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Archive for the ‘perseverance’ Category

A giant construction project disrupts the lives and the commute of many people who use the Washington DC (or Capital)  Beltway and the business routes between the Beltway and the Dulles International Airport. This same construction project also raises hope among many travelers that one day they can take the metro the full 30 miles [...]

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If your goal is to work on your dissertation or your article, what gets in your way and eats up your time and energy? Every writer can find a million more important things to do, such as watching all the episodes of the first season of Downton Abbey in one day.  But what else derails [...]

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Is there a writer who isn’t lured and waylaid by the distractions of the internet and email? Is there a writer who hasn’t written about those same distractions? How about you? How well did you do today? Did you stay on task and reach your writing goal for the day? Or did procrastination and Facebook [...]

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 Mental toughness, self-control, willpower, grit— I turn again to these compelling strengths. Why? Because distractions, especially electronic distractions, complicate the writer’s life.  The struggle for self-control over distractions takes up more and more of your mental space.  What can you use to free your mental space in order to concentrate on your writing? What can [...]

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What could help you have an easier time starting to write and sticking with the writing? In the new book Willpower, psychologist Roy F. Baumeister and New York Times science writer John Tierney present research that willpower is limited, in part because you use the same resource for so many different things.  Since you can’t [...]

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When did you first hear of “decision fatigue”? Perhaps, like me, it was when the New York Times Magazine published an article on decision fatigue and you started getting emails from your friends and family with links to that article.  In fact, you probably received many links, and maybe the term “decision fatigue” has even [...]

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You have a long-term goal—say, writing a dissertation or a book.  And the going gets tough.  This is one huge project. It’s a long haul—it may mean months or years of coming back to that same project. It’s been going on for quite a while.  Have you stuck with it?  Have you kept coming back [...]

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How do writers manage their time and produce writing, even if they are taking on a subject new to them and are raising young children?  When I learned of an upcoming interview with Gretchen Rubin, the writer of the New York Times best-seller Happiness Project, I was curious.  I had come across Gretchen Rubin’s blog, [...]

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A caller asked if I had ever coached someone who had become stalled on a house renovation project.  My answer was no, but what came to mind was how similar all big projects are.   How difficult it can be to keep going.  How crushing the project can become.  But it doesn’t have to be this [...]

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Are your children home on vacation from school?  And you’re trying to keep an eye on your children, as well as make headway on your writing project? How’s that working for you? During the school year, most academics teach and try to write.  Both teaching and writing are critical for an academic’s success and are [...]

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