Tuning out distractions
Here’s something we’ve all experienced: you’re reading and something happens to distract you. So you go back and re-read the sentence, get distracted again, and again, and then you have to back up and re-read the whole paragraph, and then the page, and then finally you’re just sitting there staring at it, thinking “wait, what’s […]
The “dear diary” folks might be on to something.
Since we started the Studio Scholars program in September 2018, we’ve had the immense joy of being able to see—and help—a bunch of people making progress on their research. One of the more striking “there are two kinds of people” observations we’ve had is this: some people habitually record what they’ve done during a work […]
Giving your scholarship some love every day
We frame the consistency aspect of the February writing challenge as giving your scholarship some love every day or touching your scholarship every day. But why bother? Why does it matter whether you think of your scholarship every day? We know that saying “give your scholarship some love every day” sounds both lalala and woo-woo. […]
Soft re-entry
If you find yourself gritting your teeth and trying to muster up all of your self-discipline and determination in order to start doing something, it’s probably worthwhile to consider whether what you really need is to take the opposite approach. Around here, we call it soft re-entry. Imagine yourself, say, training a puppy rather than […]
Let’s talk about facing That One Thing.
You know, that one thing you’ve been avoiding opening, that makes you feel kind of sick to think about? It’s probably a document on your computer. Or maybe an email. Or a folder including several of either. For some people, “that one thing” is basically the gateway to their whole scholarly project: you need to […]
More on Plan B.
Most “30-day challenges,” whether they’re for writing, diet, meditation, or whatever, focus on consistency. Your goal is to do the same thing every day for the duration or, put another way, to stick with Plan A. Theoretically, the 30 days gives you time to see the benefits of a certain behavior and build a habit […]
