Tag: #writeeveryday

Public Health Writing as Deliberate Practice:  Part 1/3

Developing a deliberate writing practice is a key first step toward becoming a public health writer. Deliberate practice entails focusing on a small part of your routine and intentionally, deliberately trying to improve through daily practice.

For me, this means setting aside 15-30 minutes Monday through Friday to write. I have learned over decades of writing anxiety and frustration that waiting for a block of hours or a full day to devote to a writing project doesn’t work. The time always gets filled and I never get all that I want done. So I end up beating myself up, further depleting my time and energy.

Daily contact with a writing project is critical for me to maintain momentum, to know where I left off and where to pick up. If I only have 15 minutes then I might write or fix a couple of sentences. But I’m there. And, at least for me, showing up makes all the difference. Sometimes I use my writing time to do research or work on things like ensuring my citations are in place and correct. But mostly, I devote the time to reading what I’ve written so far, revising as I read, and building on what’s already there.

The short time period is also critical. No matter how busy I am, I always have 15 minutes. (Thank you Joli Jensen for helping me start small.) Once I made the 15 minutes part of my day, I found that I could easily expand it to 30 on most days. Turning my writing time into a pleasurable routine lured me to the keyboard.

Most days, my excuses for not writing yell at me: Open your email now. Prep for class now. Write that letter of recommendation now. The voice is always loud and eminently reasonable. “After I do X, I will have time to write.” You will be able to focus better. You owe it to your students, colleagues, strangers you’ve never met to respond to their emails now. I used to give in to that voice every day. The problem was that I never finished those other tasks. I never cleared my to-do list. As Jensen says in her book, Write No Matter What: Advice for Academics:

“The point is that things never clear up. They don’t even reliably settle down. Our inbox is always full. Our desks are always crowded. There is always more going on than we want or expect. In spite of this, we can find ways to honor our writing by putting it first and making sure it gets time and attention. Otherwise, everything but our writing will get done.”

So my daily writing practice daily starts with something pleasurable to lure myself in and get me past the voice in my head reminding me about my wretched inbox. Below I describe my weekday writing ritual. I started in 2020. Since then, in 15-30 minute increments, I’ve written a book, started a webpage and blog about public health writing, and am now revising the BUSPH Writing Guide. Bit-by-bit, day-by-day. This is both my writing process and my deliberate practice.

I walk from my house to my favorite café. During the 20-minute walk I try to focus my thoughts on the pleasures of being outside (even/especially in a busy part of the city).

I take a sip or two of my mocha and focus on my breathing for a minute. I find the Headspace animated breathing flowers and purring cats amusing and reassuring. (If you are a student or employee at BU you can join for free. The link will take you to the BU pages where you can access it.)

I read a couple pages of a book about writing, practice, mindfulness, or something that contributes to my writing frame of mind. (I’m reading Still Life: The Myths and Magic of Mindful Living by the Boston writer and yoga teacher, Rebecca Pacheco.)

Then I set the timer on my phone and start writing. And I do my best to stop when my time is up. Somedays, stopping can be just as difficult as starting. I also do my best to focus on the experience in the moment rather than on what I am producing/not producing. My goal is what my favorite writing coach, Rich Furman, calls the “cognitively benign writing session.”

Read Part 2: Stretching Your Attention and Ability: Deliberate Practice 

Read Part 3: How Public Health Students Can Develop a Deliberate Writing Practice

Best Places in Boston for Winter Writing

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By Sarah Thomson, Peer Coach Team Lead

As winter looms in Boston, we aren’t able to take advantage of some of our favorite outdoor studying and writing spots. However, there are still plenty of options if you’re hoping to stay productive as you move indoors. Writing in public places is also a great way to be social while getting your work done. Writing can be a lonely thing, especially when you have to tell your friends you can’t go out because of a looming paper. Sitting in café or library gives you a chance to be with people, have some casual social interactions, and get your work done.

We’ve created a list of some of our favorite indoor places to write in Boston and hope this list will serve you well throughout the winter months!

Boston Public Library (BPL)

While the central branch of the Boston Public Library is located in beautiful Copley Square, there are branches scattered across nearly all Boston neighborhoods so you’re never far from a BPL location. BPL has space to study, read, write and also offers research and library services to community members. It’s a great place to write when you need a quiet escape.

Cambridge Public Library

With your library card, the world is your oyster at the Cambridge Public Library. Take advantage of free WiFi, public computers, extensive space for studying, writing and reading and community meeting spaces if you’ll be working in a group. With multiple branches, this library system is accessible to anyone living or working near Cambridge and is accessible by public transit.

Alumni Medical Library

If you’re on campus, look no further than the Alumni Medical Library. Located on the 12th and 13th floors of the Boston University Medical School, you can take advantage of research services, book a study room, order/check out books and articles and sit wherever you’re comfortable. This is a great space for quiet productivity and the perfect campus spot to write and work.

Trident Booksellers and Café

Trident brands itself as your “third place”—not your home, not your workplace, but a place where you can come to drink coffee, engage in conversation, and get down to business. A Boston staple for the past 40 years, Trident is both a bookstore and a café and the perfect spot to grab a snack, a drink, and get writing. The cozy ambiance is a bonus, too.

JAHO Coffee

Conveniently located on Washington Street, JAHO is the ideal place for lovers of coffee, tea, bubble tea, baked goods, good eats and productive Sundays alike. The South End location is down the street from BUSPH, but you’ll also find JAHO in Chinatown and Back Bay. The Chinatown and Back Bay locations are a also wine bars (if you’re hoping to sip a spiked coffee while you work). If you’re feeling adventurous you can also visit JAHO in Salem, MA and Tokyo, Japan.

The Sipping Room by Breeze

The Sipping Room by Breeze provides a wide variety of teas and coffee directly sourced from Asia, and the drinks are fantastic for writers who like to sip while they work. The ambiance is also lovely, and the matcha tea is a must for those who venture to the Sipping Room.

Café Nero

This Italian-inspired coffeehouse is the perfect place to work if you like a bustling spot. Café Nero also has locations across the city (our favorites are in Fenway and Fort Point) and you’ll always be inspired by the people around you, hard at work, as the café is often busy. They offer delicious drinks, snacks, and a large menu of food items. It’s the perfect place to be in winter when the fireplaces are blazing.

Farmer Horse Coffee

Located on Massachusetts Avenue, this small local coffee shop offers quick service, stunning décor, and a variety of places to sit where you can get comfortable and start your work for the day. They also serve various drinks and snacks throughout the day. Their sandwiches are something special and this is a relaxing spot to dive into whatever project you’re working on.

Pavement Coffee House

Pavement Coffee House boasts eight locations in Boston and is independent and locally-owned. They sell a wide array of drinks, and you can purchase their coffee grounds to bring a taste of Pavement home with you as well. They make their own bagels in house, and patrons love the atmosphere here, while students frequent the various locations to write and collaborate with their peers.

Forge Baking Company

If you’re in Somerville or looking for a good destination for a walk across the river, check out Forge Baking Company. Always shifting art exhibits, great sandwiches and desserts, and the best mochas north of the Charles. The Forge owners have two other excellent cafés in Somerville: Diesel in Davis Square and Bloc 11 in Union.

Caffé Bene

You walk past it all the time, right on Mass Ave and Huntington (opposite the BSO), and up a short flight of stairs. One member of our team has been passing it for years and finally went in. The space is cozy but fairly large. You can get your beverages in actual ceramic mugs (just be sure to ask). And the ice cream desserts are massive. While there’s only one Caffé Bene in Boston, it’s the largest coffee house chain in South Korea. If you go there to work, you can imagine that you are part of a community of writers toiling away over hot drinks across the globe.

Knowing When to Stop

 

OrangeOwl

Last week I wrote about developing a daily writing practice. I was talking about the many real and perceived barriers that stop professors from sitting down and writing for 15-30 minutes every day. Today I’ll share some thoughts about knowing when to close your laptop, stand-up, and walk away.

Once you finally get into your chair, close your Outlook and Gmail, go through your focusing ritual, and open your document what happens? I often start by reading what I've written so far, sometimes making small tweaks as I go. Once I’ve started doing that, I usually end up losing myself in the process. I start writing where I left off or I find a gap that needs to be filled for the about-to-be-written section to make sense. I often lose track of time and can find myself typing away or hyper-focused on something small like how to word a transition. Either way, I’m in my document. I’m still sitting in Jaho, or in my office, or on my couch. But my thoughts and attention are somewhere else. Getting into that state of flow is wonderful, but I’ve found that the line between flow and stubborn self-abuse can be very fine.

You’re finally writing. You can’t stop now. You did almost nothing. Forget about moving your body and taking that sip of water. Keep going. Accomplish something!! This is the self-talk that keeps me tied to my chair for far too long.

My legs ache, my jaw clenches, and I’m writing, deleting, and rewriting the same unimportant sentence again and again. Once stubborn takes hold, standing up and walking away is harder and harder. I can’t count how many times it’s kept me in my office until 11:00 pm on a Friday night.

Michelle Boyd introduced me to the importance of ending well. End well to make starting tomorrow easier. And Rich Furman taught me how to use a timer, to recognize can’t-get-up, body-cramped refusal to stop for what it is. To not confuse self-abuse with my writing process.

He even suggested that I write a note to myself on an index card. “I have no writing goal. I have a writing process. It is not my job to abuse myself with Draconian writing expectations. My job is to have quality writing sessions.” I’ve been carrying that card around for a year.

If I stop when my orange owl egg-timer tells me that 30 minutes are up, I know where and how to start the next time I sit down. And I walk away feeling virtuous for having done my 30 minutes, without giving the negative voice in my head a chance to tell me all I didn’t do. I don’t always remember to start the timer. I didn’t when I sat down to write this, and I probably spent too much time. So here I am, ending well, before frustration kicks in.

August Writing

It’s August, and it’s usually right around this time that I start getting anxious about all the writing I haven’t done yet. Like many academics, I have fallen too many times into the trap of doing everything but my own writing during the school year. I answer too many emails (though I’m always behind). I sit through hours and hours of meetings. I plan for class and read the writing of students and our Public Health Post fellows.

And I make bizarre excuses for not writing that go something like this: Working on my own writing is an indulgence I can’t afford. I need to respond to those 10-20 urgent emails now. They can’t wait 15 or 30 minutes….

Now, I’m one of those people who walks around talking about how important it is to write for at least 15 minutes 5 days a week. But I haven’t been consistently successful at following my own advice. So, the pressure of not having written lingers, eats into my nights and weekends,  and leaves me feeling vaguely unsettled much of the time.

This past year, I vowed to do things differently and to truly develop a daily writing practice. At the end of last summer, I hired Rich Furman, an incredible writing coach, who I met through my friend and colleague, Sophie Godley.

Working with Rich was one of the smartest professional choices I’ve ever made. He quickly shot down my “writing is a selfish indulgence” plaint. He helped me rethink how I spend my work time. And he reminded me of the importance of developing short rituals that help me block out all the other voices, turn off my Outlook pop-ups, and focus for a pre-set period of time.

Here’s my ritual: I start my workday by walking to Jaho café. I order my mocha and read something pleasurable or inspiring for 5 minutes (usually a book about writing or fiction). Then I get out my lavender or rosemary essential oil and open my laptop. I set a timer for 30 minutes (sometimes I’ll go as short as 15 or as long as 45 but rarely longer). I write (or do something related to a writing project) until the timer goes off. Then I stop.

I’ve been a faithful adherent most days. Since last summer, I started and completed the first draft of a book manuscript, and worked on a number of other projects. Most importantly, I’m learning to enjoy writing, to look forward to sitting down each morning.

I’m heading into August 2021 with that usual melancholy regret that the summer is winding down too quickly. But I’m not beating myself up, and that feels like a big achievement.

Good news! The Public Health Writing Program has New Webpage and Social Media Campaign

The Public Health Writing Program has truly arrived. We've been working hard to support BUSPH students, faculty, and staff for the last six years.

But today marks the beginning of a new era. We are launching a new webpage and social media campaign.  The days of creative Google searches and a lot of clicking to find all the writing resources we offer here at BUSPH are over. Visit our landing page to learn about the mission and scope of the Public Health Writing Program, writing and library workshops, our Peer Writing Coach Program, library resources and tutorials, resources for faculty and staff, and much more.

We want everyone in our community to write every day, to think of writing as a process and a practice (rather than a product). Follow us on Instagram and Twitter for writing tips, inspiration, information about resources, and constant encouragement to stop procrastinating and sit down to write.

I hope you will join us as we embark on this exciting journey. Think. Teach. Write. For the Health of All.

The Public Health Writing Program Has a Blog!

Welcome to the Public Health Writing Program blog, which I have affectionately titled, Think. Teach. Write. For the Health of All. Watch this space for regular updates on events and resources. This is also the place where I will post weekly musings about writing, language, reading, and more.

Let's build a community conversation about what public health writing is, why it’s important to think of writing as a practice and process (not just a product), how to overcome the many challenges we face when we sit down to write, how to get help, and why it’s important to reach out, share your work, and ask for feedback.