Maintaining Writing Momentum (When Results Feel Out of Your Control)
Academic writing can feel like an endless cycle of hope, anxiety, and (if you’re lucky) occasional relief. You do the work, send your submission off, and then wait for a verdict from an opaque process you can’t control.
It pains me to admit that last part, because I’ve built my editing business around leveraging many of the factors in publishing that can be controlled (Is your paper telling an important, engaging story? Is it clear and easy to read? Does it come across as trustworthy and convincing?).
But after 16 years, I know full well that one biased reviewer or ill-timed shuffle in the editorial team can ruin a paper’s chances of acceptance, totally independent of its quality. And when submitting feels high-risk or even hopeless, it becomes very difficult to do the one thing you absolutely must do if you’re going to succeed as an academic: Write. A lot.
The most productive scholars know that writing momentum is everything, because that process of generating journal-ready outputs is the only part of the publishing ecosystem you control. So instead of making acceptances, impact factors, or line items on their CV the motivating reward, these hyper-productive scholars make the process itself the win.
Let’s talk about how to make that shift.
Results Are Lagging Indicators. Process Is Not.
Publication outcomes reflect work you did years ago, filtered through layers of factors you can’t always even identify, let alone influence (e.g., reviewer assignments, editorial priorities, trends in the field, and more). So if your motivation to continue is tied primarily to those external results, you’re essentially rolling the dice on your professional and emotional well-being.
Process, on the other hand, is a leading indicator:
Did you write today (even for 10 minutes)?
Did you move your most promising manuscript one small step forward?
Did you open the document when you said you would, instead of waiting for magical “free time” this week?
These choices are within your control. And they’re the only way any of those lagging indicators can ever follow. Put differently, I can’t guarantee that I’ll be strong and healthy at 70 if I go for a walk tomorrow morning. But I can guarantee that I won’t be if I never walk. So why not commit to the obviously better choice for my future self?
Redefine Success to Make the Process Its Own Reward
If you define success as “paper accepted,” “tenure file approved,” or “funding secured,” you probably won’t feel like a successful academic very often. Those are important milestones, of course, but they don’t exactly show up on a regular basis.
So instead, try defining success in terms of simply showing up for the process. Process-based wins accumulate to become momentum. And momentum produces those milestone results that you’re after.
To bake some immediate, accessible rewards into the process of writing and revising:
Shrink the Task Until It Feels Doable
The vast majority of my clients who struggle with procrastination aren’t doing too little (even though they tell me that’s the problem)—they’re actually doing too much. Or rather, they’re assigning themselves too much, and the end result is that they’re unable to do anything at all.
The fact is, if you’re resisting your writing sessions at all, they’re too long. You don’t want to be fighting yourself over this. So shrink your goal until your inner wild child goes quiet. Writing daily feels extremely onerous for most people. Start with two days a week. Ditto for hours in your calendar of writing time. Start with 15 minutes per session instead (set a timer).
Likewise, break up nebulous, daunting problems into concrete, doable tasks (and learn the difference between the two). Smaller, shorter tasks are easier to start, easier to finish, and easier to feel good about. That feeling of “I did what I said I’d do” is itself a reward.
The most common fear that people have when I share this advice is falling behind: “How will I ever accomplish anything in two 15-minute sessions a week? I’ll publish one paper a decade while everyone around me is churning out one per month!” Deep breaths. It’s more likely you’ll accomplish even less if you try to sustain a pace that part of you already knows is unsustainable. Trust the process, keep your eyes on your own lane, and continue at a pace you can manage—knowing that pace will naturally increase substantially with experience. In 16 years of working with business school professors, I’ve yet to meet someone who tanked their career with this approach (quite the opposite).
Build a Writing Ritual You Actually Enjoy
Tie your writing time to a small pleasure or two so the process truly is its own immediate reward:
A special coffee or tea that you only drink while writing
A cozy blanket, piece of clothing, or tech that feels unnecessarily luxurious
An expensive candle that only gets lit during writing time
Exceptionally satisfying stationery to brain dump any thoughts and distractions that come up as you’re writing
And so on. Pleasurable rituals become rewarding, even addictive, to the point that you’ll actually start to crave the productive habit you’re cultivating.
Track and Celebrate Consistency (But Gently)
I’m not a fan of the usual advice on tracking your writing “streaks.” In my experience, this kind of setup usually becomes a tool for self-punishment and despair, not motivation. Very few people respond well to the iron rod of perfectionism, and habit-tracking can turn anyone into a perfectionist—one missed writing session and the whole structure collapses, which can cause people to fall out of the habit entirely ("well, streak's broken this week, why bother") or to write something useless just to preserve the number.
That said, looking back with pride on how much you’ve done is inherently motivating, and there are a couple ways to do this without the pressure of streaks. My favorite approach is the weekly 5-minute review, followed by a reward for your self-accountability. Take 5 minutes on a Friday, for example, to jot down how many minutes or words (or both) you wrote, how it felt, and what got in the way—knowing that at the end of those 5 minutes, you’re headed out for a drink or meal with a friend, a date with some Netflix and takeout, etc. This review turns tracking into reflection and adjustment rather than a daily pass/fail judgment.
Another method is to use a jar of marbles, filled-in grid, or progress bar toward a total, with a significant reward planned for when that total is reached. I like that this form of tracking can be very tactile and that each session adds something (gain framing vs. the loss framing of potentially breaking a streak, which creates anxiety).
Use Setbacks as Fuel, Not Proof You Should Stop
Very few early-career professors realize just how many rejections and harsh reviews they’re going to get (spoiler: so many you’ll lose count). Know that your mentors and idols have gotten even more. These crushing messages aren’t necessarily a sign you’re doing anything wrong. They’re not evidence you aren’t cut out for this job. They are, unfortunately, par for the course. They’re also invitations to grow as a scholar.
Every time you
Turn a rejection into a concrete revision plan for another journal,
Use a tough R&R to clarify your research story and contributions,
Treat feedback as data about the paper (vs. your intelligence),
… you develop the very skills that every powerhouse academic has in spades: discernment, flexibility, resilience, determination, self-correction, and more.
The facts (and very valid feelings of rejection) don’t change, but the way you frame them can—and that framing is what stokes or stalls your momentum.
When You’re Stuck, Don’t Go It Alone
Sometimes maintaining momentum means gaining clarity on what to do next. Maybe you’re circling a demanding R&R and unsure where to begin. Or maybe you’re still reeling from a rejection and unable to see a way forward for the research. This is where an outside perspective becomes invaluable, and that’s exactly what I offer scholars in my Consult with Catie sessions.
During a 60-minute consultation, we’ll:
Talk through where you are with your paper
Identify what’s blocking your progress
Map out concrete next steps (with realistic timelines), including any strategic editing help you might need
You’ll leave the call with a personalized “story spine” to move your paper forward with more clarity and confidence, so the process feels lighter and the next step is obvious instead of overwhelming. If that sounds like the kind of support you need, you can book a consult today or contact me to learn more.
Final Thoughts
You can’t control who reviews your work, how long they take, and how much they like your ideas. But you can control how often you sit down to write, how you define success this year, and whether you keep nudging your most important manuscripts forward.
When you treat those small, consistent efforts as the real win, momentum develops naturally—and in turn produces the motivating results that compound into lasting scholarly impact and success.
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