Pay Yourself First
It is that time in the semester again.
- We’re stressed and swamped.
- We’re tired and tense.
- We’ve got lectures to prepare, exams to grade, meetings to attend, research to conduct, collaborators or advisors to satisfy…the list goes on and on and on.
Our many responsibilities make it seem impossible to carve out adequate writing time.
This is the time of the semester to remember the wise advise of professional financial planners:
PAY YOURSELF FIRST
Financial planners say that when you try to save money you will have the greatest chance of success if you put a small sum in the bank each time you receive a paycheck. Put aside the allotted amount before you pay a single bill. If you wait until the end of the month, you’ll be wondering where all your money went. If you don’t pay yourself first, your savings fund will remain empty.
It is helpful to take the same approach to academic work. Pay yourself first by attending to your own research and writing projects before turning to the responsibilities of teaching, or committees, or colleagues. Each day, find a way to devote time to your main scholarly project (even if it is just ten minutes or a half hour). If you don’t pay yourself first, you’ll have no energy left to spend.
Refute the misconception that you need a long stretch of time in order to work productively on your paper or chapter and remember that every little bit counts. When you are at your busiest, even a few minutes a day will help keep your mind in touch with your project and make it easier to dive back in when you do have a bigger chunk of time.
As General Norman Schwarzkopf said:
“The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do.
The hard part is doing it.”
Stop reading email RIGHT NOW and try to tackle—for just ten tolerable minutes—the work that most needs doing.