A New Way to Think About Productivity

Or, on conserving energy and not burning out.

My friends! Our writing retreat is over, and it was a beautiful way to begin the year. The Hill Country is one of my favorite places, and this trip didn’t disappoint. There was a decidedly high peacock-to-Uber ratio, big Texas skies, and a lot of new words now exist in the world. I hope you can join us for future retreats (like in Mexico City this May!)

I spent time at the retreat planning my year in terms of writing and editing. I’m in sort of a unique space where no one has any expectations of me—my career can be anything! I can try to write five books this year, or never publish again! can open space to edit five books a month, or only three a year!

Every year, I try to get the balance right, taking into account my personal goals, and how to weigh time, money, and what you all are most interested in (don’t let me guess! Take my survey and tell me!). I developed a new process this year that I am liking, and I thought I’d share it with you. It involves steps you can follow along with at home.

First, make a list: what’s on your agenda this semester? Write it all down—course prep, meetings, writing, research, co-author meetings, exercise, teaching, softball games…which are daunting, which are easy, and which are somewhere in between?

The Role of Energy

One way of thinking about projects and tasks is in terms of how much energy (or resources) something takes to complete, and how much energy (or reward) it gives you. These are two different things: some exhausting things are extremely rewarding (having children) and while some things are just energy neutral (playing Spelling Bee, in my experience, neither takes nor generates a lot of energy). You can see the 2x2 matrix this creates here:

How and why things take or give energy is pretty subjective—are you an introvert or extrovert? Are there internal or external costs or rewards? Is it with people you like or don’t like? Are there complex logistical considerations, and for you are those exhausting or fun puzzles? I talked to hundreds of academics last year, and I can assure you this list looks different for everyone. Some people love formatting references and making tables look beautiful, and other people have zombie manuscripts sitting on their desks because the costs of reformatting it to meet journal specs are too high.

Your turn: draw this 2x2 matrix, and start sorting your own projects and responsibilities into the four categories! Here are some ideas about what goes in each category, how to think about it, and how to use it in your planning.

THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE MATRIX: MINIMIZE THIS

Quadrant D: Gives No Energy, Takes a Lot of Energy
This is the worst category. Avoid at all costs!

One strategy is outsourcing: an accountant, trade responsibilities with your spouse so they handle the phone calls, have someone clean your house and do grocery shopping for you. Tell your kids they get an extra five minutes of TV for every pair of shoes that gets put away (is it bribery or teaching self-sufficiency? Only time will tell).

There are things you need to handle yourself in quadrant D, but those should be on a list that you tackle at very purposeful times. This is the formula: put them in a discrete time block all by themselves, reward yourself for getting them done, and don’t let them steal your momentum by thinking about them or tackling them during the week. If the things on the list make you anxious, do them all in the morning and buy yourself a fancy coffee as a reward. If they just are obnoxious, save them til Friday afternoon, clear the decks, and buy yourself a fancy bottle glass of wine as a reward.

I have created two hour-long blocks on my calendar this semester specifically for dealing with things in this category, and it has already changed my life. Instead of these things dwelling in my head and on my to-do list and causing stress, I simply know that I’m going to get to that whole list at a later, defined point.

Quadrant C: Neither Gives nor Takes a Lot of Energy

If quadrant D exists to suck away all of your energy, this one is like the frogs who slowly boil to death (although apparently that’s been disproven—science is wild).

This is where your productivity dies from benign neglect. It’s the thank you cards and the last-minute course prep and the quick committee report and the place where someone is wrong on the internet. It’s the seventy-nine browser tabs of winter boots that you should probably look at even though yours are pretty much fine.

This is great for those blocks of time where you only have 15 minutes, and you can track down those citations, triple-check Google Scholar to make sure nothing new has been written in the past few months, and reorganize your Trello board. But if again, it’s easy to feel like you’re being productive here, or like you need to check off each of these things on your to-do list before you do what’s on the left side of the matrix, it’s going to steal your thunder.

Your turn: what are the activities that don’t give you any energy? Can you chunk them and only do them once a day, once a week, once a month? Can you outsource, especially around stressful times/deadlines? If there are things that stress you out or make you anxious, can you designate one terrible time of the week where all of those go? These things often can’t be avoided—and indeed play a supporting role in terms of letting you do the things you do love, but the can be dealt with strategically.

LEFT SIDE OF THE MATRIX: MAXIMIZE THIS

Quadrant B: Gives and Takes Energy

Sorting through Quadrant A and B was the most illuminating for me. Here on the left side of the matrix are all of the things that matter to me—things I love. Spending time with my family! Editing! Most forms of writing! Working with writers! Dreaming about growing my business! Drinks with my girlfriends!

Most of the things in Quadrant B take a lot of energy. It doesn’t mean that I don’t love them and find value in them—I very much do—but that it takes energy to do it well. In this category are things like writing retreats, coaching, and teaching. In other words, projects that involve other people.

Now, I deeply love doing these things, and have no plans to stop doing any of them. But this exercise made me aware of the fact that I need to make sure that I restore the energy that doing them takes. I need to space out my social activities, and carve out blocks of time when I’m alone. I can also, as much as possible, isolate the technical and logistical tasks that support things on the left side of the matrix and punt those over to the right side of the matrix to be handled later.

Again, there’s a calendar hack for this: last semester, I purposefully staggered my meetings throughout the week. This semester, I’m trying to chunk them, which will allow me to make bigger chunks of writing and editing (aka solo) time.

Quadrant A: Gives Energy, Takes No Energy

Here is where the other half of the things I love belongs. Editing. Writing that doesn’t feel stressful. Obviously these take some energy—your brain can’t edit forever without your eyes starting to cross, and everyone runs out of words. But on projects in this category, they just feel generative. It feels like I’m on a downhill slope, doing things that I enjoy, I’m good at, and that don’t take a lot out of me.

I save these as “reward” activities for myself. I don’t put them at the end of the day or when I’m feeling run down, because they deserve more than that. But I don’t do them in my “A” block either—I save that time for things that demand a little more time and attention.

Your turn: What are you most excited about this year? How are you protecting time to make sure that these things get done, and you can draw energy from them each week?

All right friends, so this is my plan for organizing life and getting things done so that we don’t burn out in 2024. Let me know if it works for you!

Spring around Here

You all continue to keep me busy, for which I’m always immensely grateful. If you have a fun project in the works, here is what things look like this spring. If you and I have chatted about getting on my calendar, you’re factored into this mix (so don’t panic!), though it never hurts to circle back around to check in.

Editing: Are you writing a book? I have room to edit a few new books in April and this summer. August and September are filling up, so if you are the type who plans ahead, now is a great time to pencil in a spot for the end of the year. I have more availability for articles, grants, job materials, and things like that, but the sooner you tell me the more likely it is I can guarantee you the turnaround you need.

Coaching: I have no more spots for long-term consulting relationships this spring or summer, though I can schedule individual meetings here and there (if you want to talk about an R and R or your book proposal, we can find time to make that happen!). Again, if you’re the planning type, now is a great time for us to touch base about coaching this fall.

Writers’ Circles: The semester just started! If you’re feeling like you need a little bit of accountability to make sure your writing isn’t overwhelmed by your teaching and service, I have ONE more spot in my Tuesday writers’ circle (12-130 pm on Tuesdays, plus a co-writing session 11-2 on Fridays). You can get more information here, and apply here. If a payment plan would be helpful, just let me know. We start on January 22!

Writing Retreats: Our Mexico City retreat is filling fast! It will be held May 20-25, 2024. Start your summer with Mirya Holman and me in Mexico City, blocks away from Frida Kahlo’s house, getting all of the words written. Apply here.

In the Pipeline: Save the dates for a mini-AcWriMo the last two weeks in April, and an all-day, minimalist writing retreat on April 19.
Also! I am going to have exciting news soon about expanding the Epilogue Editing team to offer new services that I think will be particularly useful to international scholars, including drop-in editing hours and proofreading services (two things I don’t currently offer), so stay tuned for that information in February!

Finally: If there are things you’d love to see offered or written about, don’t be shy! Take my very short and painless survey and let me know what they are.

Happy first weeks of the semester, my friends. I’m sending all good things to you, where ever you may be.

Kelly