New Year resolutions and academic writing: making it work in 2023
The New Year is around the corner. And, like every year, the popular media is likely to push you to make resolutions in January. And then, by February, point out that many new year resolutions don’t actually stick.
And yet research suggests that temporal landmarks are powerful moments to decide on small or big life changes. Calendar transitions, such as the New Year, as well as life transitions, such as a move to a new city, are perfect opportunities to develop new patterns: healthier eating, a commitment to going more to the gym, starting a new hobby, or developing a new writing routine.
Tying our vows for change to big temporal changes works because we tend to think about the passage of time as a series of cycles or chapters, and the New Year is a perfect time for, what psychologists call, a fresh start.
New Year resolutions and the need for others
At the same time, the problem with these studies on motivation and resolutions is that they tend to place the burden on individuals. Unless we are highly self-motivated and self-disciplined individuals, we will find that adding yet another task to shoulder alone is more effort than we can muster.
And usually, by February or March, when the resolutions have fallen to the wayside and the longed for changes haven’t been effected, we are likely to experience even more anxiety.
Instead of trying to do it solo though, what we should do is engage in communal rituals. We struggle to keep our New Year resolutions partly because these resolutions are not ritualized: we lack the support and structure of community.
Writing rituals and the need for community
Although psychologists have started to look at the power of rituals , they typically fail to investigate the main power of rituals: their social dimension. Rituals are powerful when they involve socially standardized rules and the cooperation of individuals assigned different roles. Birthdays for instance, only work when they have a social dimension. Graduation ceremonies, similarly, only work as a ritual, if there is an audience to celebrate the new graduate.
All of this to say that new resolutions are more likely to succeed if they are social i.e. if you take those resolutions as a group supporting each other, or if you have a social context in which to review and talk about how you are doing on your new year resolutions. Evidence already suggests that people are more likely to follow-through on New Year resolutions if they receive some kind of support.
Another great aspect of successful rituals is that they produce high levels of emotional energy: the kind of feeling that you get when you attend a concert, or when you are watching a great game on television with your friends; the kind of elation and enthusiasm that tends to happen in group settings.
The same kind of energy can be produced in a writing group. For the past few years , we have experimented with the creation of writing communities, online and off-line.
What does ritual have to do with writing? When it comes to writing, the ritual of writing regularly, in a community, has many benefits, as Rowena Murray’s body of work on writing communities and writing retreats for academics shows us. This collective writing practice is more than just a routine, though; there is the power of community. Murray argues that a community of practice helps researchers legitimise the writing process, and other researchers have found that after attending a writing workshop, participants were powered by the discussions and exchanges to continue prioritising their writing for several months after.
So, achieving your New Year writing resolutions would be easier, and you would feel more motivated to work on your writing, if you were to make those resolutions in a group, finding support in a community of shared goals.
And as an added benefit, the ritualized group writing practice will buoy you with a high level of emotional energy: the kind of feeling you get when you attend a concert, or when you are watching a great game on television with your friends; the kind of elation and enthusiasm that tends to happen in group settings. This kind of energy keeps us motivated to keep up our writing practice on an everyday basis.
Tips and Resources to Get Started with Community Writing
Here are some tips and resources to get you started on your writing community journey:
Create your own writing community: Start vetting your colleagues / fellow PhD students for who might be interested in being part of a writing community. Set up a weekly or twice-weekly writing session at a designated spot and time (face-to-face or even online). You can lead it. The idea is to create a welcoming atmosphere where people feel liked and comfortable, and the group setting makes them feel less alone and more supported. Then write in 25 minute pomodoro writing sprints. At the end, break up for idle chit-chat to foster a relaxed group feel.
As a bonus, you could also try exchanging your writing with each other in the group to get useful feedback from another perspective. This exchange does require writers to be brave, but researchers have found that although initially painful, the activity has been unendingly rewarding for junior academics.
Shut Up & Write: This group writing event first started in California and now has local chapters all over the world. The concept is simple: come together as a group for 90 minutes, but shut up and write for over an hour. The event is always free, and is led by one person who hosts it at a predetermined time and space in a city. Participants have varied backgrounds, and the focus is on writing in a group. This format does not support writing exchange and feedback. Find your local chapter and join for free, or create your own chapter.
Join us in our “Finish That Paper!” Workshop: We’ve put together a workshop that starts in the New Year and helps you realize your New Year writing resolutions and more.
Around the new year, you will see plenty of advice about motivation, discipline, and change. But change is hard without the energy and support of a community. So good luck finding or creating your writing community. And happy new year.