Recently a professor posed the following question on Twitter: “People who teach high teaching loads (I teach a 3/3), what’s your writing schedule like? I’m struggling.” I am a professor who has always had a high teaching load. From 2012 to 2014, I was a dissertator teaching a 200 student Race class. The next three years, I was an adjunct professor teaching a 5/5 or 4/4 load. I’ve been a tenure track assistant professor teaching a 3/3 since 2017. While I’m in no way the most prolific writer, I have finished my dissertation, converted it into an award-winning book, and written ten articles/books chapters (seven published, three under review) during this time. So to answer the OPs question, here are the four strategies that I personally use to write through heavy teaching.

1) Being strategic with class prep.

Prepping my 200 student Race class for the first time slowed down my writing more than having a baby. Preps, especially new preps, monopolize professors’ time, so I learned to use class prep in service to my writing. For example, I write my lecture notes with citations and additional material (that I may or may not use in class). This makes class prep do double duty with my writing in that I can use portions of it in my papers; or if a CFP comes along on that topic, then I already have a robust start to a paper.

Also, I design my upper level classes around my writing needs. My Race and Ethnicity and Sociology of Sexuality classes both have a Book Club assignment. I select six new books on the class topic that I want to read and then students form six groups which each read one book and present it to the class. This gives students some choice over what they read in the class as well as exposure to a variety of cutting-edge research. For me, it eliminates class prep for a month each semester since students are doing presentations. I use that month off of prep to read the books myself and to work on my writing (which always ends up containing citations to the Book Club books).

2) Treating grading as the occamy that it is.

For folks who are not Harry Potter fans, an occamy is a magical creature that grows or shrinks to fit the size of the space it is in. Grading is an occamy in that it will take up all of your available time and leave no room for writing. For example, in grading undergrad exam short answers or papers, one could take a lot of time to write comments on each students’ paper/in their Canvas feedback. Or one could cut grading time in half by not writing individual feedback.

I started using the latter approach once I learned how few of my students (all undergrads and disproportionately non-majors) actually wanted all the detailed feedback I had been writing. Instead, most simply wanted to understand what they did wrong so they could avoid that error in the future. Now, instead of writing time consuming individual comments for all, I send a class email once grades are posted explaining the most common errors. I invite students who would like individual feedback to contact me, and then I write or meet with them to discuss their work in depth. This saves hours of grading time, which I then use for writing.

3) Using conferences to schedule writing and create accountability.

Before she founded the NCFDD, Kerry Ann Rockquemore gave professionalization workshops at the Association of Black Sociologists conferences. One thing I remember her saying is that teaching often monopolizes professors’ time because it has built in scheduling and accountability. We have to be in class at X time and day, so our lecture HAS to be prepped by then. We have to submit midterm and final grades by Y date or the Registrar will have our necks, so we HAVE to finish grading. Writing, she explained, usually lacks that built in scheduling and hard accountability; and as nothing bad will happen immediately if we don’t work on a paper this week, writing too often gets back burnered.

I use conferences to schedule and create accountability for writing. From requesting an extended abstract to apply (*side eyes ASA*) which gets me started, to having that date looming on my calendar which creates both scheduling and accountability, writing a paper first as a conference paper treats my writing like my teaching. In other words, it gives it a schedule by which it has to be completed, and it gives it hard accountability since public embarrassment will happen immediately if I deliver a sub-par presentation.

4) I don’t wait, I write.

Disclaimer: This final personal strategy exemplifies a lack of home/work boundaries. I am not saying anyone “should” do it; I am just describing what works for ME.

Upon publication of my co-authored book, the mom of one of my daughter’s dance friends commented on Facebook that she was there while the book was being written. And she was. Large portions of my book were written from the dance studio lobby because I don’t wait, I write. I keep a printed copy of at least one draft article or chapter in my bag, and instead of waiting-- in the parking lot during my daughter’s after school tutoring or at the laundry mat while an extra large load of towels takes another cycle to dry-- I write.

Technology makes this even easier. When stuck waiting, say, in a long line at the grocery store, many people pull out their phones to occupy themselves. I do too; and when I’m not on Twitter, I’m writing. I keep my working papers in Dropbox, which I can view from my phone, so I can literally stand in line at Publix using my iPhone’s Notes app to continue writing the paper.

In sum, these four strategies are how I personally write with a heavy teaching load. To be clear, I’m not advocating that others should adopt these exact behaviors. They are simply what works well for me. And that is the secret to writing through heavy teaching: Find and do what works for you.