If you’re like me, you work full-time, have a home, spouse,
family, volunteer, and religious obligations. Maybe you have pets, a book club,
and a sick relative to care for, along with your own health concerns. And, like
me, your day contains only twenty-four hours, and some of those have to be
spent sleeping. There are days when I am able to greedily set aside hours
during which to write, but more often, I spend my days fighting for time to
write. For the days when time is scant, here are five ways I have found to work
in a few minutes to keep myself writing:
- Wake up early/stay up late. More often, I go for the stay up a bit later than usual writing, because it just happens that I am more of a night person than a morning person. On these evenings, I don’t go crazy staying up until 3 A.M. (unless I’m really taken by a writing jag), but perhaps I will stay up 30 or 45 minutes past my bedtime. It might hurt a bit in the morning, but I don’t make it a habit, and I am thankful when I do it.
- Write during lunch. At my company, every employee is required to take an unpaid meal break. Often, I find myself working through lunch, sitting at my desk, and exhausting myself further. When I remember to take a lunch break, I will take my laptop outside or to an empty table in the cafeteria and type away. It helps to have headphones to reinforce my desire for privacy and to improve my concentration.
- “Gift” Yourself 15 Minutes. When my day is especially crazy, and I know that I am going to get home late and exhausted and still have to make and eat dinner, I might carve myself out fifteen minutes and stop at the library or for a coffee before I start my errands. It is difficult to argue that I cannot give myself fifteen minutes. It might not sound like much time, but on the really busy days, it might come down to fifteen minutes or nothing, and I am grateful for those fifteen minutes when I finally lay down my head and call it a day.
- Beg out from making dinner. My husband and I often make dinner together, and do many of the chores together. When I have not had a moment to write all day, I will sometimes ask him to take care of dinner, so that I can take the few minutes to work. When I do this, I will make sure to pick up some other shared chore at some other point in time, so that I am not shifting the balance so far in his direction.
- Designate a specific time of day to write (and keep it sacred). I struggle with schedules in general, so this one is a bit difficult for me. When I can do it, it works quite well. Instead of setting aside the same time every day, it is more helpful for me to designate specific times of the week that work better for me, such as Wednesdays and Sundays, and allocate a chunk of time on those days for writing.
Writing, like exercising, speaking a language, or playing an
instrument, takes practice and commitment. As much as time as you can give
yourself, the more successful you will be as a writer. How do you create space
in your life for writing? Please share any strategies which have worked for
you.
The Fire Department was not called in on account of my birthday cake.
