Episode 7 - The real reason why we don’t invest time to uplevel our academic writing skills

I know, I know, you have SO much on your plate as an academic, especially if you are an Assistant Professor, that writing papers is often pushed to the evenings and weekends. Because all those other tasks and projects come with deadlines and have other people waiting or depending on you. Whereas for taking professional development to uplevel your writing skills or for actually writing papers, there often isn’t any external accountability – let alone deadlines.

The problem is: When we don’t somehow make time to develop our writing skills, our writing won’t change. We won’t learn how to get published in top-tier journals. And we won’t learn how to make the process of writing take less time. So it’s a matter of investing time now to save time in the future and to get published consistently for the rest of your career.

I think the strategy to make time for both learning how to write and the writing itself is three-fold: 1) developing intrinsic motivation, 2) learning actionable strategies to implement in your work week and 3) supercharging your motivation with practical techniques. Today, we’re tackling the first part of the equation: how you can ignite your intrinsic motivation! And in the following two episodes, we will dive deeper into the other two parts.

Intrinsic motivationIt’s a topic that I think we don’t talk about enough. Having motivation to do something is incredibly powerful because once you have it, you aren’t relying on external forces like deadlines or other people to make time to (learn how to) write. I would go so far to say that when you are intrinsically motivated to do both, you will become unstoppable! When we really want to do something, we make it happen, we find pockets in our schedule, and we manage to not burn out because it energises us!

In this episode, I’m sharing an amazing reflection technique I learned from leadership advisor and author Victoria Song that will help you become aware of more subconscious blocks that are currently keeping you from investing in your writing.

In the listener question segment, I answer the question how to know when to publish in a mid-tier journal and when to aim for a top-tier journal. Happy listening!

In this episode, I’ll talk about:

• (01:30) Not having enough time to write
• (03:50) Importance of investing in your writing skills
• (04:55) Strategies to make time to develop your writing skills
• (10:34) Practical 2-step exercise to overcome your writing-related blocks
• (18:45) Listener question: Top-tier vs. mid-tier publishing

Book mentioned: Bending Reality: How to Make the Impossible Probable” by Victoria

Podcast host: Anna Clemens, PhD
Video and audio editing: Jason Rivera

Ready to invest in your writing skills? We got you! We recommend taking our free video training that gives you the birds-eye view of the Journal Publication Formula at researcherswritingpodcast.com/free.