Get the first draft written. It may be too short or too long, poorly expressed or incompletely sourced, but find your way to the end of the draft. Don't linger over it. Get enough clay on the table to work with-- your best work will happen in two places, planning, when anything is possible, and revising, when you begin thinking about audience and form more directly. The first draft bridges the two. Allow yourself to get there.

Learn to outline, map, or sketch drafts so that you can develop a view of where you intend to go and solve problems in advance.

While many must begin at the beginning-- write the introduction to an article, essay, or chapter-- allow yourself to compose the part of a piece you are most confident of or prepared to compose. It's okay to begin in the middle.

Be generous with yourself. Writing practices change over time. If you find yourself drifting from your goal, simply start again.

Study the craft of writing for your discipline; make that work part of your writing work.

Experiment with constancy and moderation as a principle for production, rather than binge writing. Set up regular times to work. Experiment with sessions of 90 minutes or less. Keep breaks between work days to a minimum.

Plan routinely and consider planning a form of reflection. Work with calendars that allow you to view the weeks and months ahead. Experiment with a Project Notebook that lists projects and the actions you need to take to achieve them. Take time each week for looking over your project goals and revising them.

Set goals that can be achieved and are evident as concrete actions you can accomplish that will move you forward.

Consider your work as a writer as a process to reflect upon and make adjustments to so that you can improve your work.

Use a project journal or log to write down reflection as you go and collect data on how you work.

Structure work sessions so that they have a way for you to begin and end. Ask yourself, What do I want to do, what I have done, what will I do tomorrow?

Begin and end at appointed times: don’t wait for inspiration and don’t behave as if you won’t be able to begin again if you stop

Develop a free writing practice so that you can learn to write on demand and subvert judgement that may interfere with producing text.

Develop regular contact with a group or colleague-- an accountability group or partner-- with whom you do not necessarily share texts, but check in on goals.

View the writing process in ways that are expansive and inclusive. In the time you set for writing, What contributes to tangible movement forward in a given project. This might include planning and goal setting, composing and editing, contacting people you need to contact to be able to complete work, or reading about how to write more efficiently and effectively.

Read journals in your discipline with a rhetorical eye. Consider form, audience, format, style so that you can determine not only where your work might go, but how it ought to be written for a specific audience.

Make learning about how to write more effectively a part of your work. Include that in the time you set aside for work and if a project feels stalled, reading about topics related to writing and productivity can help re-start the process.