In today’s post-COVID world, it’s more common to find people working from home than ever before. Health and safety are the predominant focus, but these factors have to be equalized with productivity in order for businesses to continue to be successful and people to continue to be employed. The problem with working from home and productivity is that time management isn’t an inherent trait in everyone, and distractions are easy to come by.

With the field of academics and the incessant demand for publishing, scholars are regularly finding themselves struggling with composing and finishing writing projects. As soon as one ends, another is often waiting in the wings. When a routine was established and distractions were minimal, this was just part of the day. Now, though, it can be difficult to force yourself to make time every day to write. However, more people, including academic writers, are turning to writing retreats to fix this problem. These retreats offer a challenge to individuals to push their writing beyond its current limits and to improve their productivity and overall success. Hosting a writing retreat is a great way to do this for yourself, and these tips will help you optimize the time you spend holding your own academic retreat.

Why are Writing Retreats Popular?

As wave after wave of the COVID-19 pandemic arose, companies and learning institutions were forced to try to come up with measures that balanced safety with the bottom line. It became quickly apparent that for many cases, this meant distance work and learning.

If one was lucky, they had the spare space in their home to create an office separate from their personal lives and any chaos that might be going on outside of their closed door. Others were forced to use a kitchen table and find quiet time where they could as their own children adjusted to the same virtual learning confusion they had.

For the most part, the new normal was slowly adapted to. But when major manuscripts and writing projects are due, distractions can hurt the writing process. Even without distractions, the extreme of being isolated and without support also inhibits the creative mind from being able to compose material.

Writing retreats are a solution to both of these issues. Getting away from the demands of a personal life and surrounding yourself with people who are like-minded and supportive is a great way to get the creative juices flowing and knock out your writing project in a short time. You can be the facilitator or on the opposite end, depending on your preferences.

Your Role as the Facilitator

When you get past the stress of actually putting the work together, being a facilitator for a writing retreat is fun! You are going to be responsible for so much productivity and relieving the stress of everyone who attends the retreat. As such, knowing your role and what you’re responsible for versus what to delegate out to someone else can help alleviate a lot of your own concerns.

Of course, you must arrange and manage the retreat, but what does that involve? To narrow it down to the specifics, this includes tasks such as:

●      Choosing the venue to hold the retreat

●      Determining the dates

●      Contacting potential attendees and speakers if needed

●      Providing participants with information they need in order to attend the venue, understand the purpose, and get a feel for the structure and what will be occurring

●      Offering advice to those attending so they can prepare

●      Giving a list of materials that guests should bring, including their notes and other resources

●      Greeting participants and ensuring they know what to expect

●      Setting the schedule of events, offering assistance to guests, and encouraging them as needed

With these tasks taken care of, you can move on to focusing on how to make the retreat a success for everyone.

Tips for a Successful Retreat

One of the great parts about facilitating a writing retreat is that they don’t require a lot of planning and organization. Most people who are attending want to be left alone to be productive; they just need the environment to do so.

More than anything, you’re offering encouragement and providing people with the excuse they need to focus clearly on their writing. You can restrict your attendance to anyone you choose, but for a successful retreat that encourages people to write, it’s nice to have it open to as wide an audience as possible.

When you’re planning the retreat, keep these tips in mind:

●      Have a time management system method that you will be using and get to know that method thoroughly. The Pomodoro Technique is one that is already used by many researchers, and this would break your retreat down nicely.

●      Offer refreshments during the stretch break, unless it’s a virtual retreat, in which case make sure you have the microphone and chat function enabled for attendees to talk to each other.

●      Consider the time zones if you’re hosting a virtual session. In person events should take into consideration the responsibilities of those attending. If you can offer a daytime and an evening event, you’ll get a wider net of participants.

●      Utilize programs like Google Forms and Google Calendar to limit your involvement. These automated systems remind people of the upcoming event and can even be set up to send emails regarding what to bring, where to go, etc.

Your role as a facilitator shouldn’t be an overly stressful one. People are coming to work, and all you must do is give them an environment where they feel safe and encouraged to do so.

Use Impactio for a Higher Academic Reach

Giving yourself and others the space and environment to write productively is important. The program used to put the work together is also essential, which is why many scholars turn to Impactio. Designed for academic experts, Impactio gives you all the tools you need to create finished work that looks professional and lets you be productive and efficient.

Impactio’s all-in-one platform gives you templates in which you can insert the information you want. With easy tools to build visuals like infographics, you can grab the reader’s attention, then finalize your product as a PDF document or web page. Impactio is the go-to program for academics who want to get their work done well without added stress and wasted time.