Your Time Is Yours
It’s ironic that I’m writing a post about how we as writers, as Creatives, give our time freely and generously to other people. We fight other people’s fires to avoid working on our own. We fill our days with To Dos, tasks and schedules. The minutia of our day-today swallows us whole and takes us away from our creative spirit, takes us away from what we really want to do. For me, it’s writing.
I have a partially-written book that my editor is waiting for me to complete edits on, but my week is filled getting my clients’ books done.
Then I think, “The weekend!” I will write on the weekend. The Holy Grail.
But the weekend comes, and I have yardwork, and meal planning and grocery shopping, a cat to cuddle and a husband I’d like to spend time with, and so it goes. The time slips by. And my book doesn’t get written.
I am angry and frustrated. I start taking it out on myself and on everyone else.
And that’s when I realize. This has got to stop.
Writing my book is the last thing I should be letting go of. Taking time to nurture my creative spirit lights me up, refuels my tank, gives me jazz hands. And it is always the first thing to go when life gets pressured.
And so.
It starts slowly at first. I get up an hour earlier. I write a little bit. I start to schedule time in my calendar for writing.
Here is the thing about time. Don’t be fooled into thinking you will have more time later
or that “some other time” will be better. You won’t. It won’t. I always think I need a good
run at it. Entire weekends of writing in my pyjamas without a shower and no
responsibility where my creative spirit can roam free. And that’s great if you have it, but I
don’t. I have an extra hour in the morning and can squeeze in 45 minutes (maybe) at the
lunch hour.
I know that I also only have four hours of creative, focused, intense writing power in me
a day. And most of that goes to my clients. So I will give one hour to myself.
And that’s where I start. Momentum gets built, and that is how a book gets written and
finished.
Sometimes I fail. Sometimes I skip the 45 minutes in lieu of a nap or a mental-health
brownie with a friend. But I try again the next day. And if I fail two times out of five? Well,
that’s three more days of writing than if I had done nothing at all.
The only time your book ever has a chance of getting written in right now. In this
moment. That is the creative process in action. The process is getting past one hurdle,
swathing through the resistance, and getting your project moving along to the next
phase. Like that old saying, “How do you eat an elephant?” One bite at a time.
So first. Like I said in See Yourself Writing a Book start somewhere. Do something. Take
any action you can take, even if it’s small. Set a timer and write for 30 minutes right
now. Ask, yourself, what is one action you can take today to carve out time towards your
dream?
For me, today, it’s writing this post.
Second. Find a friend. And create deadlines, external accountability. I might let myself
off the hook, but I will be way less likely to let a friend down. I set a new book
submission deadline with writing group and circled back with my editor about ways to
stay on track.
Third. Be ferocious about your time. Protect it. Defend it. Bare your teeth. Treat yourself
like you would a client. This is your sacred time. Do not schedule appointments or let
other people step onto this space. It’s all we have.
Right now I am sitting in the library with my laptop perched against my knee writing. I
am ten minutes early for my next meeting. That ten minutes is enough to get me
started. Are they ideal, inspiring writing conditions? Definitely not, but I have learned to
take my writing time wherever I can get it.
I would love to hear from you. What actions are you taking to finally get your book written?
And if you are interested in finding out more about getting additional support with your writing, consider my Book Writing Masterclass may be a fit to provide the structure to help keep you on track.
