When Writing is Hard: Time

Welcome to the beginning of our new series: When Writing is Hard. Over this four part series we’ll be diving into the different facets of why writing could be hard, and what you can do about it. 

This was inspired when I had to put my own writing on the back shelf for several months during a particularly busy part of life. Work and school joined forces to give me a very limited amount of time and energy. And when I did have the capability to write, I had to put that creative juice toward writing other than my own, such as for a class or another writing program. 

So without further ado, let’s get into the first of our writing troubles: Time. 

Time is the most obvious and usually the most common thing that makes writing hard. Everyone has things they need to do, whatever stage of life you may be in. College, high school, working, parenthood, etc. There are dozens of things that require our time. And we only have so much of it.

I’ll use myself as an example, because I know my situation best. Let’s break it down. At the time of this post, I am working part time and am a full time student. I’m also working towards my black belt, which means I am at the studio almost every afternoon to train. I have a few other sports, none of which are competitive or require more than a few hours weekly. I also participate in an Honors Academy for writers. Fairly busy, but I’m sure some of you have a lot more on your plate. 

The average day for me, when I work (Usually three days a week) is I’ll do a 5-6 hour morning shift and get home around lunch. I’ll then do school for as long as I can, between 3-5 hours. Then I’ll have a half hour or so before tae kwon do, and I don’t always have the mental capacity to write (More on that in a later post ;)) But if I do, then I will work on Honors stuff. After that, my working day is done and I’ll go to class. 

Keep in mind, I still live with my family and don’t have to worry about paying bills or anything like that. My issue is purely keeping track of my own time. 

In the past, I’ve gone through busy seasons, but not quite like this. So my old tactics didn’t work for this new situation. Which meant I had to go back to the drawing board. And ultimately, I came to the decision that I needed to let writing for novels slide through the cracks. If I could do it, great. If not, then ok. There’ll be more time soon. 

Instead, I would devote my writing energy towards school assignments, such as stuff for English, and short stories for Honors. All of which is still writing. I also journal. 

That’s the choice I made. Not giving up writing for a time, but simply letting whatever I managed to do stand. For example, I’m still writing this blog post XD. I’m still writing newsletters and articles and stories. The writing muscle is definitely still getting a workout. We just aren’t doing HIITs right now. 

But I’m not saying that’s the only choice. Instead, I’m going to give you a few of the tips and tricks that I’ve used to keep writing on the table in the past, and a few new ones that I picked up over the past few months. 

However, I also wanted you to know that sometimes, you simply don’t have enough time. That’s just the way it is every now and then. I’m telling you to have grace with yourself. It’s ok if you need to take a break. Writing will still be there when you come back. Your skills might need a bit of time to get back up to scratch, but you won’t lose them. It’s ok. 

Without further ado, here are my top tips for fitting writing into a busy schedule. If you want more in depth on this, check out my Being a Busy Writer post. For now, let’s go!

Tip #1. Going old school. I found that writing was much more organic and free-flowing when I wrote with a pen and a notebook rather than on my computer. Yes, I can’t keep track of word count or anything like that, but I was writing. And that was the goal. I wrote whatever snippets came to mind, and that was exercising my writing muscle. This also works great if you’re having trouble with a scene. Sometimes you just need to change up your medium to get the ideas flowing. 

Tip #2. Planning ahead. Write writing into your schedule like you would anything else. If you have to, time block it. “3:15. Write for thirty minutes.” Boom. I also found it very helpful to plan out what type of writing I was doing each day. For example, on Monday I would work on my novel, on Tuesday I would proofread my blog post and write the email, Wednesday I would write a new post, etc. By removing that choice fatigue, you make it much easier to write.  

Tip #3. Set a timer. Pull out your phone or anything that can keep time (Make sure your notifications are turned off if you’re using your phone) and set a time. Fifteen minutes is a good, achievable goal. If that’s too much, cut it to ten or five. Whatever you can focus solidly for. Then, when the timer goes off, either take a break or be done for the day. If you set a twenty-five minute timer and when it goes off, you have to be done, perfect. You just got twenty-five minutes of writing, which is twenty-five more than you had before then. I use the time trick when I need to focus on something that I don’t really want to do. By the end of the twenty minute timer, I’m usually so into it that I just finish the project anyway. But sometimes I’m not, and then I let it stand. 

Tip #4. Voice dictate. I get it, this can feel really weird sometimes. But it’s a great way to get down the ideas that otherwise you might lose, and it can turn five minutes into a full page of work. Try it and see if this works for you. It’s not my favorite trick, but it’s definitely worth mentioning. 

Tip #5 Taking advantage of free time. Weekends are when I have the most free time, because I tend to prioritize school during the week. So if I have an hour on a weekend, I sit down and write. Admittedly, this is one that’s harder for me. It’s tough to remember to sit down on a Saturday and write. However, it definitely pays off. I can draft two or three posts in an hour, or get over a thousand words if I’m really focused. If you have to be a weekend warrior, so be it. Be a weekend warrior. 

Tip #6. Have grace. Some days you’ll show up. Some days you won’t get off work until twenty minutes later than you should’ve, and boom. Your time to write is gone, because now you have to do school and get groceries and everything else that’s on your to do list. You have got to have grace with yourself, because guess what? You can beat yourself up for it all you want, but the writing still didn’t get done. And that’s ok. If you woke up only having 10% to give and you still gave that 10%, you gave 100%. 

If you can’t have grace with yourself for the days when you can’t write, then none of these tips matter. Because in the end, you will miss a day. You will go a week where you haven’t touched your project. Sometimes that’s not ok. If you scrolled for two hours instead, then maybe you need to reassess. But if you barely had time to change and get to class, then you physically couldn’t write. Like, you literally couldn’t. So have grace. Experiment. Eventually, this season will pass. And writing will still be there.