Interlude: Avoiding Distractions, Writing Environments, and Grant Writing Courses
I've been thinking a lot about distractions lately, not just how to avoid them, but also what leads us to them.
We often hear that we are distracted by our overflowing inbox or by constantly checking our phones. But what if the real root of the problem is not the distracting object but rather an emotional state we're trying to avoid?
When you face writer's block, do you ever check your email to get a "break" from the text?
When the writing feels draining, do you find yourself grabbing a snack or playing with your dog?
When a wave of loneliness hits, do you automatically open your favorite social media app?
This makes me think about how we often focus on avoiding distractions themselves. But maybe we need to focus on tending to our emotional state instead.
So the next time you get distracted, I hope you'll see it as a gentle signal to tune into how you're feeling and choose your next step with intention.
Now onto this week's round-up...
Round-up
From My Desk
How to Design a Writing Environment That Actually Makes Writing Easier
If your writing feels harder than it needs to be, your environment might be to blame. In this video, I share practical, low-friction tweaks to your work location, physical space, and tech setup so writing feels calmer, faster, and more focused.
Reading
Building strong grant writers in academic medicine: outcomes of early-career faculty enrolled in the University of California San Diego Health Sciences Grant Writing Course
"Thus, the program supports the development of a supportive environment for grant-writing success, which gets away from the solitary, unsupported experience typical for early grant writers, enabling the success of all faculty, including women and underrepresented participants. . . In our view, these intangible returns on investment are priceless. . . Institutional support for programs of this type is an important component of promoting the equitable success of early-career faculty in garnering extramural funding."
…Oh, and if you’re looking for grant writing training, you might want to check out my Scientific Writing Simplified course.
Safeguarding scientific image quality and integrity: what more can be done?
"Scientific images often require editing for clarity, like adjusting brightness, adding scale bars, or enhancing contrast. While such modifications are essential for effective scientific communication, a 2021 study by Helena Jambor and colleagues revealed that poorly presented figures remain surprisingly common, suggesting researchers need better training in visual data presentation."
Watching
How to Communicate with Your Dog, from a Westminster Champion
In this TED talk, Jennifer Crank, a world champion in dog agility competitions, shares how the secrets of interspecies communication can teach us to effectively communicate with any audience.
Connecting
Meet, Greet, Repeat with The Anthill – February 25, 2026 @ 2 pm ET
If you're a medical communicator and networking makes you cringe, this online session will help you make genuine connections through short, relaxed conversations. You'll rotate through brief 1:1 conversations so you can meet new people, spark new ideas, and discover new collaborators. Register here
Thank you so much for reading.
Warmly,
Crystal
