These four routines can form the basis of a writing productivity practice. Routine is important here. When you feel particularly confident of some aspect of writing project you may simply jump into each session, knowing full well what to do and where to go next. Time planning, reviewing calendars, and writing in a log may seem beside the point-- obstacles in themselves when time feels so short. Even in such case, when you seem to have hit upon a part of a project that itself acts as a spur to "flow", knowing that you have routines that help you maintain your work over time. These routines are built around the following tools, about which you can learn more on this site, Project/Next Action and Someday/Maybe Lists, Daily, Monthly and Semester Calendar Keeping, and a Work Log.
Review Plans (Project and Next Action Lists) Weekly.
Choose a day each week to review your short and long term plans. If you are using some form of goal setting notebook, look over your list of project goals. Add what you need to and take away what’s finished. Look over your Project and Next Action Lists. Look over the “next action” lists for each of the project goals. Add what you need and take away what’s finished. Look at your calendar for the coming week. Decide when you will write. Decide what you want to accomplish this week.
Review Your Weekly, Monthly and Semester Long Calendar.
At your weekly review sessions, take time to look ahead at your weekly commitments, as well as deadlines, benchmarks and commitments that are coming up in the next month and and over the semester. Academic schedules have the advantage of routine. Times when you can and cannot work on your project can be quite clear from the start. Additionally, semesters have their seasons, which you can also anticipate: grading, papers, departmental meetings, holidays and end-of-semester. It can also be unpredictable, and it happens within the framework of other personal commitments. That is the time landscaped within which we write. So that we can be flexible, adapt, and retain "locus of control" rather than ceding it to circumstances, review the calendar, even quickly, to remind yourself of where your goals sit in time and when next actions you take can occur. Map goals onto time.
Use Your Work Log.
Start work session by noting what you’d like to accomplish during the period of time you set for yourself. You might note the time you start and how much time you’d like to spend. When you come to the end of the time you’ve set aside, note what you’ve accomplished and what remains to be done. Additionally, commit your weekly planning sessions to this work as well. Over time, the work in your log will become data you can use to make decisions about how to work best and also will become a place where ideas grow.
Meet with Your Accountability Group Regularly.
Meet routinely-- weekly perhaps-- with another writer or with a group to review your goals for your project. Review your goals for the previous week, discuss what might have kept your from accomplishing what you intended, and, at the end of the time, take a moment to consider what goals you have for the following week. Use a shared google doc or some other collaborative space to each person’s commitment for the following week.