Perhaps nothing separates successful from struggling academics as much as a facility with writing. You don’t need me to tell you that you should be writing every day at a certain time, for a certain number of minutes. You may be crushed with other kinds of work, but you neglect writing even for one work day at your mortal academic peril.

What should you write? Some will tell you that this is less important than that you write. You could write a blog. You could write cohesive notes for a future project. You could write a letter to your parents, or to your children, or to both if you are lucky.

But, since we are talking about academic success, it is probably best if you write something that directly contributes to that success: grant proposals and articles. But, you say, you have just submitted all the grant proposals you are…