Academic Writing Amplified

As an academic woman, your writing needs to be at the center of everything. On this episode of the podcast, I'm making the case for why it's so important to prioritize your writing, and giving you the steps to take to make it happen. You know your writing and publishing is important but it doesn't feel urgent; writing always falls to the bottom of your list; you put writing off until you have "enough" time, and end up doing frantic writing binges instead of making steady progress; thinking about your writing gives you a pit in your stomach; you have a pipeline full of unfinished projects. Sound familiar? Maybe you haven't put writing at the center of your career. In this episode, I'm showing you what having your writing at the center can be like: you always know when your next writing session is and what project you're working on; you feel happy and invigorated when you think about writing; projects flow smoothly through your pipeline (and out of it); you feel empowered and in control. That sounds better, right? So let's jump in as I show you why you should prioritize your writing above everything else (yes, I have hard facts for you), and how to go about it. Why Should You Put Your Writing at the Center of Everything? 1. Writing mindset matters: urgent vs. important. When you prioritize writing, you start to see through the urgency of everyday tasks that try to steal your attention. Your department head may have a fire that needs putting out; that's urgent. But your writing is important; when you focus on it, you are developing yourself as a scholar, connecting to your bigger purpose in the world, and taking care of your career and yourself. "Taking care of your writing is taking care of yourself." -Cathy Mazak 2. Writing has real payoff. You are allowed to dedicate time to something that equates to a payoff, and writing and publishing more is how you get jobs, keep jobs, get promoted, become a full tenured professor. There is a persistent disparity between overall pay averages between men and women in academia. Why? Some of the reasons given in this article breaking down the annual faculty compensation survey done by the American Association of University Professors are: fewer women are fully tenured and more are contingent, more women are in lower paying fields of study, and fewer women teach at higher ranking PhD granting institutions. Much of the disparity comes down to the numbers of women who are fully tenured professors. There is a real link between writing and higher pay. The more you write and publish, the higher up the chain of professorship you can move. Writing pays off. 3. Writing drives alignment. If you work to have everything else in your career support your writing, you feel more focused, pulled in fewer directions, less frazzled. Project and services decisions become easier as they are informed by whether they support prioritization of your writing goals. 4. Writing creates a brand. When your writing is at the center of your career, you are able to drill down more clearly to the message you are putting out into the world. Your publication list builds on itself, developing your "academic brand". "If you're writing more, you're getting more publications out, and your publications are really how the world sees you." -Cathy Mazak 5. Writing gives you mobility. The more you write and publish, the greater your ability to move between institutions. You may be at a more teaching-centered institution now, but you never know what may come up there, or in your life or career. Putting your writing at the center gives you options. How Do You Put Your Writing at the Center? 1. Put writing first- literally. Schedule an hour first thing on Monday morning for writing. Get this in before you teach, before you open email, before you start anything else. Start your week off in the writing mindset. 2. Use your mission statement. Create a mission statement for your career, and verbalize how writing is a priority. Treat your academic mission statement like a thesis for your career. Write it down and refer to it when you need a reminder, or to help with decision making. 3. Find support. Don't go it alone. Join my I Should Be Writing facebook group, sign up for a program, or find other like-minded academic women to support you in putting your writing first. 4. Invest time and energy. Putting your writing at the center of your career and keeping it there will not happen by accident. It will require intentional time, focused energy, and continued development. Choosing to make investments in your writing pays off, but only if you follow through. "It takes time, energy, and sometimes a little money to make real change in your life. And you have permission from me to invest that time and energy!" -Cathy Mazak If something clicked or shifted for you about prioritizing your writing, come on over to my Facebook group and share it with us. Connect with me: Website Facebook Group Facebook Page This episode was first published at cathymazak.com/episode6

How do you feel when you think about writing? You are never going to write and publish as much as you want if you feel yucky about your writing. But feeling good about your writing doesn't just happen randomly or by accident. You have to create that positive relationship with your writing. In this episode I'm talking all about creating a positive relationship with your writing in order to get more writing done and feel better doing it. I call this creating "positive feedback loops." It means that when you write, you feel positive feelings, which make you want to write again, in a super-happy loop of unicorns and rainbows.I exaggerate, but you get what I mean. These positive feelings are created by you by implementing certain writing behaviors. Actions to Take to Cultivate a Positive Relationship with Writing It doesn't happen on it's own, and it doesn't happen by wishing for it, but you can take actionable steps to make yourself feel better about writing, with reinforces your desire to do it. Start with small wins. Getting in one hour of focused writing per week consistently is the first small step.Then you can expand to two or three hours. Do this during your "tiger time" (not sure what that is? Take a listen to episode 2!) The idea is to set yourself up to win at writing. Small goals, consistency, writing with focus so that the writing feels good. Be purposeful and gentle on yourself. Reward yourself. Set up an easy-to-maintain reward system so that you are giving yourself positive feedback for small and large writing successes. For small successes (completing your one hour sessions to start with) try something like a gold star on the calendar, or what a member of the I Should be Writing Facebook group does: putting a pebble in a glass vase for each day that you meet a small writing goal. When you meet a large goal (submitting for publication or some other large project) be sure to give yourself a bigger reward: go out to dinner, open a nice bottle of wine, or maybe just an at-home dance party in your living room. Get into the habit of acknowledging your work by creating a positive experience for yourself. Adjust your mindset. So much of writing is about mindset. We all struggle with impostor syndrome, guilt, and overwhelm at one time or another. There is so much pressure around writing and publishing in academia because the stakes are very high: getting the job, keeping the job, getting the promotion, getting the grant. Much of it is dependent on your publication record. Sometimes all the pressure can lead us to believe things about our writing that aren't true, and certainly aren't helpful. Adjusting our mindsets may need to include reprogramming how we think. "We have to actively learn to reprogram our negative writing stories so that we can get our big message out into the world." How to Unlearn and Relearn Writing in Academia Most of us aren't trained in writing as a practice, so we are making up systems and behaviors as we go along. When these systems and behaviors come from a place of pressure and fear, they can end up creating negative cycles of feedback between us and our writing. Instead, you must realize that writing is about caring for yourself and your career. It is about getting your message out into the world, where it can change your field and help people. Your teaching and research are better when you feel good about your writing, and you are happier. Here's how to accomplish this mindset switch. Identify the stories you have been telling yourself about your writing. These are all the messages that come up when you sit down to think about your writing. For example: "I'm a bad writer." "I have nothing new to say." "This is going to get a desk reject." "I don't have time to write." Flip the script. Now take each story and literally flip it on its head. Write exactly the opposite. I don't know how to write→ I know how to write. I have nothing new to say→ I have new and important things to say. Reprogram. Changing our default thoughts takes diligence. Try writing your new writing stories on a paper and hanging it up on the wall, or set an alarm on your phone and read your new stories aloud to yourself several times per day. When your old stories come back, shoo them away with a phrase like "not helpful." If you have to say it out loud, do it! Do whatever it takes to relearn that relationship to writing. If you were a writer as a kid, remember the reasons you wrote then: you had a story to tell, a message to communicate, something to say! You can connect with that kiddo again–and believe her that you have something important to say. "Writing is worth your time, reflection, and energy, perhaps more than any other academic undertaking." Conclusion We all know writing is vital to our academic careers. In order to maintain our productivity and our sanity, we need to intentionally cultivate a positive relationship with that part of our academic lives. No amount of pushing ourselves to write will be as effective if we don't get this right first. If you need more ideas on how to find time to write, head here to grab my FREE PDF download: 10 ways to make time to write. Start taking action today to write and publish more and FEEL BETTER about it! Connect with me: Website Facebook Group Facebook Page Originally published at https://www.cathymazak.com/episode5

Discover strategies for managing overwork in academia and creating an ideal week with a visualized calendar. Learn how to prioritize deep work over shallow tasks, understand the impact of fast capitalism, and make time for writing and research in a competitive market.

For successful execution of the day-to-day tasks of academia, especially writing, we need to be good project managers. As academic women, we are required to balance multiple projects at the same time, from writing and publishing to course prep to service work. The day-to-day project management tasks of the academic life are not part of our training. In some cases, these tasks are modeled by excellent mentors,but most of the time we're making it up as we go along. If you've been following along, you know that I'm on a one-woman mission to reveal all the "secrets" of how to do academia successfully so that we can all be happier, healthier, and more fulfilled in our careers. In this episode, we're looking at how project management can help accomplish these goals. "Without a system for project management, you're going to feel overwhelmed and exhausted all the time, no matter how much progress you're actually making." -Cathy Mazak Understanding the Basics of Academic Project Management Before we jump in to how to build and execute our project management systems, it's important to understand a few basic skills. Not all writing tasks involve actual writing. When I say "writing," I don't mean only putting words on a page. I mean all the things you must do to complete a writing project. These could include: reading, collecting data, analyzing, creating charts and graphs, proofreading, etc. By thinking about all of these things as writing, you will see progress towards your publication goals, even when you are not physically writing. A project is not the same thing as a task. The first step to managing your academic writing projects is to know the difference between a project and a task. Projects are big: writing an article, a book proposal, a grant. Tasks are small: Write the introduction, investigate competing titles, create the grant budget. Tasks are what we put on our calendars. Projects are what we put on our publication pipelines. If you've been writing "finish article" on your to-do list, it's time to break it into manageable tasks. Estimating time for completing each task is critical. Most people underestimate how long it will take to do something. The danger of this is that you start to feel bad about your writing, which leads to guilt and overwhelm, writing's two biggest enemies. Instead I want you to overestimate the time it will take you to do tasks. To maintain and perpetuate positive feelings about your writing tasks, you need to feel like you are "winning", checking things off the list, moving projects forward. If you overestimate the time it takes to do a writing task, and then you get finished earlier: that's what you want! Many of the academic women I coach having been writing for years but still can't put accurate time estimates on how long it takes for them to complete writing tasks. In this episode I talk about an exercise you can do to dial in your ability to estimate the size of your tasks. It's important that each task is able to be completed in one hour or less. Scheduling tasks in your calendar. I recommend one of two methods: (1) actually give each task a due date or (2) have a prioritized bank of tasks and scheduled writing time; during the writing time you pull from the bank of tasks. Whichever method you choose, be sure your individual tasks have a place on your calendar. Systems are the Foundation of Writing Project Management It is best to work on one project at a time, but this is nearly impossible in academia. So strive to work on one writing project at a time and move it all the way to completion. Moving a project through your pipeline and to completion is dependent on implementing workable systems. Here's how: Use templates to make common project tasks repeatable. So much of our writing energy goes to figuring out what to do next. A writing project management system eliminates this time spent thinking and planning at the beginning of every writing session. A "template" for academic writing projects is a generic task list and outline for that type of project. "The benefit of templates is that they stop you wheel-spinning by making sure you never start with a blank page." -Cathy Mazak Schedule time for project management. For people short on time, it might seem counterintuitive to add time to the calendar for project management. But this is a short, focused planning session that will save you so much time and energy later. You can use Trello or another project management tool, sticky notes in a calendar, or a bullet journal. The idea is to begin your week with the big picture of what needs to get done. Trust the System. Once you've set up templates for repeatable tasks and taken the time for project management, you need to trust the system and try it out for at least two weeks. Sometimes if I get stressed it is tempting to push my carefully laid plans aside. To combat this, I've adopted the mantra "trust the system." When I want to ditch the plan I made the day before in response to something new that's come up, I just tell myself to work on the things I planned to work on and deal with fitting in the new task when I get to my project management planning time at the end of the day. Need Help with Implementing Academic Project Management? I use Trello for my project management needs, and I am offering a course to show you how to use Trello to organize all of your academic projects. The course is called Organize Your Academic Life and includes a complete set of academic project management templates, made by me, for you. In the course I walk you through how to personalize and set up these templates and workflows for common academic projects on everything from co-authoring to communication with students and colleagues to research and writing. To find out more and sign up for the course, click here. Connect with me: Website Facebook Group Facebook Page This episode was first published at cathymazak.com/episode3

Explore why writing every day may not be the best approach for academic productivity. Learn about 'tiger time' as a unique method to optimize writing routines and overcome guilt. Discover how tracking energy levels can lead to peak writing hours and prioritize writing for academic success.

Are you an academic woman ready to amplify your voice in your field, say goodbye to burnout and overwhelm, and harness focused energy to reach your writing goals? You're in the right place. In this introductory episode of the Academic Woman Amplified podcast, I'm sharing my story with you from my first love of writing to becoming a fully tenured professor while raising a growing family. I share lessons I've learned as an academic and a woman and how those experiences have shaped my life and career. On this podcast, we'll talk about writing as the currency of your academic career, and I'll share advice on how to manage all the moving parts each semester. My Beginnings as a Writer I have always loved writing and reading. From the time I was a little girl I've wanted to make my living writing, but didn't know how I would do that. In college I followed my love of writing and teaching from being an ESL teacher to earning my PhD in English language learning. After that, I went on to become a tenured professor at the University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez. Tenure Track, Pregnancy, and Learning How to Make it Work As I was starting on my tenure track, I became pregnant. Having a baby during this process forced me to figure out who I wanted to be as an academic. I also had to figure out how to do things efficiently to accomplish the necessary writing and publishing. Because I had to navigate the pressures of new motherhood and academia, I was able to develop a writing system that wasn't normally taught, but that worked for me. I developed a way to harness my best focused energy and use that for writing. "Motherhood really forced me to figure out how to get the job done in a more efficient way." What I Want for You as an Academic Woman Due to uncertain circumstances at my University, I started to reflect on what I wanted to do with my life and career. I realized that colleagues often asked me how I was able to write and publish prolifically despite a heavy course load as a professor and the demands of family. Through these questions, I recognized that sharing my knowledge with other academic women was what I really wanted to do. "My favorite part of this work is talking to academic women about writing." For the past four years I have been coaching academic women. Because of my own experiences as a woman in the current academic culture, I am on a mission to help women like me to harness focused energy, create writing systems and pipelines that work without the burnout, write to secure resources, and amplify voices in their academic arenas. Connect with me: Website Facebook Group Facebook Page This episode was first published at cathymazak.com/episode1

This podcast explores the challenges faced by academic women, including gender disparity in higher positions and the importance of writing in challenging the existing culture. It also discusses the need for inclusive knowledge-making processes and the importance of creating a sustainable writing practice and connecting with supportive communities.