Resolve to Write

Always be writing! (i.e. “Publish or perish!”)

This is a good mantra for any scientist to adopt. Publications are how we show the word that we found something. In my last post about my new year’s resolutions I mentioned that I love when a resolution can be quantified, because it’s nice to know whether you are actually meeting the goals that you set for yourself.

I’ve never thought of writing output as something you could quantify. But lately I’ve been talking to my colleagues about their new year’s resolutions, and I realized that keeping track of your writing productivity is pretty easy! And apparently, a lot of writers do this. There’s apps and websites to help you track your word count. I think a custom spreadsheet would be best though.

I did find one article claiming that keeping track of your daily word count output is bad because it distracts you from the task at hand and leads you to value quantity over quality, but I think this notion is a little ridiculous. I’m sure that I am not alone in that I have a much harder time writing a full manuscript than I do editing and improving it.

I’m not gonna do try this approach this year, but I’m thinking it may come in handy some years down the road.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *