How do writing scholars – people who write about writing, teach writing skills and research writing behaviours – get down to write themselves? To find out we spoke to academic Christine Tulley, author of a new and original Paris Review-style book on scholarly writing, How Writing Faculty Write. [click to continue…]

It’s official, being a highly prolific academic is the best indicator for scholarly success. Research looking at the careers of 2,800 of the world’s top scientists found that those who published the most papers also had the biggest breakthroughs and accumulated the most prizes. All well and good, but how do you get so prolific in the first place? [click to continue…]

As a productivity method, we’re huge fans of time-blocking or scheduling. We’ve written before about how it’s essential to top academics like Adam Grant and it’s cropped up in our own research time and time again. But what’s the science behind time-blocking? Why is the act of scheduling important to helping you focus on your work – and what’s the alternative? [click to continue…]

Everybody writes differently but one thing is the same – the most productive (and least stressed-out) writers have all developed some kind of personal strategy to help them write. This is how you find yours.  [click to continue…]

Some people equate being highly prolific writers and researchers with producing dross. They prefer to constantly refine and perfect The One Idea they have. Perhaps because they think their idea is so special. Perhaps because they think they’ll never have another idea again. Either way, we believe that the best way to improve is to be unashamedly and un-apologetically productive – writing lots, failing lots, picking yourself up, writing more and improving.  [click to continue…]

The path to excellence in any field comes through hard graft – that’s true. But research finds that scholars at the very top of their game are also highly prolific, deeply curious, with multiple, unrelated (and often quite bonkers) creative hobbies. So, if you want to be superstar scholar, focus your mind – but never close it. Keep researching, go off on tangents, experiment and play – hundreds of Nobel prize laureates can’t be wrong. [click to continue…]

At the time of writing, the top two trending articles on Buzzfeed are: ‘15 Struggles You’ll Only Understand If You’re Obsessed With Cereal’ and ‘The 15 Emotional Stages of Mobile Phone Ownership’. It’s safe to say that Cal Newport, author of Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, hasn’t read either. [click to continue…]

Everyone wants to beat procrastination – it’s the reason there’s so many productivity gurus, books and blogs. But do we really understand the root cause of our procrastination or even recognise the symptoms for it? Luckily, academics have been studying this topic for years and a lecture by Dr Tim Pychyl uncovers the latest research findings on the origin of procrastination and delay. [click to continue…]

Why do so many writers suffer from imposter syndrome? Despite a career as a professional writer Natalie Persoglio felt she was an imposter when it came to her personal writing. Find out how she shook off her self-limiting beliefs to embrace her new found writing identity. [click to continue…]