I apologise in advance for the length of this post. I've tried to keep it brief.
So my background is:
- I'm in the Humanities
- I have bipolar disorder (it started 10 years ago after DD2 was born). It's had a terrible impact on my functioning at work, and especially my research. For example, in the last REF my submission was reduced to 1 output due to all of the sick leave. Even just a moderate episode can knock a month off my writing time.
- My confidence has taken a big hit because of this. I'm mortified by how bad my CV looks. I've got myself caught up in a cycle of getting stressed over my lack of outputs, struggling to write due to the stress, which triggers an episode, which results in prolonged sick leave....and repeat.
- My Dean is really supportive and hasn't placed any pressure on me, although I think that at some point people are going to get pissed off.
My situation now:
- I have a book to complete & I need to make good progress this summer. I have 50K words written, but none of the chapters are finished. I've been focussing upon getting my ideas down, having a structure to everything etc. I'm happy with what I have got done.
- I think I've got about another 25k-30k words to write.
So my question is: what would a 'normal' person in the Humanities expect to achieve over the summer (in terms of number of words written)?
- My teaching has finished, but I will have all of the usual marking to do over the next month. I will have approx 1.5 days per week to work on research until the end of May. I will be completely free to work on research during June, July, and August.
- I'm really bad at overestimating how much I can do, which makes me stressed, which stops me writing...you get the picture. I need to get out of this cycle and manage the stress more effectively, but I really don't know what's a reasonable target--it would be great hear what other people aim to achieve. And any tips on stress management would be helpful!