Remember the ‘one-third rule’Managing your time for writing and revising
Writing can be a time-consuming process. Many scientific and technical professionals feel overwhelmed by the amount of time needed to write ‘essential’ documents such as papers, theses, reports and grant proposals – not to mention ‘optional’ tasks such as reviews, book chapters and magazine articles.
Yet, writing is so essential to a successful scientific career that we simply must find ways of doing it efficiently. Here are some tips that will help you to make the most of your writing time, and feel better about your productivity.
Remember the ‘one-third rule’
For major writing projects, a rough rule of thumb is ‘one-third planning, one-third writing, one-third revising’. It may seem daunting to spend so much time on planning your work, but it will pay dividends. When you do sit down to write, you will be confident of what you want to say, and progress should be swift. By ‘revising’, we mean the process of tidying up your first draft, sharing it with colleagues or your supervisor and incorporating comments to produce the second draft. At first glance, you may also think that a third of your time spent revising is too much. Realistically, however, you are unlikely to produce your best work without spending a considerable time revising your first draft.
Draw up a writing schedule
For a big project, it will help to divide the work up into manageable chunks, and set interim deadlines. When you draw up your writing schedule, remember to include time to:
• obtain references
• plan the project
• write the first draft
• tidy up the first draft
• circulate the manuscript to your colleagues or supervisor
• incorporate comments into a second draft
• prepare figures, photographs and any other illustrative materials
• obtain any necessary permissions, final approvals or sign-offs.
Break your work down into manageable chunks
A 50 000 word thesis seems like a terrifying amount. However, it is only 200 words a day for a year (excluding weekends, of course). Or, if you start very late, it is 2000 words a day for a month. Both would be perfectly manageable – all you need is motivation and organisation.
Block out writing time in your diary
Writing time is just as important as research time or meetings time. The danger is that it will be squeezed out by other duties. While some of us do find time to write in the minutes between commitments, many people find that they need to write in chunks of at least an hour, especially when writing the first draft. It takes time to remember where you left off, and what you want to say next. Blocking time out in your diary shows that you take your writing commitments seriously.
Make sure your colleagues are organised too
If you are writing a paper with coauthors (see below), ideally everyone should schedule writing and revising time into their diaries. Otherwise, you may find that just when you need a colleague’s advice or input on a particular section, he or she is too busy or away at a conference. In practice, your influence over colleagues’ diaries may be limited, but such organisation is more likely if you and your coauthors discuss writing responsibilities and deadlines as early as possible.
When writing as part of a team, define responsibilities
If several people are to take part in writing a document, make sure that the responsibilities of each member of the group are clearly defined. If you want people to actually write particular sections, make sure they know exactly what is required in terms of content and length. If you want people to comment, make it clear (preferably in a note attached to the typescript) whether you want advice on the scientific content, the writing style, spelling and grammar, or all of these.
Be realistic about how fast you write
It may help to check how many words you can write in an average hour or day. We all have our different ways of writing, and some individuals are more productive than others. While it is possible to improve your productivity by writing more efficiently, it is also important to be realistic. Even when things are going well, and you have no distractions or other commitments, you are unlikely to be able to write more than a couple of thousand words of carefully considered prose in a day. Trying to write a 10 000-word dissertation overnight is just not going to be feasible.
Make sure you have the right tools for the job
Writing is likely to go much faster if you have the right tools, such as:
• reference-management software (Chapter 33)
• easily accessible references (preferably linked to your reference-management software)
• reference books and background materials
• dictionaries, abbreviations lists, style guide
• software for drawing graphs and diagrams
• two monitors – as you often need multiple programs and documents open, writing and editing are made easier with at least two monitors.
If you work in a company or academic institution, it is worth persuading your department to invest in the best tools it can afford, so that you can write more efficiently and have more time to get on with the rest of your work.
Use spare moments for non-creative tasks
You may need peace and quiet and time to think in order to write your best prose. However, you may not need such ‘quality time’ to perform more mundane tasks, such as revising your work or proofing other colleagues’ work. Make yourself a list of tasks you can accomplish when you have a spare ten minutes.
Make use of travelling time
In today’s busy world, often the only time we get to be alone and think is on a long journey, by train or plane. This can be good writing or revising time. Take a manuscript with you to revise, but make sure you have a full battery and/or power lead (and adaptor if abroad) to allow you to work for several hours on a long journey.
Do not waste time looking for things
All writers should recognise that the average person can spend up to half an hour each day just looking for the documents or other items needed to do their work. Have an efficient filing system for your references, notes and other documents. Make sure that each draft is dated so that you can distinguish between multiple copies of your latest writing project.