Improving productivity in your academic writing is a matter of being consistent, developing a routine, and using the right tools. This often involves setting goals, avoiding distractions, and using ergonomic devices, such as ergonomic mice, desks, chairs, and keyboards.
Academic writing is a type of formal writing where you focus on presenting arguments or information based on credible and verified information and clear logic. It is typically more difficult than informal or other formal forms of writing, such as business writing and informal writing.
Success in academic writing depends mostly on practicing your writing and relying on proper models to follow. In short, consistent study and practice. However, besides this, there are several productivity hacks that you can rely on to make the process more efficient.
In this article, we discuss the basics of academic writing as well as the productivity habits you can adopt to make learning academic writing easier. This information can be useful for anyone who writes in academic settings. This includes students, professors, research scientists, and so on. Read on to learn more.
What is academic writing?
Academic writing is a highly formal type of writing that is done for academic purposes. These purposes
may be related to scientific communication or academic discourse. It is highly technical and differs from informal or professional writing in several ways.
Academic writing/language has the following characteristics:
It is carefully elaborated
It is properly supported by credible sources
It is clear, logical, and based on reason
It is coherent, rigorous, and complete in its structure
It relies on specific style guides
There are several types of academic writing. Think of it as existing on a spectrum or in tiers, with the highest tier being scientific communication meant for peer-reviewed journals. This would mean scientific papers or articles. Below this, we have dissertations/theses and conference reports, followed by white papers.
Of course, we also have academic essays that you need to write for college assignments. Lastly, there are other examples of academic writing that you don't often think of. These include things such as letters to a journal editor, correspondence with fellow academics, book reviews, and so on.
Why is academic writing important?
There are several advantages to academic writing, depending on your role in academia. If you are a student, benefits include being able to achieve academic progress, pass your exams, and graduate. All this would prepare you for a promising future career.
If you are an academic, such as a professor or researcher, your success depends on how well you can publish scientific papers. Ideally, the better you are at academic writing, the more likely will your research be published.
Apart from this, scientific publication represents the creation of new knowledge. Therefore, you can say that academic writing is the foundation to support discoveries and scientific breakthroughs that can lead to technological and social progress.
Lastly, academic writing allows us to organize and critique data or information to understand social phenomena or issues. Armed with such understanding, we are in a better position to find solutions to such problems.
Hacks to improve your academic writing
Academic writing relies on both An academic writing hack refers to small habits and practices, which, when applied consistently, can result in major improvements in your writing. In this article, we cover how academic productivity hacks can improve your writing productivity.
The four best practices that we will examine are:
Developing a writing schedule
Making outlines before you write
Using ergonomic devices
Developing healthy exercise habits between work breaks
Practicing "deep work"
1. Make a Writing Schedule and Stick to It
I am sure you are all familiar with the hackneyed phrase, "If you don't prepare well, you prepare to fail." It might be cliche, but it may actually work. Having a schedule that provides a specific timeslot within which you can accomplish your writing is useful to prove your efficiency and productivity.
There are many ways you can do this. Pick a time when you can complete all your writing in one go, and you can then have time to go ahead with the rest of your day. Too often, university students (and even professors too) wait last minute to complete assignments.
There are even students who boast about their ability to work under pressure and beat tight deadlines. I mean we are all familiar with that occasional student who goes, "Dude, I had one hour to write 1000 words before the portal closed. And I beat the clock by one minute. Guess who aced that class? That's right. Me! I'm telling you, bro. I'm just built like that."
Such persons do exist. And if you're lucky might be able to every now and then write a high-quality essay one hour before the deadline. But if statistics and probability are anything to go by, there's a 90% chance that you ain't built like that. Wait too late to start that essay, and you will fail!
How to Keep an Academic Writing Schedule
So, for those of us regular human beings who don't rely on supernatural writing abilities or inspiration under pressure, what would be the most effective methods or strategies to write right on schedule?
Photo by Mostafa Mahmoudi via Unsplash.
i. Wake up early to write
This is different for everybody. Some people find it more productive to write at night. Other people prefer working early in the morning. There is research, however, that for most people getting everything done in the morning is best.
This is easy to understand. In the morning, waking up means your energy has been replenished and there are also fewer distractions and things to do. Work and school are often scheduled for later in the day. Therefore, working in the morning provides an opportunity to enjoy peace and solitude while you work.
ii. Write down your schedule
Planning exactly what you will do and writing it down on paper, online calendar, Excel timetable, and so on can help motivate you to work faster and harder. If you plan to write two pages in an hour or two hours, this should be written down and should be followed religiously.
iii. Adopt an at-the-office mindset
Finally, the key to keeping your schedule religiously is to treat it like work or an office job. In a regular office job, you are supposed to show up to work at the same time and do a set amount of work or accomplish a set amount of tasks.
The same approach should be taken when it comes to your academic writing. Write as if you are your own boss and as if you would be fired if you don't accomplish your set goals for a day or week.
This type of mindset and approach could be quite productive. For example, for graduate students, it could help you complete your master's thesis on time.
2. Make outlines before you start writing
Outlines are essential to prevent writer's block. Nothing is worse than just staring at the screen and having no idea what to write about while a blank page keeps staring back at you.
Having a clearly defined outline can help solve this problem. The benefit of having an outline includes having an uninterrupted flow while you write.
Even better in addition to a detailed outline would be doing prior research. This can be done during your spare time. Try as much as possible to separate your research time from your writing time.
This would result in an article of much higher quality compared to just following the details of an article that has already been published.
Not only can you avoid plagiarism and copycatting, but you will also increase the natural flow of your writing, as the information you absorb during the research phase or phases will be at the tip of your fingers while you write to fill the gaps in your outline.
3. Use ergonomic computer-related devices
Using ergonomic devices can help increase comfort and productivity while you write. What are ergonomic devices? These are devices designed to provide comfort and increase productivity while you use them. In other words, they are built to consider function over form.
These products include mice, chairs, desks, keyboards, and so on. Writing often involves sitting at a work desk for extended periods. This can lead to boredom or even health issues.
Continuous use of devices such as mice can lead to strain in the muscles and nerves of the parts of the body associated with using these devices. This can result in long-term illnesses, such as carpal tunnel syndrome with continual mouse use.
Let's take a look at the various ergonomic devices that an academic writer could take advantage of.
An ergonomic setup with three screens, including a vertical monitor, and a wireless mouse and keyboard.
i. Ergonomic mice
Ergonomic mice are designed to ensure that you hold a mouse in a natural manner as possible to prevent harmful strain on the muscles and nerves of your wrist. Such strain can lead to wrist aches and carpal tunnel syndrome, which describes a numbing sensation in your small and ring fingers and other parts of the hand.
Ergonomic mice deserve a whole article on their own. In the future, I plan to write up a post on the benefits of ergonomic mice to provide more specific details on why you should use one. Stay tuned for that.
Some of the most famous ergonomic mice are actually vertical in shape. This is because such a shape allows your arm to rest horizontally while you use the mouse, which is better than using a conventional mouse where your wrist lies on the desk at an unnatural downward curve.
The main idea behind an ergonomic mouse is sustained comfort while you type. Using a mouse continuously can lead to wrist pain and carpal tunnel syndrome, which if it gets bad enough will seriously slow down your writing or make you stop writing altogether.
ii. Dual & vertical monitors
Dual and vertical monitors are also good productivity devices. Having more than one screen has a number of advantages. You can use one screen to do your actual writing while referring to critical information on the other. You can also use more than one program at once while having two screens.
Ideally, a dual or multi-monitor setup allows you to drag programs from one screen to the next. For example, you can drag one Chrome tab with critical information from Screen 1 to Screen 2, while you remain writing on Screen 1.
A vertical monitor can be especially useful for academic writing. Most academic writing takes place in Microsoft Word.
Writing huge amounts of text that often require no pictures or other visual input is ideal for a vertical monitor. A vertical monitor makes use of portrait mode, which is the best mode to see as much text as possible in Word and to ensure that your text formatting is ideal.
The technology and software needed to work with dual or multiple screens is often affordable or even free. Again, dual monitors deserve a topic on their own, and I plan to do just that. Keep your eyes open for that as well.
iii. Wireless devices
Wireless devices allow you to operate without wired connections. These connections can either be through Bluetooth or wireless dongles or USBs. Wireless devices include mice, keyboards, earbuds, and so on.
There are several benefits to using wireless devices. One benefit is that they make your desk setup look cleaner. Removing long and messy wires out of the way will definitely have you working faster and more efficiently.
iv. Standing desks
Standing desks are desks that allow you to stand while you work. It might seem strange at first glance, but research has shown that there are several benefits to standing desks. These include increasing productivity and reducing the risk of heart disease, back pain, and obesity.
Most versions of the modern standing desk are adjustable. This means its height can be adjusted to suit your height or level of comfort. Standing desks can also be electronic, which means you can adjust aspects such as tilt and height through the squeeze of a button.
They can also be manual, which would allow making adjustments to the desk by hand.
4. Take regular exercise breaks
Academic writing can be monotonous. Avoid turning your writing and research sessions into a slog. This can wear you out and slow you down. Think of blocking your writing into time units.
For example, you can think of writing consistently without stopping for 1 to 1.5 hours. Then take a break to do some light exercise that lasts for 15 to 30 minutes.
This light exercise can include taking the dog for a walk, taking a stroll in the park, doing a few minutes of planks, doing yoga, etc. You should make it regular and be consistent with it. This would help establish a pattern and rhythm that can make your work feel less tedious and monotonous.
Exercise is ideal for breaking because you need to make up for long periods of sitting while working. Especially if you don't already have a standing desk that can help boost your energy and keep you somewhat active while working, taking exercise breaks is something that you can benefit from.
5. Practice the Deep Work method
Deep work is a relatively recent concept that is increasingly being adopted among scholars and other white-collar workers. It is based on a book written by Cal Newport. It includes a number of strategies that one can use to focus deeply and work efficiently in a modern world driven by the digital economy. We will briefly mention a few of these strategies here.
If we were to adapt the theory of Deep Work to the world of scholarship or academia (and Cal Newport is primarily an academic in terms of work output), this would mean developing two internal resources:
The ability to quickly master hard things
The ability to produce at an elite level in terms of productivity and speed.
This ability for academics, for example, would translate into increasing the rate or number of papers published in top-tier journals. Several methods can be adopted to achieve this goal.
Some of them or certain aspects of them have been briefly touched upon earlier in this article. Here are three of these strategies that we can put to practical use:
i. Avoid altogether or severely restrict social media. Deep work means intense focus and concentration on a cognitively demanding task. This excludes switching from light browsing on the web to the task at hand.
Analyzing a complicated relationship among your data should occupy your full time and concentration while working within a limited timeframe.
ii. Use fixed-schedule productivity. This is somewhat related to our previously discussed concept of adopting an at-the-office mindset. Fixed-schedule productivity means giving yourself limits within which to accomplish tasks that are properly planned in advance.
iii. Use tedious routines to solve troublesome pain points. Routines are part of life. This includes things like taking the bus, commuting to work, waiting in line to purchase things, etc.
These things do not need much focus or concentration. They provide the ideal opportunity for you to figure out troublesome points with your work, such as properly interpreting a complicated relationship observed in your data.
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Final thoughts
To achieve success as an academic writer is a total or complete process. You can't just rely on doing the proper reading. Instead, you should make it a consistent habit that is coupled with the smart use of tools or software. These tools and resources can make things easier for you, and there are a wide variety of options to choose from. These include:
Grammar and spelling checkers
Citation and referencing tools
Writing guides and manuals
Writing centers and tutors
Online courses and workshops
Peer review and collaboration
Developing the necessary skills to write academically might be difficult, but is entirely doable. Finding solutions to its challenges involves using the right tools, such as ergonomic devices that increase the comfort and efficiency of your writing. However, it is more than just that. Instead, it is more or less a lifelong process of practice and study.
Attention should also be paid to developing proper schedules for your writing, consistently good habits and routines, and most importantly, self-discipline to laser focus on tasks and targets that should be accomplished within a limited period.
List of cited works
Fang, Z.H. (2021, June 15). What is academic writing (and other burning questions about it)?https://www.routledge.com/blog/article/what-is-academic-writing-and-other-burning-questions-about-it
The University of Sydney. (n.d.). Writing. https://www.sydney.edu.au/students/writing.html
Cite this EminentEdit article |
Antoine, M. (2024, August 09). Academic Writing: Productivity Hacks. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/improving-your-academic-writing-with-productivity-hacks |
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