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If I’m going to be completely honest with you, I’m too busy to write. As an example, I wrote this email Tuesday night after dinner while my family was watching television. And while I’ve written probably 5000 words today, none of it was fiction and very little of it was for me. I justify this because writing is my job. I get paid to write and I write every single day. Seriously, every day. This doesn’t include journaling or classwork (I’m in nursing school too.)
So while I am absolutely an expert at fitting writing into your schedule, what you’re writing may be different than what I’m writing.
So what are you writing and how can you write more often? How can you fit it into your schedule?
1. Plan for it. Grab a calendar or scheduling tool and make sure you schedule writing into your day or week. Then follow through on your plan. Yes, a nap may sound more appealing but you’re a writer. You can nap later.
2. Keep is short. Instead of penciling off an afternoon towrite, just schedule 30 or so minutes. Why? Because it’s easier to commit to writing for a short amount of time and because unless your muse is rockin that day, you’re going to lose focus after a period of time.
3. Structure it. Consider creating a routine. For example, maybe you get up every morning pour a cup of coffee and sit down at your writing desk for 40 minutes. I thrive on structure both mentally and physically. Structure makes me more productive. It might work for you too.
4. Let go of something you don’t enjoy. Is there something that you do daily or weekly that you’d just rather not? For example, maybe you walk the dog each day and it’s not really something that you enjoy. Stop doing it. Find someone to walk your dog. Hire a dog walker or make your family take some of the responsibility. One day a week don’t make dinner, get take out, and use the time you saved to write. Or do laundry less or stop going to that committee that you signed up for but really don’t enjoy.
5. Watch less TV. I’ve been thinking about getting rid of our television. Seriously. I’ll probably think about it a bit more once the Super Bowl is over. Did you know that the average American watches more than 34 hours of television a week? This is according to Nielsen who also adds that we also watch an additional 3 to 6 hours of taped programs. That’s 40 hours of television a week. Think about how many books you could write if you spent even a quarter of that time writing.
The bottom line is that we’re all busy but if you want to write then you have to make time. We all have to make time to pursue the activities that we love and that we dream about.
Happy writing!
P.S. Check out last week’s blog posts.
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