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Bit #6 – Find an Accountability Partner

Did you know that people with accountability partners are 85-95% more likely to accomplish their goals?  The same goes for writing goals.  You will only hold yourself accountable for goals that others know about.  Tell someone what you are up to.  

For this week, if you do not already have an accountability partner, find one (or two).  Start each week by telling your accountability partner your goal for the week (specific, measurable goals – e.g., write for at least 20 minutes for five days this week, finish drafting my introductory paragraph, etc.), and end the week by checking in to share your progress: no judgment, very little extra work, great reward.  Besides, almost everything is more fun with a friend. 🙂

If you need an accountability partner, let me know.  I am always here.

Bit #5 – Log Your Writing

Writing is often a seamless fruitless task.  It takes months (sometimes longer) to see your efforts rewarded (yay, publications), but we need to keep track of the writing milestones along the way.  Do not just note the significant writing accomplishments.

To do this, it is essential to log/track your writing.

We pay attention and place more importance on what we track.  How many of you have some sort of fitness tracker?  Do you get frustrated when you exercise and forget to put the tracker on?  Exactly!!!  We want a record of our accomplishments.

When you log your writing, you have a record of your accomplishments.  At the least, keep a record of when you wrote (the date), how long you wrote (the time), what you worked on, and what you need to work on the next time you open that writing task.  

Logging looks different for different people.  I use a writing log (example template here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-3EMcyOTTjnoaiowXkAT_CGAin2Z9Me47Z31Xtzor3o/edit?usp=sharing).

This week, find a way to log the time you spend writing.  Be excited about the milestones you track this week.

(Want to know more…see this video (https://learningengaged.com/your-writing-tracker/).

Bit #4 – Generating vs. Editing

Gone are the days (or they should be) when we sit down, write a sentence, edit it until it is a beautiful work of art, then move on to the next sentence.  This practice leads to low productivity, decreased flow of ideas, and dreaded writing sessions.  Instead, we should separate the tasks of generating text (quickly getting words down on paper) and editing text (slowly making those words beautiful).  Most of your writing time should be spent editing.  Get the generating out of the way so you can focus on making your message strong.

When you separate the generating and editing tasks, you will be amazed at how your writing habits will change.  In each writing session (that you have lovingly scheduled into your calendar each day), you can choose from two options/models.

Option #1 – Split each writing session into two parts (fast writing for a period of time +  slow editing for the remaining time) 

Option #2- Use several sessions (the entire time slot) for generating (fast writing); use later sessions for (slow) editing

So, what does generating look like???

1. Write about your topic non-stop for a set amount of time
   1. Write notes to yourself
   2. Jump around (you do not have to go in order)
   3. Use headings
   4. List points
   5. Talk to a recorder, then transcribe
   6. Write AS FAST AS YOU CAN
   7. Aim for 6-7 pages/hr.
2. Write from what is in your mind, do not stop to look at research, notes, or anything
3. Ignore typos, citations, spelling, and grammar
4. Put in placeholders (see below) instead of stopping

• Learn to accept initially messy drafts (shut up your inner critic, no one is going to see your messy draft)
• You need to generate words. Messy drafts, with good editing, become amazing works.

Bit #2 – Weekly Planning Meetings

Hold a weekly planning meeting with yourself each week (preferably early in the week, like Sunday night or Monday morning) to help you plan your time.  If you do not plan your time, your time will disappear, and you will not know where the week went.  

How to plan…

1. Look at your week and first block off the items that are not flexible (e.g., class times, meetings, etc.). You can make these recurring if you have an electronic calendar, so you do not have to think about them each week.  
2. With the time left, block off at least 20 minutes for writing each day (be specific, do not just say you will write, what are you going to work on – e.g., “finish writing the introduction for the virtual writing manuscript.”  
3. Block off the other things you need to do (even the fun things).  If you often feel guilty about the fun stuff, put it on your calendar, and it becomes part of your plan…no guilt is needed because you made time to do it.

When something is on our calendar, we are more likely to complete the task.

Bit #1 – Write Daily

Binge writing is not a sustainable practice.  Research shows that people who write for at least 30 minutes, five to six days per week, are much more productive than those who binge-write (write for hours at a time). 

So, get out your calendar and schedule time to write daily.  Protect your writing time and if you have to move it, make sure you move it, never cancel it.

• When students understand the purpose of an activity/assignment/etc., they are more likely to assert effort.
• Understanding purpose increases motivation, relevancy, and saliency, which leads to greater retention.

Ways to increase the visibility of purpose for our students:

1. Make the big problem visible
   • Help students understand the impact of what they are doing at the class and industry levels.
   • Identify challenging and overlooked aspects
2. Increase communication
   • Include a purpose statement on each assignment (a sentence or two is often sufficient).
   • State the purpose for activities in class
     • e.g., “I asked you to discuss the concepts in groups before getting started because I wanted you to…”
     • e.g., “Sport industry leaders use these techniques every day to…”
     • e.g., “Writers use these techniques every day to…”
     • e.g., “Learning how to blend colors is important so…”
     • e.g., “When you reflect on what you just learned…”
3. Provide examples that support the given purpose
   • How are the knowledge, skills, and values being assessed used in industry?

Who is doing all of the work in your classes? Are you doing the heavy lifting, or are your students? If our students are watching us do all of the work, we are making things harder on ourselves and creating passive learners in our students.

Unfortunately, we never have enough time to teach everything our students need to know and have them do the work to apply and retain what we teach. One solution is to think about implementing the Flipped Classroom Model.

The idea behind a flipped classroom is that students do not need to come to class to be talked at (they do not need us to deliver information they can watch in a video online). The value of coming to class is to learn from us what they cannot learn on their own. As instructors, our value (and the value of coming to class) goes far beyond the content we can deliver. Our value comes from all the other amazing things we do in the classroom (e.g., provide experiences, elaborate on content, give examples, mentor, guide, facilitate, etc.).

Steps for offloading content:

1. Review your course content/notes/lectures and decide which aspects could be covered outside of class (i.e., primarily content delivery).
   1. Find resources online or create resources that deliver that content. You do not have to create everything yourself. There are many great resources available.
      • Harvard Project Zero (http://www.pz.harvard.edu/professional-development/online-courses)
      • YouTube
      • LinkedIn Learning (free for many institutions)
      • Coursera (https://www.coursera.org/)
      • Merlot (www.merlot.org)
   2. Restructure your syllabus so students consume the content before class, and the class days focus on working with the content.
   3. Create ways to hold students accountable for doing out-of-class work.
   4. Think about how you want to structure your class time now that you will not spend as much time delivering content.
      • Guided Discussion
      • Active Learning Techniques
      • Group work
      • In class assignments
      • Reflection
   5. Start small. Do not feel like you need to transform your class format completely. Instead, pick one or two lessons you could flip and see what happens.

Assignments are necessary in higher education for students to show mastery of content. Grading said assignments is often the most dreaded part of an instructor’s job. We must make sure the effort we put into grading the assignments is worth it. A well-crafted assignment that is not merely a completion checklist but a valuable learning tool is worth it.

When students see value in what they are doing, their motivation and engagement increase.

Ways to build better, shorter, and more efficient assignments:

1. Set up the assignment using a format that answers the following questions.
   1. Motivation – Why are we doing this?
   1. Clarity – How long should the assignment take?
   1. Checklists – What are the required parts of the assignment?
   1. Grading Rubric – What matters/is most valuable in this assignment?
   1. Relevancy – Can I enhance motivation by choosing better/discipline-specific examples? (e.g., “Think about how this reading is applicable to your future career.”)
2. Provide scaffolding
   1. How can the assignment be broken down?
   1. Does the assignment make sense as one assignment or a series?
   1. Can the assignments build on one another?
3. Reflection
   1. Have students reflect on the assignments (before/during/after).
      1. Templates: https://teachingnaked.com/study-smarter/