Ask someone to give you feedback on a draft of your proposal. This person might be local (e.g., someone in your department who has had good fortune) or off-site (e.g., someone your institution pays to provide a mock peer review).

From the beginning, then, you need a “grants, not a grant” mind-set. The decision, for example, is not “Should I write an NEH fellowship?” but “Should I submit an NEH fellowship proposal at least every few years until I get one?”

Nothing helps a writing schedule like tracking your progress.

The key is the habit—the week-in, week-out regularity—not the number of days, the number of hours, or the time of day.

beware the temptation to reward writing with not writing.

just choose regular times, chisel them into the granite of your weekly calendar, and write during those times.

Writing is part creation and part criticism, part id and part superego: let the id unleash a discursive screed, and then let the superego, with its red pens and eye rolls, have its turn.

“Clearing the decks” is mental alchemy: We transmute the lead of procrastination into the gold of efficiency.

seahorses, give birth to thousands of babies but invest little in them. What’s your grant-writing species?