How To Reclaim Your Free Time AND Become a More Productive Academic Writer

Struggling to balance writing with having a life? These 5 strategies will help you write more without sacrificing your sanity.

Late-night writer. Image generated by Midjourney.

I used to wear my burnout like a badge of honour. Late nights fuelled by lukewarm coffee, weekends lost to a never-ending to-do list, the constant guilt of not writing enough or not living enough… It’s probably not just familiar to me but also to you. As academics, we’re conditioned to believe that suffering is a prerequisite for success. WTF? I didn’t want to settle for this, so I found a better way:

The truth is, you can be a productive academic writer AND have a life outside of academia. It’s not about magic tricks; it’s about strategy.

Here are 5 of my quirky (but effective) strategies to change your writing habits and reclaim your free time:

1. Embrace Time-Boxing to Defeat Decision Fatigue

Ever find yourself staring at a blank page, paralyzed by the sheer number of things you could be doing? That’s decision fatigue, my friend, and it’s a productivity killer.

On the other hand, time-boxing is a simple but powerful technique. I schedule specific…