How I Finally Finished My Book Draft (Without Stress Hives or All-Nighters)

Last Friday at 5:47 PM, I typed the final period on the last sentence of my academic book draft. No fanfare, no confetti cannons—just me, my laptop, and a quiet sense of "Holy cow, I actually did it."

"Curteise ert e enseigné": Laywomen's Learning and Literacy in the High Middle Ages has been my scholarly passion project for the past few years. Like so many of my fellow academic overachievers, I'd been circling this finish line for what felt like forever, always finding new ways to procrastinate, perfect, or completely reimagine the whole thing.

But something shifted this time. I cracked the code on actually finishing. And I did it without pulling a single all-nighter, developing stress hives, or having a breakdown in my office.

Here's what finally worked.

I Shifted to a "Done" Strategy

I'm submitting this manuscript to a particular press and series (no spoilers yet ...). I saw the series editor at a conference in March, and she pounced on me and said, "Where is your book?!?"—yes, in just those dramatic italics. After my adrenaline surge settled down, I laughed and we had a good chat. She gave me a good (encouraging) talking-to, reminding me "don't make it perfect, make it DONE." To have this highly-respected senior colleague in my field taking the time to encourage me to finish, to set aside perfectionism and just do it, and moreover telling me she wanted to read my book ... well, let's just say it lit a fire of confidence in me.

I Got Specific About My Writing Sessions

Instead of vague "work on book" calendar blocks that were far too easy to procrastinate, I scheduled actual tasks on my calendar:

• "Read Chapter 3 draft and note places to expand or revise"

• "Incorporate feedback from Jill on the Corpus section"

• "Write transitions between sections 2 and 3"

No more "write for 30 minutes" blocks. Every calendar entry had a clear, specific outcome. When I sat down to work, I knew exactly what success looked like for that session. And the times I was tempted to put it off melted away! When I opened my calendar for the day, I found myself thinking, "Oh, I can do that. That's pretty easy."

I also asked for help when I ran into knotty problems. One of biggest stumbling blocks? How to incorporate material I'd already published. I needed that previous work to make a much larger argument in this book, but I didn't want to simply recycle it. I had lunch with a trusted colleague who'd been through just that and got her advice. Voila! A workable strategy that helped me keep moving forward.

I Hired My Own Cheerleader (With Editorial Skills)

This might have been the game-changer. I hired a fellow writer and editor to do a read-through and give me feedback on three specific questions. But here's the kicker—when I told her my deadline, she didn't just nod politely. She got genuinely excited about the project and started cheering me on.

"This is so close to being done!" she said. "You're basically there!"

That outside perspective was everything. When you're deep in a project, it's hard to see how far you've actually come. Having someone else celebrate the near-finish line gave me the morale boost I needed to power through the final stretch. And bonus: I now had a concrete deadline to meet and knew she'd be there cheering when I sent the files to her!

The Magic Formula

Looking back, here's what made the difference:

"Done" Strategy + Specificity + Support = Actual Progress

It wasn't about working harder or longer hours. It was about working smarter and getting the right support in place. With a clear strategy to be imperfect, specific tasks, and someone cheering me on, the finish line finally came into view.

What's Next?

The book isn't completely finished, of course. Once I get feedback from my personal editor, I'll make final revisions, add the front and and end matter, and ship it off to the series desk editor. Then there's more work after that! But I don't have to think about that now. Once I get the manuscript off to the desk editor, there'll be a waiting period of a few months at least.

But for now, I'm celebrating this milestone and sharing what I learned with other overwhelmed overachievers who might be stuck in their own perfectionist spirals.

And once I get the manuscript off, it'll be time for me to pivot back to my other book! Over the next few weeks, I'll be diving deeper into the strategies from that book project—The Overwhelmed Overachiever: Reclaim Your Sanity and Thrive Again—in a series of posts. (Yes, I'm writing two books at once. I know, I know—classic overwhelmed overachiever move!) Think of it as a preview of the chaos-taming toolkit I've been developing—the same strategies that finally got me to the finish line on this academic draft.

Because if there's one thing I've learned, it's that we don't need to suffer our way to success. We just need better systems, clearer boundaries, and the occasional reminder that done really is better than perfect.

What project have you been circling instead of finishing? What would it take to get specific about your next steps?

This post kicks off my "Overwhelmed Overachiever Toolkit" series, where I'll be sharing practical strategies for managing overwhelm without burning out. Subscribe to get the latest posts, and let me know in the comments what overwhelm challenges you'd like me to tackle next.