Parkinson’s Law: “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”
How will you make time to write, to send out query letters, and to promote your writing? Forget about waiting until you have the time, it’ll never happen. You have to make the time, and that means analyzing how you’re currently spending time to see where you can make different choices that better reflect your goals and priorities.
Maybe you spend a lot of time waiting for kids. That time could be spent writing, if you brought along a notebook, a portable writing device like an Alphasmart, or something you can dictate into. Maybe you spend a lot of time checking email. You can set two times a day to check email, and the rest of the time keep it closed. Saving those interruptions may free up enough time to write a couple of pages. Maybe you spend a lot of time doing activities you don’t really have to do that you really don’t love and don’t find as important as writing. Let them go.
Go through a typical day or week and think about how you’re spending your time. Are you doing the actions now that will reflect the person you want to be and the life you want to live? Would a successful novelist spend an entire day washing the outside windows with a bucket, or would she buy a spray attachment for the hose and get the job done in half an hour so she could get back to the book? (You can buy a Windex spray attachment for this purpose, and it works just fine.)
Maybe there are things you have to do, but you could do them more efficiently, or less often. I made a lot of changes in my life to accommodate writing. If you’re serious about your writing, you can, too. Even if you can only free up fifteen minutes, if you use that time to write, you’re moving towards your goals.
Time management, one of those things I’m procrastinating on. I’ll get to it after my vacation (which starts tomorrow- yeah!). I’ll be gone for a whole week. 🙂
Ann, vacation is good use of time! You can’t work 24/7.
I need to start checking email only once or twice a day. It can suck up all your time if you let it.
Hey Charli — just to let you know I’m having some weird email issue (or you are) but I can’t get emails through to you — they call come back as errors. I’m thinking it’s on your end because I’m not having that problem with anyone else?
Anyway, time management, yes. I’m generally good at it, though if I get feeling funky I can lose my groove of keeping things moving. When something throws me out of routine, I get messed up — not writing things, for the most part, someone can drop revisions on me or whatever out of the blue, and I can just fold it in, but it’s more like, when you have a family crisis, etc it can really mess stuff up.
I’m glad you’re finding positives in being home from the conference. I didn’t go, even with the Rita final, we’d decided way back in early spring no trips this year to pay off debt, and it’s been a good decision, and not a bad year to stay home. The summer is nice, and I’m getting GADs of writing done. 🙂 I’ll probably do DC next year, though. It’s a ten hour drive, which isn’t bad at all.
Sam
I am horrible with time management :X in fact, I should be studying for my final tomorrow. Meh. But, good points. I usually got for bursts of manic activity :X – though I’m definitely not saying that’s ideal.
NJ, email can be a horrible time-sink. Especially if you get a notice popping up every time a new message comes in; breaks my concentration every time! I can’t write with email open, too distracting.
Sam, argh, every time one of these email hang-ups happen it’s a mess. Try charleneteglia AT gmail DOT com.
Paying off debt is a great thing to do! And yes, a family crisis can really knock you off your stride. Since these things do happen, it really is best to try to keep a bit ahead and have some cushion. (I always try for this but don’t always succeed.)
Limecello, everybody has a natural rhythm or cycle, and some people do better in bursts. I do, and I’ve just come to accept that it’s how I write. I do research and sort of pre-creative hibernation and then I write the book. I’m an immersion writer. It’s much harder for me if I only do a page or two a day because I never get immersed.
I’ve found that when I DO find those 15 minutes, I’m so brain-fried from the kids that I can think of anything to write.
Anna, sometimes all you can do is sit there and twitch. Been there, done that! But consistency over time will add up. I find the timer is my best friend because I can always write for 5 minutes. Write non-stop until the time is up and that’s it. Done. Even if you write “My brain is numb and I have nothing to say”, you’re writing, and if you keep it up, you’ll train yourself to produce on demand.
Thanks! I’ll try the timer. That’s a good idea.
Great tips!