Writing: A Study in Time Management

I ran across a blog on Writer's Digest several days ago entitled How to Write While Managing a Full-Time Job: 5 Ways to Maximize your time.  If you follow me on Twitter you might have seen me retweet it.  Anyway, as I was reading this I kept thinking to myself "I DO THIS!"  It is so very similar to what I have written in my previous blogs that either this guy is stalking me or he is a fellow genius. :-)

So, here are his 5 Ways to maximizing writing time (abbreviated) and how they relate to me (and my blog):

1) Never ever ever leave the house without a way to record your ideas.  I can't find where I have specifically mentioned this in a previous blog but I carry my MacBook, iPad and iPhone with me everywhere I go (as well as a notebook and pencil).  Yes, it's probably overkill but I have used them all for note taking purposes.

2) Take advantage of small moments.  I talked about this in my blog post "What can you do in twenty minutes?"  I often write in short spurts now.  I feel like I get more done this way than trying to write for hours at a time.

3) If you can’t give it your best, then give it what you can.  I talked about this in my blog post "Take the good with the bad."  I'm sure that's not the only time I've mentioned this since it is a common occurrence.  Good writing doesn't come all the time.  Sometimes you're lucky to walk away with anything useful.

4) Train your mind to think like a writer.  This one I mentioned very recently in the blog post "So you want to be a writer."  Actually, this particular blog post mentions most of these points.  Anyway, once you train yourself to think like a writer you start seeing plots in everything!  This is very helpful for getting new story ideas.

5) Make writing a priority.  I have talked about this many times, I believe, but my favorite was in the blog post "How bad do you want it?"  I actually don't still get up that early to write (which I discussed in a more recent blog entry) because caring for an infant is exhausting and I just cannot get up that early anymore.  Maybe one day...but for now, I do most of my writing at night.

All true.  I can vouch for it.