Are you worried about what your summer might look like as an academic this year? I’m sharing advice and actionable tips for how to get writing done, even this summer.   Summer has a beautiful appeal to us as academics. The spring semester is over and summer stretches ahead of us with the appeal of more control, more time, less demands. But, even when we’re not dealing with a global pandemic, we often arrive at the end of summer with a lot less accomplished than we had hoped.   In this episode of The Academic Woman Amplified I’m giving you my advice for how to approach summer writing no matter what your circumstances are like right now. I’m sharing goal setting basics, skills you need to develop, and the secret to having a summer full of ease.   We are living through unprecedented times right now, and this summer promises to be different than any other we’ve experienced. As I’ve been talking with many of you, I’m noticing some trends about how many of you are feeling, that seem to fall into three areas (some of which overlap).   You may have increased care demands this summer. Your kids are probably going to be home with you, you may have an elderly family member you are caring for, or other household members working from home. Your day may include much more time spent caring for others than your typical summer day in past summers.   You may have increased levels of anxiety. You might be worrying about the pandemic and its effects on your life. Much of your brain space is taken up with worry, on news channels, or trying to maintain connections with others through social media. You might feel like you don’t have much left over for writing.    Both of these things are valid, they make sense, and I’ve got strategies for you to deal with them. You might feel like you actually have more time and the opportunity to get more done than you usually do. Maybe a lot of time that you spent commuting or on in-person activities is now available to you. You might be balancing feelings of guilt over seeing positives in this negative situation with the desire to take advantage of this time. Well, I’m giving you permission to see something positive amidst the negative.    No matter which of these camps you see yourself in, we can make this summer work for you and your writing. Goal Setting Basics When you get ready to set goals for the summer, here are three things I want you to do to make sure those goals serve you well.   “There’s no way that you’re going to get anywhere unless you have some goals in mind.”   1. Plan Less to Accomplish More It’s so tempting to try and push through with a giant list of goals, but I am here to tell you that if you try to do that, you will end up with less to show for your efforts at the end of the summer than if you pared it back. Keep in mind the visual of a pipeline vs. a funnel:   Pipeline= a steady flow; when you start one project at the beginning of your pipeline, it comes smoothly out the other end. Funnel= a stopped up trickle; you dump lots of things in at the beginning, but hardly any of them come out the bottom, and if they do, it takes forever.    You want to keep your projects flowing through your pipeline, so the key is to only work on a few at a time, otherwise you risk the funnel effect.   2. Use the Power of the Big Three Scale your big list of projects and tasks back to three. Three is a reasonable number to hold in our minds, and to get done in three months. Focusing on a smaller number relieves overwhelm and frees your mind. If you accomplish those 3 goals early, then (and only then) you can choose another. This means you will have to get strategic and make some hard decisions about what to keep and what to push back or cut.   “Not every project is worth your time.”    3. Create Positive Feedback Loops by Ch