For many of us, summer “break” is just around the corner, and we will soon transition from the drumbeat of the school year to a period where teaching and service work slows. Many of us also enter this period of time with the best-laid writing plans.
“I will finish that book that is many months delayed!”
“I will draft that article that I’ve been percolating on for over a year.”
or even
“I will finish writing that book AND draft two articles!”
It doesn’t matter that the last three summers we had equally lofty goals but didn’t complete them. Somehow we still believe that this is the summer that we will finally be productive and complete everything we set out to do. Having an optimistic attitude towards our goals is important, but it's equally important to set realistic expectations for ourselves, or we risk feeling guilty about everything we failed to achieve on the lofty list of summer goals.
Here are a few suggestions for setting yourself up for a realistic, productive, and even restful summer.
A Realistic Summer
Begin by taking a look at what you were able to achieve over the past few summers. Did you really write three book or dissertation chapters? Or did you only write half of one? This is your baseline for how much work has traditionally been completed in a summer. That's not to say you can't do more with a realistic strategic plan (especially if you didn't have one the previous summers). However, it’s important to know yourself and to try to make your goals attainable.
Consider what you did the previous summers and assign yourself slightly more work—but not more than you've ever done in a summer. Setting attainable goals is critical for many of us because it helps us maintain momentum and motivation. It's better to start small and achieve consistently rather than aim too high and risk burnout or disappointment.
A Productive Summer
I believe in setting realistic goals and developing a strategic plan to achieve them, especially when my time is less structured. This method allows me to stay focused, track my progress, and make necessary adjustments to stay on track. In order to maintain momentum and motivation throughout the summer, I find it helpful to break down larger goals into smaller, manageable tasks. I start by considering my objectives, as I explain in Planning Your Writing Like You Plan Your Syllabus:
Let’s begin by considering the planning one undergoes to teach a new course. Typically you design a syllabus and create objectives for that course that you want to meet over the course of the semester. You think about the overall scope of the course and where you want students to land at the end.
Many of us don’t approach our writing projects with the same sense of purpose and objectives at the beginning of a term. We may only have loosely formed ideas of what we want to achieve in the next few months.
So, a simple strategy is to think of beginning your writing for the semester like you would a course. What would you like to achieve by the end of the semester? What projects have you committed to with particular deadlines? What conferences or grants do you want to apply for? What conference papers do you have lying around that you’d like to turn into articles?
If you haven't already, I recommend reading the above post to help you think through your summer writing goals.
A Restful Summer
What would your summer "break" look like if you planned rest, relaxation, and other hobbies? What if you scheduled this time and added it to your to-do list so you could cross it off alongside your other objectives?
As I write in Ignoring the Should-Be-Doings,
Try scheduling which days of the “break” are for relaxing, rejuvenating, and spending time with your loves. Guard that time. Instead of telling yourself that once that paper is done, you’ll take that time off, instead tell yourself that on X date you’ll stop working and instead focus on other things in your life. It doesn’t matter if the paper is doesn’t get finished because YOU and your blood or chosen family, or whatever priority you want to guard, are more important. Scheduling time off gives you the permission to not do other things while you are resting.
Many of us are so hard on ourselves for not achieving the goals that we set out to do over the summer that we feel guilty about not working. Taking time off is important for our mental and physical health because it allows us to recharge and return to work or other activities with renewed vigor and focus. It is critical to remember that rest is not a waste of time but rather an essential part of achieving our long-term goals and maintaining general well-being.
I find that planning days and weeks off during the summer allows me to move through those times without the guilt of not working.
Putting it All Together
Here are my recommendations in a step-by-step process for planning for summer:
Begin by being realistic about your baseline for summer work. How much do you normally achieve? What would be an amount of work that is slightly more than you have previously accomplished but not more than you have ever accomplished during the summer?
Plan your summer writing schedule in the same way you plan your syllabus: be clear about your objectives, have a weekly schedule of topics, plan out your lesson...er...writing each week, and find accountability. People who set attainable goals, plan when they will work on those goals, and stay accountable to chip away at that plan get more done than those who do not.
Plan your time for rest, hobbies, and rejuvenation. Perhaps you will take Fridays off. Perhaps you'll take a two-week vacation. Perhaps you'll devote a month to reading the best fiction published this year. Protect this time because it is critical for your stress levels, brain health, and creativity.
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