How many miles should you run every day? Probably the answer will be "it depends." Who are you, why are you running, what do you hope to get out of the run? What are you training for? For me, it will be not running at all (a recovery day) or 3 miles, or 1-2 miles. Or a longer run / walk of 4 miles. Each of these runs has its particular purpose, but the larger purpose is to be a runner, in other words, to establish that as a habit.
In the same way, the idea of every day writing the same number of words is a bit arbitrary. If you asked me how many words you should write a day, I would first ask what your project is, when you want to finish it, what research you've already done, and what you want to do in a particular session of writing. For me, it will be between 0 and 700 words. If I really sit down to write for an hour and a half (not revise something already written), I will do about 500 words. But there is no magic number here. What is important is the continuity of effort over a long stretch of time in pursuit of a tangible goal.
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In my experience, this is only how you get to work from kindergarten through the Ph.D. exam. After that successful people say it isn't the way to work and pressure other ways. I was taught that:
1/ Once you get to the dissertation, you must write 1750 words a day. Research is procrastination and it doesn't matter if those 1750 words are incredibly bad, you will fix them later. In the end, all you need is something internally consistent in lucid prose, not an actually good product.
2/ Once you get to your professorship, research and interest in it is arrogant. You are here to serve the students and their parents, not to give yourself airs.
3/ Alternatively, once you get to your professorship, your research is of interest not for contribution to field but for contribution to university metrics. It is a commercial, not a knowledge product and it must make money.
4/ People who are getting tenure and doing well are doing all their research during breaks, not during the regular work week.
So -- while I used to believe this post was normal and true, I've gotten the distinct impression that while it is used in good *education*, the *professionalization process* leaches it out. This past week I was told one should resist this, another thing I used to think, but honestly, I have found one can only resist so long. Conclusion: this is all true enough but the issue isn't knowing it -- it's taught in school -- the issue is continuing to believe it, the way the saints kept faith under torture. I am not kidding.
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