Six Ways to Prioritize and Find Time to Write

Time is the world’s most finite resource. Nobody’s making any more of it. I struggle with time, always finding there is never enough of it. If you want to write, you need to make writing a priority and you need to allocate time for it. There are, however, limited things that you can do because nobody has yet figured out how to stretch time. I dream of an app that will stop time so that I can get everything done, alas, to no avail. So I have provided you with seven ways to find time to write.

Find Time to Write by Getting Up Early

If you’re naturally an early riser like I am, then this is the one for you. When I was younger, I couldn’t handle this. I used to let the snooze go for hours. Now however, I don’t even need an alarm. Hate me yet?

Getting up early is a peaceful way to get your writing done. I like to give myself at least a couple of hours to have my coffee, read a writing craft book to get into the mood, and then amble my way over to my keyboard and get in at least a couple hundred words before my workout.

Even if you have to force yourself, seriously consider giving this one a go. If you can get your writing done early, you’ve satisfied a commitment to yourself and you can bask in the glow of it all day. Also, you won’t have to deal with trying to fit it in and then running out of time and then feeling guilty.

Ugh! There is never enough time!

Find Time to Write by Staying Up Late

Just can’t bear to get up with us chickens? Staying up late to write used to be my go to, back when I was young and carefree and had fewer responsibilities. If you can commit to writing after school or work, when your household is quiet, then go for it! Personally, if I tried that I’d have too much to do and end up never writing because I could never squeeze it in. It’s like exercising in that way. Some people can commit to doing it late, and others just can’t. If you try it and it works out for you, please let me know. I love hearing success stories.

Find Time to Write by Eliminating Time Wasters

How much time do you waste? I waste quite a bit of it myself. I scroll my phone, watch television (though not nearly as much as I used to), get caught up with drama on social media.

There. Now you know my time wasting sins. What are yours? I’m guessing that we have at least one of those time wasters in common.

I try to manage my time rather than letting it manage me, because I always have too much to do without saying I’m going to fold laundry but then using my laundry time to scroll Facebook. So I do try to minimize my scrolling time. I allow myself to scroll first thing in the morning, last thing at night, and try to put the kibosh on it in between. It doesn’t always work, but I do my best.

If you need a phone fix, you could try setting a timer and stopping when it goes off.

Find Time to Write by Consolidating Errands

I have to go to the drugstore one day to pick up prescriptions. Another day I run out of lettuce. This is a predictable thing since I own a Flemish Giant rabbit who eats MY weight in the stuff, and I need to fill my fridge again pronto or else I fear for my life. I allow myself one cheat meal a week, which is always a Jimmy John’s Unwich – a Spicy East Coast Italian with extra mayo and extra peppers. 

I work from home and so rarely need to leave my apartment except for these annoying must-dos. It’s not like I can pick a thing or two up in the middle of my commute, because I haven’t had a commute since the pandemic started.

Each task takes a minimum of thirty minutes, and most of that involves getting out of the community I live in and back in again. So I consolidate. I go to CVS first, then to Aldi for as much lettuce as my arms can carry. While in the Aldi parking lot I place a pickup order for Jimmy John’s. By the time I arrive, my order is ready. I pick it up and I’m on my way.

My list of three tasks takes an hour done all at once rather than the ninety minutes or more it would take if I did those tasks on three separate days. I could use my ‘found’ thirty minutes to bash out a few hundred words. This is just an idea that will hopefully spark something in you to streamline other things in your life.

Prioritize Writing and Make a Daily Schedule

Sad to say that I never wrote down my priorities until I was past forty. Lifechanger. I was inspired to do it when I read Push by Chalene Johnson. 

Chalene explains it better, but the gist is this. Write down everything you have no choice but to do, things like work, childcare, etc. These are things that would implode your life if not done. Now, make a list of all the things that you want to, that are important to you, things that would implode your soul if not done. Writing should be on that list.

Now, make a daily schedule. Plug in the ‘need to do’ things first, add in the ‘want to do’ items. Arrange them so that you have a pleasing schedule. Do not forget things like showering and eating. Also, try not to overschedule. Leave a few gaps here and there. Writers need a little down time for writing off the page (more on that later).

If your time is jam packed and you cannot squeeze in fifteen minutes a day to write (maybe schedule thirty so you have time to sit at the keyboard, get your coffee, etc), you might have to do some schedule pruning. 

Are you on three different committees at church? Maybe one or two of them have to go. Do you sign up for every bake sale or PTA meeting at your kid’s school? Start saying no to them. These might be more the problems of women because we are socialized to be polite and agreeable. Men seem to have an easier time carving time for themselves. I’m not saying you should never do anything nice or volunteer or spend time on others. Of course you should. You just need to draw a line. Your life may change once you start prioritizing the things that are most important to you and saying no to the rest. Mine did.

The moral is, you need to make writing a high priority and to set daily time aside for it. Fifteen minutes is enough, but an hour is better if you can manage it (I can only rarely). If you don’t make writing a daily goal you may well find that you never get around to it and a decade from now all you will have to show are a bunch of empty pages. Prioritize daily writing!

Make a Commitment

Commit to yourself to write a certain length of time, or a certain number of words each day. My goal is one hundred words a day, and since I started practicing this I have never not written at least two hundred words and usually more.

Once you learn to get into flow you should find the words coming easier and faster. I started a spreadsheet in Google Drive to keep track of my writing. My writing varies between ten and twenty-five words per minute, so in my measly fifteen to twenty minutes I can more than hit my daily goal. I started keeping track of my word counts due to the phrase ‘what gets measured gets managed’. I didn’t find that the tracker helped me to write any faster, but it does give me a measurable record to track my trends over time. I’m a little bit of a geek, so I find that sort of thing inspiring.

Do you have your writing goal? Are you ready to get going (if you haven’t already)?

Check out my this article on how to strengthen your writing: Seven Simple Ways to Make Your Writing Rock.

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Happy Writing!