Five Ways to Get More Writing Time

Time can fly when you are on a deadline.

The Psalmist said, “LORD, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered— how fleeting my life is.” (Psalm 39:4, New Living Translation) These days seem to be racing and I'm aware of how time flies and feel the need to make the most of each day.

Each of us have the same 24 hours. Yet some people seem to get more done in those hours than others. How are you using those hours for your writing? In this article, I want to detail five ways to get more time for your writing.

1. Get Aware of How You Spend Your Time. It's easy to waste time if you aren't aware of how you spend it. Take a day or two and keep a brief running list of your activities. This list will help you eliminate and improve your use of time. 

2. Consider your writing expectations. Do you plan to write in the mornings or in the evenings or when? Do you expect to get a large block of time to concentrate and write a lot of words? As you think about your expectations, think about if you have put any artificial expectations such as I will write for two hours without pause. That expectation is not realistic. Maybe you have said to yourself that you need ___ minutes to write. Can you write off and on throughout the day on a project? Be willing to experiment and change to see what improvements you can make in this process. Each of us are different but at times we create artificial (and wrong) expectations for our writing. 

3. Use good writing tools.  Some friends do their writing in a coffee shop while others need silence. Would a new tool help you increase your writing? I've mentioned my AlphaSmart 3000 which I bought on ebay for about $25. It is old technology but allows me to write on the go and easily change my location. I've written on airplanes and in libraries and many other places. Maybe a new tool will help you get more writing time. 

4. Apply the lessons from your time monitoring. Awareness is the first step but then you need to make changes to your use of time from what you learned. For example, if you spend several hours a day on Facebook or any other social media site, you can make some different choices. Maybe you love watching sports and that is consuming a lot of time or some favorite show on television. 

5. Be committed to moving forward no matter what happens. When you slip and waste time, it's easy to beat yourself up and even give up. Each of us have schedule interruptions and get sick and have a car break down or countless other interruptions. Be dtermined to move forward and meet your deadlines whether personal or from an editor. 

Each of us have the same time and space limitations. Yet each of us can continue to grow and improve in this area. I know I have a lot to learn and continue to learn about how to manage my time.
What steps are you taking these days with your time? Let me know in the comments below.

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The Real Test of A Writer

For my writing life, I've created some routines and habits. These habits are important because I do them without thinking and they keep my writing and my publishing details on track and moving forward. For example, I've written about using Refollow to follow 800 new people every day on Twitter. Using these tools consistently allows my numbers to keep increasing and my platform to grow.

I am a long-term coffee lover. In fact, I have a coffee pot in my office area. I fill this pot with water and coffee ahead of time. When I get up in the morning, one of my first daily actions is to turn on my coffee pot. Then as I begin my day, I enjoy my coffee. Yet today my coffee was filled with grounds. The paper filter went wrong and the entire pot of coffee was wasted and filled with grounds. It was a giant mess. Instead of enjoying my coffee, I had to clean the pot and begin again. I finally got my coffee pot working today but it took more than simply pressing the button to turn it on. Instead of a calm start to my day, I had an immediate mess to clean.

From my recent back to back trips to events (with only two days in between), I picked up a cold virus. While I try and wash my hands on the road and be careful, despite my best intentions, I get sick. I've been increased my water consumption and trying to get more rest (even sleeping during the day a few times). I'm on the mend yet several days last week when I called authors, I'm certain I sounded different. Yet I continued making calls, writing emails, answering questions and pushing forward with the work.

Throughout my travels and illness because of using scheduling tools, my social media feeds continued without interruption. The consistency and persistence is important and a quality that I've mentioned many times in these articles. These interruptions is one of the real tests for a writer.

Everyone has unexpected things happen such as illness or a technical difficulty or countless other things. When you are at this point of decision, you have two choices. First, the unexpected can throw off your schedule and sour your attitude and prevent you from writing or meeting any other task you have as a writer. Or there is another choice: you can move forward with your writing, find a work around, switch gears to a different task and keep going. For me as a writer, I've tried to make the second choice my default action. It doesn't always work and some days I get thrown off track. Normally I determine to keep going and accomplish the task at hand. Sometimes it is consistency for writing. Other times it is working with my Morgan James authors and answering their questions and making phone calls. Your tasks will be different than mine. My encouragement is for you to find the way to make the choice to keep going.

Many others will make the first choice and get derailed from the process. Their writing will not get done and they will miss their deadlines and the books will not be published. Or maybe it is in the marketing area and their book will not get pushed and promoted so people hear about it and purchase it. If you have gotten derailed, every day is a new day. I encourage you to start fresh and keep going.

Recently in Nashville, I was talking with one of my Morgan James authors. This author has gone through some personal issues about the time his book was released two years ago. Now he has weathered that situation and is refocused on his book and the promotion. In my view, it is never too late to for a book. Yes you missed the launch of your book but are you still passionate about the topic and message in your book? As the author, your passion will drive the on-going marketing and promotion of your book. Your publisher will press on to other books. Your choice is to begin each day new and dig into the expansion of your topic and promotion. You are the only person who can determine it is too late.

What has derailed you and how are you making a fresh start on your writing life? Let me know in the comments below.

Tweetable:

What happens when your writing gets derailed. Get ideas here for the real test of a writer. (ClickToTweet)