Time Management For Writers
The dream: you sit down in your beautiful office, your
favorite beverage of choice close to hand. Soft music plays in the background
and a scented candle fills the air with your favorite perfume. You open your
laptop and the words flow. You lose track of time as your story unfolds. Hours
later, you emerge from a trance, thrilled with the day's work.
The reality: you carve out a few hours to devote to writing
and just as you sit down to work, the school calls to inform you that your
child has the flu and is projectile vomiting in the office. The Fed-Ex man
arrives with a package, the cat delivers a dead mouse to the doorstep, your
mother calls, and you realize that if you don't do laundry right now you will
have to go naked for the rest of the week. And then your favorite episode of Castle is on and you really can't miss
it!
Finding time to write around the demands of family, home and
day jobs is a challenge every writer faces. After 17 years as a full-time
writer, I've developed a few tips and techniques to help you make the most of
the time you have to write.
1. Take Inventory.
Borrow a technique from successful dieters and spend a few days to a week
tracking your time. Write down what you do all day in 30 minute blocks. Analyze
the results and identify places where you're wasting time and vow to avoid
these traps in the future.
2. Eliminate and
delegate. Get rid of activities you can live without. Cut out the volunteer
job you hate. Give the kids or your husband a chore that will free you up for
writing time. Get rid of the clutter to make cleaning house easier or better
yet -- lower your standards for house cleaning.
3. Carve out writing
time. You've probably heard this one -- get up an hour earlier. Go to bed
an hour later. Give up watching one show each evening and use that time to
write instead.
4. Set a schedule
and keep it. When you commit to an exercise program, trainers advise you to
schedule a time and place to exercise and commit to doing it every day for at
least six weeks. Do the same with your writing.
5. Make your writing
portable. Carry a notebook with you everywhere. Write while your kids are
at sports practice. Write on your lunch hour at your day job. Write before and
after work, while you ride the bus on your commute, or anywhere you have a
block of 10 to 30 minutes. It's not the ideal fantasy, but you'll be surprised
at what you can accomplish.
I hope these tips will help you find more time to create the
great stories that are inside you, waiting to be written.
Cindi Myers is the
author of more than 50 novels, including The View From Here. Find out more at
www.CindiMyers.com
2 comments:
Good advice. I know how to manage my time; I just don't always listen to my own advice. :)
Using time management software gives a lot of advantages while working with creative tasks like content writing and blogging. With this software, it is possible to track time for project implementation.
For time tracking, I use Replicon's software. I started using it with a lot of skepticism. But now, I learned that I had just ended up with the best software one can ask for. With such a good time recording software ( http://www.replicon.com/olp/online-time-recording-software.aspx ), you have all you need to manage your office routine flow smoothly.
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