Our writing process impacts the rest of our lives, and our daily lives similarly transform how we write. At one point, while stuck in the writing process, I considered all the things outside of academia that I found lifegiving and how they could inform my writing. What hobbies and activities inspire my writing?

A few years ago, I became obsessed with rock climbing, specifically bouldering. For those who haven’t climbed, each route is assigned a number based on its difficulty and the physical/mental exertion required. You typically warm up on the easy routes and then progress to more difficult ones. For me, climbing has become a useful metaphor for daily dissertation writing tasks. It helps me organize my writing tasks and return each day to the manuscript.   

Here’s how I started thinking about my writing like I do rock climbing, based on the level of mental energy each task would require:

V1: These are the warm-up exercises: opening the document, reading what I wrote the day before, and reading scholarly work that inspires me to write. It can be as simple as writing the title and your name in the document. 

V2: This section requires a little more mental energy. I add the bibliographic details, figures, and transcriptions last, typically while writing.

V3: This is when I address all the comments I left in the document, including missing information, edits I need to return and complete, and questions I still have. The heaviest work has already been done, so it’s just a matter of revising and improving. 

V4: Still tricky, but perhaps more fun, I reserve the V4s for the more “creative work”—outlining, brainstorming, and free writing with pen and paper. Research shows that we perform creative tasks better in the afternoons and evenings. 

V5: This is pure content creation, requiring high levels of synthesis and energy. It’s moving from a blank page to a draft. It’s also called “deep work.” As writers, we typically max out after 3 hours of deep work daily, and it’s often best completed in the morning. Deep work may feel painful and almost impossible in the beginning, but you will eventually get into a flow. 

Many days, I get up and write down the difficulty level of each activity. Stating my goals based on how much energy I expend on each task helps me mentally prepare and ramp up for the complex tasks. I color-code them, both to make the process more fun and to make them more visually appealing. 

When climbing, a lot of time is also spent off the wall. Rest and recover between heavy bursts of energy so that you have the stamina to complete your writing goals. Additionally, climbing is very social—find friends to “body double” with you and write in the same space. Explicitly state your goals and cheer each other on. 

Like marathon training, I get up most days and write, with intentional rest days 1-2 times per week. However, I’m not thinking about the goal—the dissertation at the end. Instead, like every time I go bouldering, I enjoy the process and show up at my best for each session. 

What metaphor works to help you maintain momentum while writing? Maybe it’s yoga—you gotta do that headstand before resting in shavasana!—or it’s Dungeons and Dragons, similarly requiring diligence and consistent spurts of fighting energy and short/long rests. Find the life parallel that makes sense to you and gives you motivation. Then, seek another method when that one doesn’t seem to be working anymore. Over time, you’ll get better at dividing up your writing tasks and create a daily practice to help you succeed!