How to Make More Time in a Day

Earlier in the week, we discussed how to make time to leave comments on blogs. Rachelle Gardner touched on this in her post yesterday: "I forgot to mention scheduling time to read and comment on other blogs. If you're actively trying to build your own blog traffic, this is a necessary and valuable use of your time."

This week we also discussed how to make more time to write. We all agreed that we need to make better use of the time we have. Some of you left great suggestions, like using a timer, using an internet-free computer, getting into a daily writing routine. For most of us, we just need to plant our fickle bottoms on our chairs and chain them there.

Yet even when we're diligent, focused, and self-disciplined with the limited time we have, many of us wish we had more. I like the way Suzanne summed it up with her comment: "I could write all day. I need that first half hour to get me going. It is hard. I look out the window, stare at the keyboard, click around blogs. When I start, it is so sad to pull myself away. THAT is when I wish I had more time. That dinner wasn't calling or bathing children wasn't on my chore list. . ."

When we really love writing, we never seem to have enough time for it, especially if we've gotten into a rare focused groove when the words are flowing. We find ourselves wishing we could add a couple more hours to our writing time. But real life calls to us, hunts us down, and forces us to leave our imaginary worlds and return to earth.

We tear ourselves away and try to focus on the flesh and bone life before us, but a small piece of our heart still lingers in the imaginary world we've created. We can't keep from longing to go back, to spend more time with the characters that live in the drama of another time and place.

And yet life demands our attention. Some of us work full time outside the home. Others of us are stay-at-home-moms with one hundred and one responsibilities tugging at our time. A few of us are trying to juggle both work and family. In the midst of changing diapers, caring for a sick parent, teaching 5th graders, or calculating taxes, our eyes stray to our lap tops and our hearts yearn for our stories.

An inner conflict rages. We genuinely love real life and the imaginary, and we wish we had more time for both. Obviously, God's given us only twenty-four hours in each earthly rotation and we can't add more. So that leaves us with the option of making more writing time out of what we're given.

I'm grateful my husband is supportive of my writing. We've arranged specific times during the week when he watches the kids while I lock myself away and write. And of course, like many of you, I wake up in the wee hours of the morning to pound away at my keyboard. Gradually, I've been able to carve out more writing time.

How do you make more time in a day to write? What strategies have worked for you? Please share! We'd all love to hear!