Many of us who are generally productive academics are now finding ourselves trying to work at the same level we have always done. The trouble is that now we are writing during a pandemic. Things are not normal. We’re not in our usual routines. We may have family or roommates at home with us. We also may have pets who want attention. We hear distressing news daily. And speaking of days, they are melting together.
While some of us are finding that writing helps us cope with the stresses and distractions and thus are being highly productive, the combination of events makes writing challenging for many of us, to say the least. And so, many of us are finding it difficult to concentrate, to produce, at all, much less at the same rate we were doing before. And it is important to let ourselves be ok with that. If we don’t produce much one day because the kids need attention, or the dean called an emergency video conference, or because we just didn’t produce just because, that’s ok. It’s important to let it go and to take one day at a time.
However, many of us want or need to write. We may have a passion for it. We may have jobs that demand it. We may simply have something we want to say. Following are a few suggestions for maintaining productivity in a time of crisis.
