Follow a science writer using a motivation trick -- a STEM career glimpse

Do you ever feel a burning desire to start a new project?

I often do, and I use it to fuel the completion of current projects, one by one.

My experience is that new ideas are exciting--fresh, clever, perfect! I can't wait to get started on them.

But soon after starting, challenges arise--problems to solve. Maybe what I have is not as good as what I had dreamed up. It's taking forever. It's just plain hard. Then it sits.

Fortunately, I always have other ideas, and a burning desire to start on those.

Here's my trick: I tell myself that I can't start a new project until I've finished the current one. As if by magic, I begin to tackle problems, come up with solutions, and find extra energy to get it all done.

How do I make myself finish the old project before starting the new one? I have the discipline simply because this trick works like a charm.

The triumph of completing project after project and getting tons of things done makes me want to use this trick again and again.

Try it a few times. If it helps, you too might want to do it again!

LINKS

• This motivation trick is more powerful for small, short projects than the last two: telling a friend or keeping a hope journal.

• For a ton of links about science writing, scroll down to LINKS AND MORE after you click here.

Follow a science writer using a motivation trick - a STEM career glimpse

If you wish you could make more progress on a long, hard project, try this trick. It helps me. Maybe it will help you too.

I use this trick when I'm writing a book, and it's hard to find or make the time after working as a scientist and translator, and taking care of family, friends, and home.

I keep a "hope journal." It's not a regular journal or diary. I write in it only what I've done to make progress on one project--nothing else--every day, for two weeks or two months or until the project is done. One hope journal is for only one project.

A hope journal begins as a blank notebook. I like small books for my small hands.

Hope journals
for The Night Olympic Tea, Horse Stories, and two future books

First, write the name of your project on the cover.

Then, every day, write down the date and what you did on that date to make progress.

I like to circle the date, and to write in blue or black every other day.

It's O.K. if you don't move mountains every day. Do your best to do something, every single day.

Writing in my hope journal at night was too hard because I was tired. Now I write, first thing in the morning, what I did the day before.

For example, I wrote in my hope journal for Horse Stories, about a story entitled "Paco of the Andes:"

- I revised Paco in my hotel room, in pencil on a printout.

- I revised Paco in the plane on the way home.

- I started entering my edits into my Word file, from the printout I carried on my trip.

- I finished entering edits and reprinted Paco.

I submitted "Paco of the Andes" to The School Magazine in Australia in August 2008. The editor accepted it for publication within two months. It was published within a year after that.

My horse stories are fictional, but I do research, check facts, and consult experts, exactly as I would for science writing.

The funniest entry I made was in my hope journal for The Night Olympic Team: I wanted to highlight background information, to make sure it didn't go on too long, taking readers out of the ongoing story. But I dropped the highlighter. It left a spot on the carpet. ARGH! I tried to get it off with spot remover. When that didn't work well enough... I gave the carpet a haircut!

Keeping a hope journal is as powerful for me as telling a friend what I will get done before we meet (read my post about that trick). The journal works better because it goes on day after day.

LINK

• For a ton of links about science writing, scroll down to LINKS AND MORE after you click here.

Follow a science writer using a motivation trick - a STEM career glimpse

If you wish you could get more done, try this trick. It works for me. Maybe it will work for you too.

I use this trick when I'm working on a new writing, but have no deadline to drive me to make progress.

Sometimes choosing my own deadline helps: "I'll complete the first draft by March 31."

What helps ten times more is simply telling a friend. And what helps even more is telling a friend whom I'm scheduled to meet, what I'll get done by the time we meet: "I'll finish revising once by the time I see you."

For my writing, this works best with friends who are also writers. For my science work, it works best with friends who are also scientists. They understand what it takes to get the exact kind of hard work done. Their cheers are most gut-felt.

Best of all, they can also tell me what they'll get done by the time we meet. We can help each other even if the work is not team work.

Try this for a project dear to your heart, especially if it has no deadline and you wish you could make more progress.

LINK

• For a ton of links about science writing, scroll down to LINKS AND MORE after you click here.