meant setting up a dual monitor stand-up desk and putting my laptop in for a service and updating the operating system and all software.

Spring clean and organise your workspace.

To create productive energy and focus, declutter and spring clean your workspace. Clear out any distractions, tidy up or better yet, remove as much as you can out of your workspace to make it a lean and clean studious area. Dust off screens and keyboards, and wipe down any surfaces, IT cords and equipment as recognition that this space is open to new and fresh ideas. Commit to keeping the space clear by not allowing others to put anything in your workspace, clearing your desk at the end of each day and only keeping the basic work materials needed on your desk.  

Prepare a soundtrack.

Some people listen to music while working, others prefer silence. Either way, know what kind of soundscape is most productive for you. When I work in an open office, I use ear plugs as well as high-performance ear muffs (a technique I use on public transport as well) if I want quiet and little sound. Or I use headphones with my own soundscape. I have had great success with alpha, beta and gamma binaural beats, which I used to complete a 17,000 minor thesis in four days. Another option is classical or instrumental music with no lyrics. Or have background music in a different language so your brain is not subconsciously engaged with the lyrics, but focused on your written language. For this technique, I’d recommend the French R & B duo Les Nubians album Princesses Nubiennes. Other creatives swear by having the same song on constant repeat which helps to create a consistent and familiar flow state. Find what works best for you.

Tell others about your challenge.

This means getting your significant other/s, family, work colleagues and friends on board with what you are doing. This will save a lot of misunderstanding and issues in the future and people will be a lot more understanding and supportive. If you are upfront with your purpose and time frame, then measures can be taken to organise and negate possible future complications such as invitations and drop-in visits and even further to include things such as house cleaning and grocery shopping.

Protect your focus

For one whole month, you need to make your writing challenge top priority – and this protecting your focus. This step requires you to know what you need to do your best work, what time of day you are most productive and that you put into place strategies to minimise interruptions and stay productive. This can include setting a schedule or a daily timetable. Or read some key literature that is not only inspiring, but is at a standard you wish to achieve. For academic writing, I like to have 3 journal articles that are my gold standard – two by my favourite author in my research field and another on a different topic whose style, expression and vocabulary I really enjoy reading. Another way to protect your focus might is to set your phone to silent and leave it in another room for your sessions. Or use an app to help your focus and build self-control, or a productivity app that helps avoid distractions, like Cold Turkey, which I recommend to postgrad students.

Prepare body and mind

We all know looking after the body and mind is important during intense work bursts, but the challenge is to make it a priority in order to sustain productivity. This includes eating well, being hydrated, taking regular screen breaks, doing regular exercise (until sweaty), getting adequate sleep and generally looking after your overall well-being. Build these elements into your daily schedule to ensure you protect your focus and keep yourself working at the optimal level. Have a look at A Year of Productivity for other strategies to help prepare the body and mind.

Other NiAcaWriMo considerations

Once prepared, you then need to put it all into action.

This is an area I am still refining. So below is an outline of some tactics I’ve found to be incredibly helpful in consistently producing written work.

Morning Routine: I have had great success using a priming morning routine that I have adapted and personalised over the last three years.

iThinkwell. Over the last two years, I have attended two iThinkwell workshops: Turbocharge your writing and Seven habits of highly successful research students. I still some of the strategies from these workshops. If you get to one of these sessions, get your library to order the companion books which cover the same material so you can still get ahead.

An additional bonus is that iThinkwell have a range of awesome free resources to track progress, manage time frames and organise priorities.

Prepare the next day the night before. One key technique is starting a new day fresh and proactive, is to prepare what you are going to do the next day before you leave your desk the night before. Identifying The Next Thing is a quick and easy way to get a new productive day started without wasting any valuable energy or focus on planning the day, you just get on and do it. Some writers like to leave a question as a stimulus for the next days’ writing session, or dot points that need expanding on, others leave notes to complete, or end the previous day mid-sentence so there is an idea to complete the next day and continue on.

Have a daily goal. I have a PhD friend who has a daily goal of writing 250 words a day. Another academic I know has committed one hour every day for the last five years to writing. Whether it is time, words count, tasks or any other goal, having a clear daily goal is a good way to set the intention for the day, track progress and establish milestones of achievement.

50,0000 words in a 30-day month equals 1,667 words per day.

Take each day separately. Keep in mind that progress is based on day-to-day productivity. Set-backs are inevitable. Don’t be too hard on yourself and be realistic. There will be blow-outs, mess-ups, crappy days and interruptions – this is part of life and work. If you struggle one day, reset and try again the next, but don’t try and catch-up as this adds extra stress. Take each day as a stoned alone session and accept that there will be ‘good days’ and ‘bad days’.

Know what a ‘good day’ looks like. How do you define ‘a good day’ of work? What does it look like? Is it producing a 500-word outline? Or writing 1,500 original new words? Reading a journal article? Having this clarification means that you know when you have achieved it. If this is not clear, you are at risk of ending each day feeling like you have not achieved your goal and could have done more, no matter how much your produce.

Garbage in, garbage out. Be mindful and actively manage what you allow yourself to be exposed to. This includes TV, social media, movies and the news – and also people. Remember the quality of your output is determined by the quality of the input. Read quality literature, reduce media exposure, unplug and read more engaging books.

Acknowledge milestones and reward. As you progress with writing, acknowledge micro-successes and milestones achieved. Having small rewards helps track activity, recognise breakthroughs, monitor improvements and boost motivation.

Writing is not editing. Writing and editing are two different skills, yet many people edit as they write and this can hamper progress and flow. For NaNoWriMo, participants are writing a 50,000-word draft. There is no editing at this stage and this a good idea to keep in mind. Many people get distracted while writing by fact-checking, looking up a definition, searching for a ‘better word’ or stopping to insert an accurate reference as they write. Doing these during the writing phrase inhibits ‘writing flow’ and focus. So the aim is to get ideas in writing down on without stopping to edit.

I use the write fast, edit slow – and the read a bit, write a bit, edit a bit adage to instil the distinction and importance of doing each of these tasks regularly. Another way to achieve the writer’s flow state as advocated by Blindboy is to write with fire, edit with ice.

Next steps

I only found out about NaNoWriMo this week, so it was too late to participate this year.

But it has inspired me to get organised and get back into my writing routine.

Who needs a formal date to write?  A month-long writing challenge can be undertaken at any time!

Take this blog post as an example: just writing about this challenge has produced a 2048-word blog post and helped clarify my next steps and preparation for NiAcaWriMo. That in itself is already a valuable and productive writing activity.

As we come up to the end of the year, I’m gearing up for a NiAcaWriMo challenge in the new year.

And I will certainly be looking out for NaNoWriMo next November.

So if you have any kind of writing project, perhaps now it the time to get inspired and create your own month-long writing challenge to crack the whip and get those important first words onto paper.

Happy productive writing!

The content and ideas included in this post are my own with additional ideas and facts sourced from NaNoWriMo, NY Book Editors, Storyist, Writer’s Digest, Jerry Jenkins and Wikipedia.