Too Busy To Write? Learn How To Make Time For Your Writing.

Writing is easy. Sitting down to write is the hard part. In other words, writing is hard.

For many of us, we find it hard to make time to write. It’s not because we’re lazy or don’t love writing enough. No. While those reasons can apply to some people, it usually isn’t the case for a lot of writers.

Life simply interferes. That’s it.

Some people have full-time jobs that take most of their time and energy. By the time they return home, they’re too tired to sit behind their computer and write something.

Then there are those raising a family. It becomes especially tough if you’re a single parent with young children. Not only do you have to deal with your job, but you have to take care of your household as well. Some have to deal with health issues, school, difficult relationships, and so much more of the crap life throws at us. There never seems to be enough time in the day to write, and even when that time magically appears, we are too stressed to do anything with it.

But while these are all legitimate reasons, they are no excuse if you’re truly passionate about being a writer.

Writers write. Period.

If you can’t take even ten minutes out of the 24 hours in a day to work on your blog post, novel, short story, or whatever you want to write, then are you really a writer? No, that’s not rhetorical. Honestly ask yourself this question.

Maybe you have an idea for a novel. That’s cool. But now comes the hard part — the commitment to write regularly until your book is complete. Without commitment, becoming a writer will only remain a dream that never manifests into reality. That book will not write itself. The next brilliant book you’ve always envisioned will never see the light of day. Not until you start with one word at a time.

There will never be a perfect moment. In fact, speaking from experience, life constantly makes things worse for you and the only thing that gets better is your excuses.

We’re always busy, I get it. But hear me out. We always make time for the things we love.

Let me repeat that again. We always make time for the things we love.

If you’re struggling to find time to write, chances are that you’re doing other things you think are more important than writing. You know, things like watching your favorite TV shows, scrolling through social media, playing Candy Crush, and many more.

Here are a few things you can do if you want to make the time to write.

Change your mindset

Winning any battle first begins in the mind.

As humans, we are constantly in psychological warfare with ourselves. Many of the choices we make are based on our thoughts. To manage our time well and write consistently, we must first have to train our minds to crave it.

But how do you do that?

Honestly ask yourself these important questions:

1. Do you seriously want to be a writer?

2. Do you become depressed when you realize you aren’t writing as much as you should?

3. Are you paralyzed with fear at the thought of living with regret for the rest of your life if you don’t pursue your dream?

If you answered yes to all these questions, then you need to understand that writing is closely tied to your mental and physical health. Just as you take the time to see your dentist or therapist when you have a health issue, give the same priority to your writing, since it directly affects your health too.

Every single day, remind yourself that you are a writer. What do writers do? They write, so act like one. Rather than thinking of writing as a hobby, see it as your profession. Once you see yourself as a professional writer and not someone simply dabbling in it, you’ll begin to take yourself more seriously.

A doctor or bricklayer shows up to work every day because that’s their profession. They don’t wait for inspiration. They just do it because it’s their job. View writing with the same lens. As writers, we don’t just write because we want to pass the time. We write because that’s literally the job description. You can’t bargain your way out.

Once your mind understands this, it forces your body to follow suit. Will you say to yourself that you’re too busy to drink water? No. Why? Because it’s an important bodily function and your body doesn’t care if you’re busy or not.

If writing is an important part of who you are, you’ll make time for it.

Identify the time that works best for you and stick with it

Now that you’ve realized that writing is just as important to you as your day job, it’s time to give it the same attention you give to other important things in your life.

But of course, it’s not that easy. After all, we have a ton of other things that are equally important to us. What do you do then?

Make a daily schedule. Sit down and map out all the things you have to do during the day.

You’ll be surprised to learn that even though you always seem so busy, there are a lot of things you do that aren’t really important. These are time wasters and you’ll have to sacrifice them for something more worthwhile. It’s your life — you know what’s important to you and what isn’t. Cut those unimportant things out and replace them with writing instead.

Let’s assume you come back from work every day to watch your favorite show in the evening, which is actually the only free time you have in the day. While watching that show can be fun and relaxing, on your scale of preference, finishing your novel is more important. And since your book is more important, it’s up to you to sacrifice that time to work on the book.

But what if writing in the evening doesn’t work for you? What if you’re always too tired every time you get back from work? Well, there’s always morning.

Maybe you’ll feel a lot more relaxed when you write first thing in the morning since your body and mind are well rested. I write best in the morning — it’s the first thing I do when I wake up. As for revisions and editing, I prefer to do them much later in the day. I don’t know why. It just works for me that way.

If you have to go to work in the morning, train yourself to wake up an hour earlier and write. An alarm will be useful if this is new to you.

When you find the best time that works for you, be consistent with it. Eventually, your body gets used to it so that it acts on its own without relying on an alarm. You’ll wake up exactly at the same time every day.

Set a goal or target

This sounds like a cliche.

I mean, who doesn’t know you need to set a goal, right? Apparently, many, many people. It’s not that they don’t know. Everybody and their dog (I’ve always wanted to use this expression) knows this. They just don’t do it.

Or when they set their goals, they don’t make the effort to achieve them.

Setting realistic goals is imperative if we’re to manage our time well.

What are your goals?

Let’s say you prefer writing in the morning. Before you begin, have a clear target of how much effort you’re going to put in. Will you write for an hour or two? Or perhaps you prefer to set a goal based on word count. Instead of writing for an hour, you’ll probably want to write at least a thousand words.

Choose what works best for you.

Once you have a target in mind, you’re forced to keep your eye on it. You never lose focus until you reach it. This stops you from aimlessly wandering about.

Write in short spurts

It can take hours to craft even the shortest pieces of writing, and since you probably don’t have that much time to spare, you get discouraged from trying.

Well, I’m here to tell you that you don’t have to write everything in a sitting. While some people (like me) can sit down and write for five hours straight, for others, this is unrealistic and just plain insanity.

If that’s you, that’s okay. Write in short spurts instead.

In the morning, you probably have a short time to prepare for work. So instead of an hour, write for fifteen minutes. Go do other things you have to do for the day. The next free ten minutes you get, continue what you started.

During the day, perhaps while waiting for the bus or train, write. While on the bus or train, write. While driving, um, please don’t write. Look on the road. At work, the least free time you get, write. All you need is your phone and a word document.

Keep doing this and I guarantee that you would have written more words in those series of short times than you would have written in five consecutive hours.

Avoid distraction

In my post about overcoming procrastination, I talked about the need to avoid distractions.

Distractions are those things that keep you away from hitting your writing goals. It could be your phone, TV, or the people around you who think that your writing time is synonymous with Netflix and Chill.

Since you’re busy all the time, every minute you get to write is as precious as your breath — cherish those minutes. If you want to make the most out of the short time you have, avoid all kinds of distractions.

Your writing space is a sacred space. Let nothing contaminate it.

If you write in the morning, don’t let social media be the first thing you check. I swear to you, it will suck you in, and there goes your productivity out the window. Put off all your notifications to avoid any temptation.

Set boundaries with your loved ones — let them know how important writing is to you and why they can’t just interrupt you when you’re on it. Let them know that writing is to you as killing is to a serial killer. Okay, maybe not the best analogy. But at least that should warn them you’re not playing around.

If being at home is not conducive, go find somewhere more tranquil. A coffee shop, library, the park, anywhere you can have your peace of mind to write. Just find the place and avoid distraction.

Don’t strive for perfection

Many of us writers are perfectionists, which is ironic because the art of writing is the epitome of imperfection. I mean, what other form of art allows its artists (whether amateur or professional) to make so many mistakes in the first or tenth draft?

Ask any writer how many times they revised their novel. The number is going to range from two to infinity. That’s how important revision is in the writing process, and that’s why writers have no business worrying about being perfect.

Don’t worry about writing the best piece, or using the best grammar or vocabulary. Just write. Flow freely with your thoughts no matter how bad they sound on paper.

Writing is a creative process. Don’t interrupt that creativity with technicalities like editing or revision. When you sit down to write, just write. Do not edit as you write. Nothing kills your creativity faster than that.

In my experience, it’s easier to edit something you’ve already written, rather than to write and edit at the same time. Finish writing without worrying about perfection and then edit the crap out of your work.

If I show you the first draft of this post, you’ll wonder if a three-year-old wrote it. Yes, it was that bad. But I didn’t care if my first draft sounded like a constipated cat. I just wrote it, ignoring my mistakes and everything else. If you write without worrying about editing, you’ll see how faster you move.

Going back and forth with writing and editing will only waste your time and overwhelm you.

Also, can I remind you that you’ll never be perfect? No one will ever be.

Now what?

Well, now that you’ve read this, it’s time to crush your writing goals. Go forth and make the time. You’ve got this.

Thanks for reading.

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Originally published at https://torshietorto.com on December 2, 2022.