Making Write Time
Image courtesy of koyochi.
The holidays can be tough on anyone’s schedule. Add children to the mix and you have a full schedule all year long. Often, people would like to pursue an activity (in this case writing, or keeping a journal) but feel discouraged by the thought of squeezing in yet another activity.
The important thing to remember is you don’t need large blocks of time. You can write in ten or fifteen minute sessions several times a day if that’s what works, or thirty minute chunks of time here and there. The important thing is to start, to begin building up words toward that novel or article you’ve always wanted to write, or making consistent entries in a journal. Start small if you need to.
If you are already writing, you are learning to make time. Indeed, desire is more than half the battle. The more you want to write, the less painful it is to cut other activities to create that time.
You can still find time to write, at the holidays or any other time of year, by picking up one or more of the ideas listed below.
Here are some ideas to try:
- Get up early (go to bed on time)
- Turn the television off
- Stay at your desk or in your car 30 minutes after work.
- Write on your breaks or lunch hour.
- Get up at the normal weekday time on the weekends.
- Reduce schedule by one activity. Block out that time to write.
- Write while the kids are doing homework.
- Write while waiting: in the car waiting for kids, during practices, rehearsals, waiting for meetings to start, water to boil, coffee to brew. Write in waiting rooms.
- Go to bed early with notebook and pen (if you fall asleep quickly, may we suggest you might need more sleep?)
For an interesting take on creating time, check Zoe’s post and the great quote she used.
What are your most successful methods for making time to write? I’d love to hear them and probably incorporate some of them!
Hello, I came to your blog through a friend’s blog and just wanted to say that recently I’ve been having that “oh man, when can I ever write life is so busy” so I found this post really helpful. I’ve started to write little things down usually during lunch or when I find myself at work early. Thanks for the post and I hope to continue reading your blog. Any tips you can give would be greatly appreciated.
Hello, Tony.
I’m always amazed how much I can get done just by keeping an open notebook next to me, jotting between tasks, etc. The Saturday Morning Post has a few links for making time also if you you’d like to check them out. Let me know what you think.