Abstract
At every stage in a researcher’s career, scholarly output advances scientific knowledge and supports career development. Early career researchers, in particular, significantly boost their career prospects by increasing their scholarly outputs. Writing serves as an integral skill for academic work, especially when competing for grants and jobs. Academics juggle administrative tasks alongside teaching, collection and analysis of data, and production of publications and presentations. Consequently, many report a lack of time to think critically as a major challenge in academia, which often leads researchers to deprioritise writing tasks, or, more recently, turn to generative artificial intelligence tools to tackle academic workloads. Therefore, to fully engage in the act of writing, many need to fully disengage from other tasks by carving out dedicated focus time. Writing retreats provide structured periods where researchers dedicate time to focused writing.