Welcomed addition to my professional library: Review of ‘Guide to Making Time to Write’
The new self-help book, Guide to Making Time to Write: 100 + Time & Productivity Management Tips for Textbooks and Academic Authors, is a welcomed addition to my professional library. My only negative comment is that I needed it thirty years ago!
Authors often have two major issues when developing a manuscript: 1) how to make it professional quality, and 2) how they will ever have time to write it. There is a myth that every author wants to write the great American novel. That is not true. What we really want is to have written the great American novel. It is hard work and takes hours of time to develop a professional quality manuscript. This is where the guide becomes my Bible.
The guide helps you take care of the issue of finding the time to write by providing over 100 time and productivity management tips for authors. The numerous contributors to the guide are themselves successful writers. Accordingly, readers will have access to many and varied ideas on how to find the time to write and how not to waste time set aside for writing. They will be able to access the secrets of those successful writers in finding time to write and being productive. The reader will therefore be able to select from the different secrets used by various writers and thus will be able to select the approaches that fit their needs.
While the guide focuses on textbook and academic writing, there are many aspects that make it a valuable and must-have reference for authors of many types of manuscripts. In addition to finding the time to write, the writer needs to learn the secrets of how not to waste that time. The guide provides an outstanding coverage of that issue among its many time-saving suggestions. Also useful are the recommendations on the types of software to use, practical templates, how to establish daily goals for writing, use of sticky notes, how to divide your project into units for easier management, using the help of colleagues, how to focus on one assignment at a time, using checklists and numerous other secrets or tips to find time, save time, and increase productivity.
Download a sample for a look inside.
