[Writing Practice Series] Breaking The Binge And Bust Cycle In Academic Writing [RE-RELEASE EP 164]

Many professors look forward to summer, winter, or semester breaks as an opportunity to catch up on all the publications they have put off during regular working hours. You think, “I’ll get so much done!” But then, the workload catches up with you, you burn out, and the break ends up being a time of exhaustion, not productivity. This cycle creates guilt and frustration and reinforces the negative thoughts you have about your writing and writing practice. 

I offer alternative strategies that help you foster a more positive relationship with your writing. Learn the benefits of making writing the center of your career and how setting realistic, achievable goals will shift your mindset and ultimately boost productivity. 

If you are gearing up for a summer or winter break and plan on using that time to get through your backed-up pipeline, this episode is for you. I share strategies to help you break the binge and bust cycle and develop a more sustainable, consistent writing practice.

What’s the Binge and Bust Cycle?

We learn the binge-and-bust writing cycle early in our academic careers. The pressure to publish as many articles as possible while simultaneously taking on as many research, teaching, and mentoring opportunities as possible forces our writing to the sidelines. Instead of working on articles during the day, we wait for breaks in the academic calendar to cram all our writing into these “free” periods. But instead of publishing a ton of articles, we get burned out and frustrated and fall even further behind on our pipeline. 

Breaking the Binge and Bust Cycle

If you are ready to break free of the binge and bust cycle, you need to integrate writing into your weekly routine, so it becomes a priority in your academic career. Writing doesn’t need to happen every day or in long, exhausting chunks. One or two hours a week of focused writing will positively impact your publications. This approach is much more sustainable than planning to write non-stop during a break.

It’s also critical to set realistic goals for your writing this summer, winter, or semester break. You want to make time to write but also need time for rest and relaxation. Writing 6 or 8 hours every day is unsustainable and leads to burnout. Instead, start structuring your time with a realistic writing plan that doesn’t depend on extreme workdays.

Cultivating a Positive Relationship with Writing

Confidence is key to being a successful academic writer. Constantly feeling guilty for not writing enough is self-sabotage. Stay motivated by creating positive feedback loops about your writing practice. You’re much more likely to maintain momentum when you honor your writing time and keep your expectations manageable.

“The best way to eliminate the binge and bust cycle is to figure out how you are going to get your writing from the edge of your time or from the breaks into your regular workload. This is a concept shift. It’s all about centering writing. When you center writing in your career, writing becomes an organizer in your career. It helps you plan your next career move and plan your time because you have to be good about boundaries and time management. It teaches you project management.”

“You can prevent the summer binge by centering writing in your career by making it part of your work week. Your career is the sum of your work week. So if you aren’t spending time during your work week writing, then you are leaving out an essential part of your career every week.” 

We’ve opened the waitlist for our next cohort of Navigate: Your Writing Roadmap®. Check out the program details and get on the waitlist here.

CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION:

1. Our 12-week Navigate: Your Writing Roadmap® program helps tenure-track womxn and nonbinary professors to publish their backlog of papers so that their voice can have the impact they know is possible. Get on the waitlist here!
2. Cathy’s book, Making Time to Write: How to Resist the Patriarchy and Take Control of Your Academic Career Through Writing is available in print! Learn how to build your career around your writing practice while shattering the myths of writing every day, accountability, and motivation, doing mindset work that’s going to reshape your writing,and changing academic culture one womxn and nonbinary professor at a time. Get your print copy today or order it for a friend here!
3. If you would like to hear more from Cathy for free, please subscribe to the weekly newsletter, In the Pipeline, at scholarsvoice.org. It’s a newsletter that she personally writes that goes out once a week with writing and publication tips, strategies, inspiration, book reviews and more.

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