Are you an academic feeling stressed out because of the increasing demands placed upon you to work harder and produce more?

If so, you are not alone. The intense pressure of graduate and postdoctoral study and early career academia leading to mental health problems is now well known.

Publish or perish!

Have you had the excruciating experience of sitting in front of the computer and staring at the monitor, hoping that words would start appearing, magically forming sentences and paragraphs?

Have you ever given up after starting a manuscript, resigning yourself to the idea that you just don't have enough time to complete it now, but you will come back to it later, which never happens?

Having played the role of a student, postdoc, researcher, research faculty member, author, reviewer, and editor, Kasthurirangan "Rangan" Gopalakrishnan, PhD, fully understands and empathizes with the struggles and pleasures of academic work. In this book, his goal is to assist you to do what you are already doing more effectively and efficiently with minimal stress and possibly to identify and eliminate those activities and habits that interfere with your academic writing productivity.

You are invited to learn and explore how to:

• Overcome your limiting beliefs and accept the common myths about writing that can interfere with our productivity
• Set smart goals and develop a weekly plan and daily to-do lists that put writing as one of the topmost priorities
• Use freewriting technique to write a lot and produce the messy first draft
• Use writing to stimulate your critical thinking
• Set a timer while you write, and monitor your daily output to improve your productivity
• Use the accountability mechanism suited for you to overcome feelings of isolation, exchange and learn new ideas, socialize, and connect