(personal/writing) Thinking about time management

In a way, I’m lucky.  My day job doesn’t come home with me.  I go in, I deal with people, and I go home.  It’s not something that I can bring home, nor is it something that I have to really schedule (lucky me, my day is scheduled for me).  So articles about how to “work smarter, not harder” are ones I read with an eye towards my second job – writing.

 

What brought this up?  I’ve been thinking a lot about writing lately.  I belong to several writers groups, and all of them feature folks who write faster than me.  I don’t write fast.  A good day for me is about 2k.  I’m not someone who is going to be regularly pulling a Lowell (10k in a day) or more.  I don’t win NaNo on Day 3.  And sometimes, watching these word counts, I feel (a) jealous; (b) like a fake; (c) like I should be doing more; (d) a total failure.

 

Now, before everyone rushes in to tell me it’s okay, trust me, I know.  I’m not a failure.  I’ve got a full series published.  I can finish stories.  I know I’m not a fake, and that everyone writes at their own speed.  But it also got me to looking at HOW I write, and what I can do to maximize the writing time I have.

 

I confess, I’m an internet junkie.  I love to have a writing chat room up while I write, and I’m constantly checking Facebook (I fell off the Twitter wagon when I didn’t have an Android phone for a year, and still haven’t really gotten back into it).  I’ll write with the TV in the background.  I’m a true multitasker – which really isn’t good.  (Case in point – while writing this blog post, I’m eating breakfast.)  And I’m sure it affects my writing.

 

One of the things I recently read (and of course, now I can’t find the link, oh well) was talking about scheduling rather than making a to-do list.  I don’t do this, because I am terrible at estimating how much time something will take me.  Seriously.  So what do you do when you’re me and terrible at something?  PRACTICE!

 

Starting tomorrow (because I will be out all day today, hence the blog post while writing breakfast before I run out the door), I’m going to start scheduling my time, and then seeing how close I came to it.  I expect the first few weeks to be hysterically inaccurate, but that’s okay.  That’s how I learn.

 

How do YOU maximize your writing/crafting time?  Any hints?

Originally published at The words of Valerie Griswold-Ford. You can comment here or there.