How to find more time to write
Do you want to get your novel written? Of course you do. But there are so many other things that have to get done on a daily, weekly, or otherwise regular basis. Most of us have jobs, families, and other obligations. The good news is that writing a novel is something you can do, if you really wanted to. After all, you have 24 hours at your disposal every day, no more and no less than everyone else. And getting the necessary things done and writing your novel is entirely possible. Here are some productivity tips to help you find more time for writing your novel this week.
Take a social media hiatus for a week
Okay, this is tricky for many people. If you’re not checking your messages or your feeds on social media, how will you know what’s going on? What if there was an emergency and you didn’t see the message soon enough? When it comes to real emergencies, you’ll hear it from other people. While the news about Harvey just exploded social media, people were talking about it in real life, too. You just have to listen. And as for a true emergency that requires your response: that person is more likely to call you. If you want, put up a post on social media, letting them know you’re not going to be around this week. Then log out and stay true to your word.
Why the break from social media? It’s a huge time waster. Even if you log on to write a post or check on an event you’re invited to, you inevitably end up wasting at least 10 minutes or a lot more time browsing through your feed. I do it all the time. And it’s not anywhere near as satisfying as writing your novel instead.
Why just a week? It’s a start. It’s doable, and you won’t miss it too much. If you’re truly addicted, you might want to lay off altogether. Otherwise, you can schedule reasonable amounts of social media time next week.
Write on the go
How often are you stuck waiting around for something to happen or something to do something? Whether you’re at the doctor’s office or DMV, waiting for things to happen is something that takes place more often than we want it to. Instead of wasting your time on social media, why don’t you write your novel instead? You can log in from your phone to Novelize and continue typing up that scene. Yes, you can type faster on a real keyboard on your laptop or computer, but some progress is better than none. Besides, it’s fun. And when it’s your turn to talk to the DMV personnel, you won’t be annoyed for having wasted your afternoon there.
You don’t have to designate 8 hours each day to write (although if you can, that’s awesome). Most writers get their first book done on a part-time basis. When it comes to writing, every minute counts. If you only spend 15 minutes each day waiting around, that’s over 1 1/2 hours of writing time if you use this opportunity to work on your novel instead. You can accomplish quite a bit in an hour and a half even if it’s interrupted writing time.
Plan tomorrow’s day tonight
Before you go to bed, you can try creating a plan for tomorrow’s day. Instead of flying by the seat of your pants, hoping you’ll have a minute to yourself, write down what you want to accomplish tomorrow. Set specific goals. There don’t have to be a lot of them. If you plan to clean your windows, mow the lawn, and repaint the bedroom tomorrow, you will set yourself up for failure.
List one or two things you’d like to accomplish. What will make you feel like you’ve had a successful day if you can get it done tomorrow? Is it writing 500 words on your novel, editing that first chapter, or spending an hour working on your outline? Whatever it is, write it down tonight, and carve out some time to get it done tomorrow.
Finish your manuscript before you edit
One way to ensure that your novel will never get finished is to keep changing and editing the story before you’re even halfway through the manuscript. Don’t get me wrong. It can be necessary to scrap a story in its entirety or edit a significant portion of it on occasion. But if that’s all you ever do, you probably won’t finish that novel anytime soon.
One way to avoid getting sucked into editing mode is not to edit at all until you’re done writing the entire first draft. Don’t scroll through your book each time you sit down to write. Find the spot where you left off and keep going.
This is harder than it sounds, especially when you’re suffering from writer’s block. It might seem productive to edit since you’re not writing anyway, but editing can really backfire on you.
If the book is so bad that you can’t continue writing it, you may want to consider starting over with a new story. If you still want to salvage some of your book, you could work with an outline to help you move it along.
When it comes to editing, you’ll be doing enough of it later on. And you will get so sick of it that you will wish it was time to write again. It’s not uncommon to edit a book 20 times or more before it’s deemed ready for publication. And those are just your edits. After that, it goes to your editor, your agent, and your publisher.
Make use of your time off
You don’t have to take a 10-day vacation in order to write your novel, but taking time off can’t hurt. You can give yourself big boosts on the weekend, on half-days, and during the holidays. But if your 10-day writing sprint includes a 40-hour workweek, you can still get a lot done. You just have to work around your schedule by finding your most productive time.
Figure out when you’re most productive
It’s easy to figure out when you’re most productive. This isn’t necessarily the time of day that allows you to write the highest number of words. It’s the time of day that allows you to write the highest number of words in the shortest amount of time. If you can write 500 words in the 30 minutes it takes your significant other to get breakfast ready, that’s more productive than spending 2 hours at the computer in the evening and only show 1,000 words for it.
To find out when you’re most productive, measure the time you spend writing and the word count you have to show for it. From now on this is the time you have to spend writing. Don’t schedule anything else during that time, at least until you reach your goal.
Don’t stop until you reach your goal
Remember what we mentioned earlier? You have to set a goal tonight for tomorrow. And tomorrow, you can’t stop until you reach that goal. Things happen, your tire blows up, your child gets sick, but eventually, you will have a free moment, at the latest right before it’s time to go to bed. We’re not suggesting you should skip sleep every night, but just for this one week, don’t go to bed until you have reached your goal.
The next day, you’ll remember how annoying it was to have to stay up late to do it. And you’ll get it done during your regular waking hours. The day after that, you might even decide to wake up early and get it done while everyone else is still sleeping. But if you set a goal for yourself, you need to get it done. It’s as simple as that. You owe it to yourself.
Get an accountability partner
To stay motivated, you may want to get an accountability partner. This could be your significant other, a co-worker, or the people in your Facebook novel writing group. It’s really important to make your goal public. The more people know about it, the more embarrassing it would be for you to let them down. That’s a good thing, because just knowing that other people might see you fail can keep you going.
Create your cover first
One of the best ways to motivate yourself to finish your book is to create the cover first. Technically, this might be construed as putting the cart before the horse, but what do you think it will do to your motivation to see your book before it’s done? It’s going to make you want to finish it so you can get it published!
The cover you design in the beginning doesn’t have to be your final cover, either. The same is true for the working title. You can always change it later. But if you create both your cover and your title, it will make the book more real and encourage you to keep writing.
Write what you want
To keep up your motivation, write something you’re excited about. Ideally, you want to write a story that you would enjoy reading. This will keep you going even when you’re not really in the mood for writing. And if you get stuck in the middle of your book, just approach things logically. What happens next? Getting the words out is the most important part, you can always edit later.
Get back on the keyboard
There will be days when you won’t get anything written even though you’ve given it your best shot. That’s okay. It’s actually a good idea to schedule time off from writing in order return to it refreshed the next day. But even if a few days or weeks (yikes!) have passed where you haven’t written anything, that doesn’t mean you should give up. Just get back on the keyboard as soon as you can!
Identify and eliminate time wasters
This may sound harsh, but we all do it. Stop checking Facebook or Twitter every 5 seconds, stop watching TV without an end in sight, and stop spending 2 hours a day in your email inbox. In short, stop doing things that don’t bring you any long-term satisfaction. Steven Covey made this productivity tip from President Eisenhower really popular:
“You have to differentiate between the urgent and important and do the important things first.”
There are lots of different options for wasting your time. What is eating away your precious time every day? Can you stop doing these things altogether? Can you reduce the time spent doing them? Here are some potential activities that might be true time wasters:
Browsing the Internet
Watching TV
Cleaning
Cooking/Doing dishes
Driving
Running errands
Spending time with people you don’t like
Overtime at work
Yes, you still have to cook and do the dishes, but you can do this more efficiently. That’s a chore than can be divided up in your household, with the kids pitching in. Some days, you may want to opt for simple meals. Make sandwiches and don’t use plates. That’s minimal cleanup right there, and you have to wipe down the table anyway. Unless you need the money to survive, cut back on overtime at your job. And if you’re still hanging out with people you don’t like, then it’s really time to pull the plug. Life is too short.
Get creative. We don’t need to tell you how to get rid of or reduce your time wasters. But it does require you to take a good look at what you’re doing, what’s working, and what’s not working. Now let’s get that novel written!