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diff --git a/2026/talks/writing.md b/2026/talks/writing.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..6b0400bd --- /dev/null +++ b/2026/talks/writing.md @@ -0,0 +1,64 @@ +[[!meta title="Close the writing accountability gap with Emacs"]] +[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2026 Blaine Mooers"]] +[[!inline pages="internal(2026/info/writing-nav)" raw="yes"]] + +<!-- Initially generated with emacsconf-publish-talk-page and then left alone for manual editing --> +<!-- You can manually edit this file to update the abstract, add links, etc. ---> + + +# Close the writing accountability gap with Emacs +Blaine Mooers (he, him) - Pronunciation: Mooers is spoken as "Mores", <mailto:blaine-mooers@ou.edu> + +[[!inline pages="internal(2026/info/writing-before)" raw="yes"]] + +This 20-minute talk introduces writing-schedule.el and writing-habit.el available on GitHub at MooersLab. +These tools address the challenge of managing multiple writing projects in parallel and measuring adherence to the writing schedule. +These measurements provide valuable feedback that you can use to close the gap between your planned and actual writing activity. +You can use this to make your writing habit antifragile, growing stronger in response to disruptions. + +These tools address also address the seemingly unsolvable problem of managing multiple parallel writing projects in academia. +This issue is also widespread in other walks of life. +Emacs can address this issue. + +Writing projects can span multiple days, weeks, months, and even years before they are finished. +Long-running projects need to move forward steadily, while shorter writing projects have many deadlines. +You can focus on only one project at a time, but you can make progress on two to four projects in a day by adhering to a schedule. +Scheduling recurring events with time blocks is a popular approach to handling parallel projects. +However, setting time blocks on paper or in an electronic application (e.g., iCal, gCal, or Outlook Express) quickly becomes tedious. +We harness Emacs to cut the time spent scheduling the upcoming week in half. + +The package writing-schedule.el uses an org-mode table to plan the week's writing. +Single letters are mapped to specific projects and added to cells of the table to assign time blocks to specific writing projects. +You can quickly reassign the letters to a different project if you will use similar time slots in the upcoming week. + +You can use a table from the prior year as a template because the pattern of discretionary time available for writing is likely similar from year to year. +You can create template files to reflect seasonal fluctuations in discretionary time available for writing. +Writing schedule tables can accommodate 1-7 day work weeks. +The information in the org-table can be exported as a list of scheduled TODOs for org-agenda, to a PDF file in the time-blocking format advocated by Calvin Newport, and to an .ics file for importing into iCal, gCal, or Outlook calendar. +You can shift the time blocks as the day progresses to reflect what really happened. + +The time blocks are assigned to different writing activities: generative writing, editing, and support activities. +You can schedule these activities to match your daily pattern of alertness and energy. +Morning larks can assign generative writing to the early hours of the day; night owls can assign generative writing to the late hours. +Both groups do editing best at peak alertness, usually between 9:30 and 11:30 A.M. +They can assign support writing activities to the afternoons. + +This is the ideal pattern, but real-life obligations disrupt it. +The record for the past week is compared with the planned events to measure adherence to the writing schedule using the dashboard produced by the package writing-habit.el. +The package provides several bar plots comparing time scheduled and time spent by project and by writing activity. + +About the speaker: + +Blaine Mooers is an associate professor of biochemistry and physiology at the University of Oklahoma Health Campus, where he specializes in macromolecular crystallography. +His research focuses on RNA structures and protein-drug complexes important in cancer. +An avid Emacs, LaTeX, Clojure, and Python user for many years, he builds tools that optimize scientific workflows, including writing workflows. +In this talk, he shares writing-schedule.el, which brings time blocking to org-agenda, and the template system he uses to schedule a week in minutes. +His aim is an antifragile writing habit that grows stronger through the disruptions of academic life. + + + +[[!inline pages="internal(2026/info/writing-after)" raw="yes"]] + +[[!inline pages="internal(2026/info/writing-nav)" raw="yes"]] + + |
