Your Career: How to plan a fruitful, yet realistic, summer writing schedule

For academics, no season is looked back on with as much regret as the unproductive summer. ADVERTISEMENT [Your Career Logo]( Did someone forward you this newsletter? [Sign up free]( to receive your own copy. You can now read The Chronicle on [Apple News]( [Flipboard]( and [Google News](. For grad students and professors, no season is looked back on with as much regret as the unproductive summer. Freed from routines and obligations in early May, summer beckons, promising you long days of productivity sitting at a desk and typing away, not so much thinking as recording the words that a muse whispers in your ears. Things rarely work out that way, of course. By August there is a mad rush to have something to show for your “time off,” soon interrupted by the coming demands of the fall semester. Part of the problem is the tendency to overestimate how much you will get done in these months when the campus is a quieter place. And by doing so, you set yourself up for failure. Even worse, crafting an unrealistic summer writing goal might actually be harming your ability to write at all, inciting a vortex of procrastination, anxiety, and guilt. The solution? Set realistic goals and maintain a regular writing schedule. Instead of being rigidly attached to an overambitious agenda, it’s better in the summer to think of your writing time as somewhat more flexible than it might be during the academic year. It’s summer, after all, and you do need to recharge your batteries. There is a way to relax and be productive. Continue reading: “[Planning a Productive Summer]( by Noah Shusterman, and “[A Realistic Summer Writing Schedule,]( by Theresa MacPhail Share your suggestions for the newsletter with Denise Magner, an editor at The Chronicle, at denise.magner@chronicle.com. 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