After my post last week about how busy I’ve been these past few months, I have been really trying to clear my desk and my head to get back into some writing projects which have been pretty much on hold. And, like so many time-strapped people, I’ve been searching for the magical formula to find more time. If only I could conjure up an extra hour, half hour, even ten minutes in my day, of COURSE I could write more.
And I can keep telling myself that more time will be more output – but who would I be kidding? Probably nobody, and certainly not myself. Sure I’ve been busy and I’ve needed a break from writing in order to sort out a house move, change of job and all the rest of it. But in the end, if I want to get those projects working again, I don’t need to wait for time to magically appear. All I need is to make that time happen.
Need an extra hour in my day? Turn off the television after dinner. An extra half hour? Stop reading the daily newspaper (which depresses me anyway). An extra ten minutes? Stop checking if it’s my turn in online Scrabble games.
So yeah, I have time. Not the perfect blocks of time I would like, and which I would have if I was able to give up my day job. Or if I could give up sleep and write through the night when my family are all at rest. Or if I lived in a perfect world where authors were given little writing bubbles to work in eight hours a day, sealed off from the distractions of the real world. Or…okay, you get the picture. So, I’m working hard to capture those little morsels of time and put them to good use.
What about you? Where can you capture an extra five, ten, fifteen minutes for your writing dream?
I hardly watch TV, don't read the paper. My house is a mess and dinners are simple. What am I doing with all my time? Pushing swings, making snacks, changing nappies, picking up Lego, breastfeeding etc… I do think writing will happen more often as the months roll by, but I do need to get some structure and commit some real chunks of time to myself and my writing. Feel majorly guilty when I
Bum glue and goals. Better still a contract and a deadline – that seems to work for me.
But, hey, in reality, it's just hard.
Sounds like you are just as busy as me, Maree! We can avoid the TV together (in spirit anyway)
Hi Sally, what's really working for me at the moment (juggling f/time work with p/t study & being editor/proof reader for 2 uni students etc etc)is moving AWAY FROM the TV & spending 30-45 mins at night writing/rewriting. So far it's been working really well, despite TV stations' annoying habit of running all the good shows 10 mins overtime.
cheers, Maree