“I don’t have time to write”
~Every Failing Writer.
Two hours a day is a lot of time. It is not enough time. It is too much time to “give up.” All of these things are true and all of these things are excuses that remain shockingly common to writers. We all have time in our day. We just choose how to use that time differently. A truly useful post from Wait But Why (a much more efficient and better written version of this here ‘ting man) speaks of the 100 block system of time management where you can break down the time you have into 1,000 minutes or 100 ten minute blocks. I’m using one of those blocks as we speak. There are a lot of them and the often go to waist. add up the time you spend in the bathroom (talking to you, fellas), scanning through social media (no, it isn’t research, faker), watching bad media (even that anime you love so much), and just screwing off (like we often just stare at stuff. Really). You can find the blocks of time. Two hours may not even be it for you. I chose that 120 minutes at random as a constant in a mathematical equation, but the truth is that it is a variable. The factors that function into the page per day equation are entirely under your control. I learn more about this every day. I also am realizing how I tend to sabotage myself.
Today I moved my writing hours to more reasonable and manageable calendar slots. This is not entirely fixed and it is not, as I hoped it to be, at the same time every day. My life isn’t built like that and I needed to allow myself to realize that. I will be writing from 2-4 on Monday and Wednesday, because I will have the house to myself. Thursday and Friday I can go from 9-11. Tuesday varies, based on when I need to drop off the kid. The issue with Tuesday is the collision between work, relationship, and writing. I will need to fit the hours in before 10 AM, which may mean splitting the two hours up and or getting up much earlier on that day. This “sacrifice” allows me to get the work in before I know I can no longer.
The key is to be willing to be flexible within yourself and understand your personal limitations, needs, style, and most of all, outside factors. You want to say, “Writing comes first” but unless it pays the bills or there are no bills needing paid or no lover needing loved or no kids needing parented, etc. It doesn’t come first. Hopefully you’ll get to the point where it is your full time job–if that is what you want–and we can have a ten minute talk about scheduling that reality. However, in the meanwhile, the everyday reality of our lives is that writing needs to be scheduled in a healthy and realistic way.
I talked about the real. I’m out of time, so I’ll get to the healthy tomorrow.