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8 Tips for Organizing Writing Time

Not many of us can magically make more writing time appear in our days. As much as we’d like to wave a wand and change minutes into hours, we're often stuck with what we’ve got.

I can whine and complain about how little I have, especially of uninterrupted time. And to be honest, I find myself whining a lot more than I’d like.

I struggle every day to find time to fulfill my ever-increasing writing responsibilities and balance them with the full time job of mothering and teaching my children. Yesterday, fellow writer, Heather Sunseri, asked a thought-provoking question in her post: Can one work a full time job and write?

It's a tough question. But for me it boils down to organizing my time. Just this week a friend told me, "The reason you can manage all that you do is because you organize your time well." She went on to say that because of all I'm doing, she was inspired to squeeze quilting back into her busy life.

So, how do we organize our time better? Here are 8 tips:

1. Maximize the time we have. We can’t wait to write until we have an office, until it’s perfectly quiet, or until we have uninterrupted time. When our designated writing time comes around every day, we have to sit down and put our fingers on the keyboard for each and every precious minute we have. In other words, we need to stop making excuses and just write.

2. Minimize distractions. Yes, we need to stop making excuses, but we can also ruthlessly eliminate as many distractions as we can. No, we can’t lock our children in the closet during writing time, but we can shove our internet connection there, keep the TV off, and have our coffee and snack at hand so that we have no reason to get up once we’re down.

3. Mark daily or weekly goals and meet them. At the back of my plot notebook, I’ve been marking down my daily goals. Before I start my writing each morning, I jot down the word count I hope to accomplish. On those days when the words are slow it’s especially helpful because it keeps me going, even when I’m tempted to close up shop.

4. Multiply the momentum. There are times when the words trickle like a dry stream and times when they flow like a rushing river. We should write through both but capitalize on those times when the momentum is high. If I can occasionally have extended writing time, my muse has more opportunity to gain speed and stay with me in the following days.

5. Model seriousness toward work time. If we demonstrate a level of commitment and seriousness toward our writing, eventually others will follow suit. I prioritize my daily writing time. When I stick to my schedule day in and day out, my family can see that I take my work seriously. Because I respect my writing time, they do too.

6. Mobilize support from family and friends. Maybe family and friends won’t “get” our writing, but the first step is sharing openly about the importance of writing in our lives. I’ve explained to my children why I’m passionate about writing and given them concrete ways they can help me preserve my writing time. My husband tries to help me carve out more time. And just recently I had a friend watch my children so that I could write without interruption.

7. Make sacrifices. We can’t do everything, even the good things. I’ve made a commitment to head to the library every Saturday for extended and uninterrupted writing time. That means I’ve had to say no to fun activities because I’m dedicated to keeping my work hours.

8. Muster self-discipline. The foundation of productive writing time is self-discipline. I push myself to write something every day of the week (except Sundays). Even when I had weeks of illness this past winter, I continued to write through it. A little bit every day, eventually adds up to a completed book.

Summary: If we waved a magic wand and suddenly found ourselves with more time, would we really use it to increase our writing time? Let's be honest. It's all too easy to fill extra time with other things, to squander it, to let it slip through our fingers.

When we start to complain about the little time we have for writing, maybe first we should ask ourselves, are we good stewards of the time we already have?

Are you a good steward of your writing time? What are ways you've learned to manage your writing time? What has or hasn’t worked for you? I’d love to hear your tips!

P.S. I've added a new page at the top of my blog: Helpful Writing Books. I took an informal survey on Twitter this week and asked writers to weigh in with their favorite writing craft books. Based on the responses, I've compiled a list of approximately 45 different books. The list has been helpful to me. I hope it will be to you as well!

60 comments:

  1. Excellent!!

    I love your question about if we aren't good stewards with the time we already have, what makes us think we'll be good stewards with more of it?

    Right now I'm struggling a bit with my writing time. I'm much better at being loyal to my writing time when I'm either writing the rough draft (pounding out new words) or revising (fixing the rubbish I pounded out earlier). Right now, as I'm in the brainstorming/researching stage, I find that it's very easy for me to get distracted on the internet.

    Thanks for the tips, Jody! You can bet I will use each one!

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  2. Hahaa! Love the wand comment because you're absolutely right. Finding ourselves with more time doesn't mean we'll use it wisely. One thing I need to work on is writing when the kids are around. I used to do it no problem but then I got spoiled with naptimes...LOL

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  3. I'm pretty good at managing my time. I know when it's time to write and when I can check Twitter. And I know when I'm discouraged and need to just read a good book and get inspired. It helps that my kids are at school. I have a very predictable routine. :) Summer will be a different story.

    Thanks for posting all the books. I haven't gotten to all of them yet.

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  4. Thanks for this comprehensive post, Jody. A group of us were discussing this issue the other night at an SCBWI-Illinois Network meeting, and realized, as we did, that it's easy to measure our writing focus against what we think it should be vs. what is even more achievable if we do the best we can. Your first comment relates to this; very few of us have the luxury of many hours of uninterrupted time. And even if we did, we are not all "made" to be productive in the same way.

    I also feel that a small step towards organization (and commitment to writing time) is to put it into a schedule. Even if we fail to do it each time, we've begun to carve out a sacred time.

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  5. Having a full time job and writing is easy. Writing is even possible with 2 jobs at a time. The only thing is - you have to give up approximately everything else. Our flat is a mess, I have no other hobbies, I hardly see any friends or family, I don't sleep enough. But I can write, and that is enough to keep me happy.

    (Well, at the moment even most of my little bit of writing time was stolen by the need to learn for 2 exams next month, but I'm not willing to give it up completely.)

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  6. I deeply needed this today!I was just having my own personal pity party yesterday about trying to keep the house under control, work full time, be a good mom, wife, daughter and find time to write.

    My Dad used to always tell me, "If it is important to you, you will find the time."

    He was right.
    Thank you for the reminder.

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  7. These are the tips and practices I do try to follow religiously. Even when my hubby had his hip replacement surgery, I made a commitment to write every day. Sometimes I only managed a half an hour, but I did write.

    I do the same thing when I have people come visit and through the holidays. The only days I take off completely are: Christmas Day and a few other high days like that.

    I do take breaks between drafts. I think it is important to break from the WIP after each draft is completed, but then I use the time to catch up on reading, craft books, and brainstorming new ideas.

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  8. Thanks for the shout out!

    I love how you ask if we are good stewards of our time. That's a great question to always have in the back of our minds when we are priortizing our tasks for the day/week. It's also a good question to ask ourselves when we feel that inevitable guilt for not writing "enough." If we've been good stewards of our time, then we know that sometimes we simply can't fit EVERYTHING in. If we were good stewards of our time, we fit the most important things in first. Hopefully, writing is a high enough priority and gets the time, but if it's not on any given day or week, we are able to forgive ourselves more easily if we were good time managers to begin with.

    Does that make sense? Or is that one big ramble?

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  9. Great tips, Jody! I remember a keynote I went to a couple years ago who said "write a little bit everyday" and I thought, "there's no way I could ever do that." But there's always a way: I try to write -- even if it's 15 minutes -- everyday. It was easier after I started getting paid -- magically, DH was willing to help me find the time!

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  10. Great post and tips. During the week, I write in the evenings after my partner heads out the door to work. On the weekends, early in the morning. I really think having a designated writing time is the best thing of all . . . for me.

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  11. Another true and useful post. I tend to write in fits and spurts around work and kids and everything else, so I don't do well with forcing myself to sit at a keyboard every day. I do set goals for the week though. I also try to remind myself, on the days that frustration sets in, that any time I am thinking about my WIP--plotting, characterization, whatever--that counts as writing. The next time I sit at the keyboard, that all comes back for a payoff.

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  12. I think a lot of people invite distractions into their lives for various reasons. But I think one way to be a steward of time and the craft is to be willing to be honest about when we intentionally invite distractions in. And then to grow more disciplined.

    So good to see Heather back.

    Excellent tips and 8 my favorite number too...shucks. ;)

    Have a great weekend, Jody.
    ~ Wendy

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  13. Jody, that's a tough question. My weekly writing night out is hugely helpful. I could use a few more of them. :) Maybe that's something I'll have to work into my schedule in the near future. It might take some compromise with the hubby. I think we're always evolving in terms of what works. And it's always good to re-evaluate what is and is not working.

    Wishing you a restful weekend!

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  14. Good morning, everyone! I'm really enjoying hearing all of your thoughts today about managing writing time!

    And Heather, everything you said made a lot of sense! We need to be good stewards with all of our time, not just the writing time.

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  15. Thanks for the 8 tips Jody. Sometimes I use my writing time very effectively, at other times its easy to get distracted.
    I have decided to set myself a target, but even then its not easy to stick to it. Especially as I am plotting my next lot of books.
    But I will definetely keep your tips in mind and work towards my goal.
    Rachna's Scriptorium

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  16. Ha - and unplug from the internet, especially Twitter - although then I wouldn't have found this, which has motivated me to get back to writing since I have an unanticipated block of time.

    Seriously though, great points. I write every day, even if it's only 100 words in a notebook while waiting at the dentists. And I plan - I hate opening my computer and wondering what to do, so I leave a note with the top three priorities.

    It's the little routines I find most helpful. And with a full-time corporate job, three kids, and a farm to run, I need all the help I can get.

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  17. What great advice. It's all about the self-discipline in the end.

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  18. thank you for compiling that list!
    I actually can't write if there's music or TV on. I have the attention span of a 4 year old, so I have to keep everything quiet.
    Writing first thing in the morning works for me.
    Great tips here. From comments as well.

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  19. Wonderful list, thanks for sharing it.
    Have a great weekend,
    Karen

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  20. Great post, Judy! Using my writing time wisely is something I struggle with. I get distracted easily. Ugh. I've found for me, turning off the internet and TV and tuning out the sounds around me, is a must in order to get anything done.

    All of the writers who have commented, saying they write EVERY day even if they're sick or crazy busy, have inspired me. While I write most days, there are times I give up and put it off for tomorrow ;)

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  21. This is timely, Jody. I'm struggling right now to get myself used to a writing schedule. Where it hit me hard however, was when my son said he was going to start writing this summer. I jumped on it and told him to start today, even if it's only for an hour a day. So he did, and I actually had to pull him off the computer to get ready for bed. He was caught up in his writing and didn't want to stop. Here's hoping that he keeps up that enthusiasm, even when it begins to get harder.

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  22. Maximize...Minimize...Mark...Multiply...Model...Mobilize...Make...Muster

    Wow,a list of these key words next to my computer will be a great reminder--and inspiration. Thank you for this post!

    Thanks, too, for the follow. And I'll be dropping in to visit here often :-)

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  23. Truer words were never written. I still need to manage my time a bit better.

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  24. Great post, Jody - thank you. I think I've got a lot better over the years. One of the biggest things I learned was what you mentioned - showing that I was serious about writing. If you don't show others that you're serious about it, they aren't going to let you be (if that makes sense!).

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  25. Such a great post. I am struggling right now to balance writing time, blogging time and twitter time. I know I need to have a more comprehensive plan for my time and this might be just the kick in the pants I needed to do it! THANKS!

    (also thanks for the writing book list, it's fantastic!)

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  26. Jody, those are great tips--and very timely for me. Thanks!

    I haven't had the chance to see the cover for your book yet. What a treat to stop by and see it on your sidebar. It's beautiful! I can't wait to read your book.

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  27. Jody, I mean it from my heart when I say that you and your blog are a treasure to my writing life. :-)

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  28. Another wonderful post, Jody, filled with great information. I loved your point, "There are times when the words trickle like a dry stream and times when they flow like a rushing river. We should write through both . . ." I'm eager to Multiply the Momentum, but I've been plugging along during one of the dry periods. Thankfully, the dam broke recently, so I'm anticipating the rush coming my way.

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  29. When I was teaching full-time I wrote before and after school, and on the weekends.

    Also, knowing before I went to bed what exactly I would be working on in the morning, what scene I'd be writing next helped maximize my limited time the next morning before I had to be at school.

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  30. Self discipline is a big one! I ended up making an Excel spreadsheet of my week (hour basis) and slotted in chores/playtime/writing time. It works for me because everything has it's time.

    When I'm doing one thing I don't think about the other because I know it's time will come.

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  31. I have one morning a week assigned to writing. While I write at other times, that is the one morning that is non-negotiable and I force myself to write at least 1000 words. That bite of time is small enough that I don't get overwhelmed, and large enough to get concrete work done. I also use waiting time to write, in the doctor's office, waiting for my daughter to finish dance class. It's up to us to make it happen.

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  32. Thanks again for another great and thought-provoking post. I love the list of writing books at the top as well. You've become one of my favorite resources for all things writing.

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  33. Another great post.

    Ever since my son was born I've had to be very disciplined in my writing - I didn't do anything consciously. Out of desperation, I figured out a way to fit writing time in.

    Word count goals tend to throw the quality of my writing off, but I do give myself time goals. It's funny, I think I'm more productive now that I have less time.

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  34. Oh, I'm feeling so guilty now. I'm usually really good about guarding my time, but today I'm extra lazy.

    My son is down for his nap, my weekend company is arriving later than expected, and I have a quiet house. But I decided to procrastinate on writing.

    The thing that usually keeps me on track is keeping a spreadsheet with my days mapped out. I use scene goals rather than word-count goals. That's probably my problem today...I didn't have anything planned since I expected my company here by now. But that doesn't mean I can't get ahead!

    Okay, I've blabbered enough...Now I'm going to log off and write. :-)

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  35. This has been so hard for me lately. Right now, I'm writing after the boy goes to bed, which means I'm not finished by the time my husband wants to go to bed. I'm looking for for a better time but haven't come up with it yet.

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  36. Terrific tips! You're right about the whole extra hours thing: it would be way too easy to sleep more or spend more time reading about writing (instead of actually writing!) if our days had more than 24 hours!

    Thanks for the advice and for that excellent list on useful writing books.

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  37. Thank you for this Jody! I need to work on better utilizing my writing time.

    I think to-do lists help me. It's easy to focus on a word count goal in my frist draft but how do you remember to focus on all the details you want to catch when you're editing, submitting, marketing? So for me making a more detailed to-do list can help in those times.

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  38. What a great post! I'm tweeting this right now.

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  39. Hi Jody -

    I find the more time I have the easier it is to procrastinate. Knowing my time is limited gives me the needed motivation to sit down and write.

    Blessings,
    Susan :)

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  40. One thing I'm experimenting with is paying myself for my time. If I make my writing time a priority, just like with I job, I should pay myself. Set goals, set limits, and set rewards. We'll see how it works.

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  41. Great list, though my time is affected by family perception that I spend too much time writing sometimes or that I get up too early to write. It's a constant battle.

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  42. Twenty-four hours are always twenty-four hours, but the difference in how we make use of them seems to vary with our stage in life and our priorities. When my family was young and my husband was in active ministry the days flew by and it was always a scramble to fit in "me" time. There always seemed to be more important, more eminent, needs to meet. Now that we're both retired I find time flies even faster, but I have fewer activities to juggle and it's easier to prioritize.

    In retrospect I think "me" time was more important than guilt let me believe. That's why I think your #5 may be the point we should work hardest on, followed closely by #7. Setting priorities that include devotional and writing time for ourselves is imperative. And deciding what to let go of is part of that self-commitment. I used to bake a lot -- for school, for church, for our family -- until I realized that baking isn't my first love and the mornings I gave over to it weren't the best use of my time. Everyone ate the store-bought goodies without complaint. I didn't stop baking altogether, of course, but cutting back helped me gain precious wedges of time.

    One other thing I think married writers need to do is make "us" time. No matter how supportive our spouses and families are of our writing needs, they need time with us, too. Carving out time for our own activities at the expense of a relationship isn't good prioritizing. Scheduling date nights or family activities is a tangible compromise for the times they do things for us or allow us space to do our own.

    Your post obviously gave me lots to think about!

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  43. Great post. Wow - you ARE organized. It's great that you make time for yourself, and it's paid off and will continue to pay off.

    I'm looking for a full-time job, and it's always in the back of my head that I'm going to lose a lot of writing time when it happens. But if it's important, we make time.

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  44. What a great post. I think we can always find ways to increase organization and productivity...I certainly can :)

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  45. scheduling is the most important thing for me. And then, when I'm struggling with actually writing the words I force myself to write ANYthing, as long as I'm writing. I can edit it out later.

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  46. Thanks for the tips. Great idea to post the books you find useful. And, you're right, if we had more time, we'd find a way to avoid writing. We can't write solid hour after hour. We need to move a bit now and then.

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  47. Of course it's possible to write with a full-time job. If not, I'm "wasting" a lot of time writing, along with many other novelists/would-be novelists. There aren't many big name authors who didn't start out writing around various jobs to pay the bills...

    I'm very big on routines - which is helpful for carving out time to write. Sometimes I need more than my "normal" writing time (like now, for instance), which for me meant it was time to cut two blog posts per week, and be disciplined enough to write earlier in the evenings while watching TV with my husband. My way of making sure he doesn't feel neglected while still getting a few words in here and there. Not having kids makes things easier for me too.

    Would I manage more time any better? Hard to say, but my guess is "no". ;-)

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  48. #2, Minimize distractions. That's what's hardest, hardest, hardest for me.

    Super list, Jody. Thanks.

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  49. Love this Jody!!! I am so bad about this, complaining about not having enough time, but I know if I used the time I DO have better... I'd be a lot better off!

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  50. I needed to hear the part about just write something everyday!

    And I was encouraged to read that u sacrifice your "fun" time on Saturdays to write.

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  51. Great tips! I'm a terrible procrastinator (and get distracted so easily), but your tips helped me get back on track. I'm a single mom, I work full time, and I'm a writer. It's a heavy workload, but I know I can do it, as long as I manage my time well. Thanks for the post!

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  52. Brilliant advice. I am fortunate that my time is my own. I did waste a lot of time when I first started the novel. DH is a great support, and does 99% of the cooking so I get food daily.

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  53. Even without a husband and kids needing my attention, I still find myself without much time for writing. But these are great tips. I need to remember to use the time I do have.

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  54. An excellent list. I think incubation of ideas is important. Stepping back, sitting in a comfortable chair, musing,.. works for me as the ideas come in sharper focus.

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  55. You mentioned it, but I'll mention it again: Make your family and friends BELIEVERS.

    Once they believe you are a writer, they'll leave you to your writing.

    My life became much easier once I established that support network.

    - Eric

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  56. Great post!'
    Mimimize distractions is hard for me.

    Best tip? The pp. per day quota!
    May your goals be met!
    Blessings,
    Patti

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  57. I enjoyed your blog. Great teaching for us aspiring writers

    http://westbob.blogspot.com/2010/04/line-upon-line.html

    God Bless, Bob West

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  58. Great post.

    I've found that trying to keep a schedule DOES NOT help me. It makes me feel caged in so that when I do sit and write, nothing comes out. I need to have a little bit of flexibility. The urge (and the time) to write comes every day, I just need to acknowledge it. Which I do, on a regular basis, right before bed. :o)

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  59. Nice advices! Thank you very much.

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