One of the questions people often ask me is: “Where do you find the time to write?” When they ask this, I often think that what they really mean is: “Why can’t I find enough time to write?”

From personal experience, I know how difficult it can be to find the time and energy to be creative, especially if you have a full time day job, a mortgage to pay, and a family to look after, and I won’t pretend I have all the answers. But there are strategies you can use to increase the time you have available for writing. The three strategies listed below have worked for me, or for other writers I know personally:

1. Squeeze It In
Think of all the time you spend waiting for things. Can you snatch a few minutes while waiting for the morning bus? Can you sit down at the kitchen table while waiting for the kids’ lunch to finish cooking? If you keep a notebook and pen with you at all times, you can turn any period of inactivity into a short burst of writing. If you have a lunch hour at work, why not eat your sandwich at your desk and spend the hour writing? Stuck in the dentist’s waiting room for half an hour? That’s half an hour you could use to work on your next scene. It may not seem like much, but it soon adds up, and every sentence you write is one sentence closer to a finished manuscript.

Example: My brother wrote the majority of his first novel on the train to work, thereby converting the daily commute into a daily creative writing session.

2. Make The Most Of What You Have
If you already have some time set aside for writing, are you making the most of it? Or do you sit down at the keyboard, exhausted and wondering where to start? Do you spend most of you allocated time fiddling around and answering emails, only to have to stop just when the creative juices are starting to flow? If so, you need to make the most of your time, and the key to that is preparation. You need to know what you’re going to write before you sit down at the keyboard, and so you need to train your brain to think about your story during the day. If you’re subconsciously mulling over the plot of your story while washing the dishes, walking the dog, or doing the shopping, you’ll find yourself coming up with all sorts of connections and ideas that you just can’t wait to get down on paper. Some of my best story ideas have come while I was in the shower, driving long distance, or walking to the pub. Keep a notebook with you, and you can jot down notes that will have you ready and raring to go when the time finally comes for you to write.

Example: I wrote the notes for this article in my lunch break at work, so I’d be ready to start typing them up as soon as I got home to the computer.

3. Creating Time
This is the most radical of the three solutions. If you’ve tried the two approaches listed above and you still find you’re short of time, you need to start freeing up chunks of time that are currently monopolised by other activities. Make yourself a spreadsheet and use it to break the week down into fifteen minutes chunks. Now fill in all the activities you perform over the course of a regular week. How much time do you spend watching TV or surfing the Internet? How long do you spend reading the newspaper or taking a 20 minute bath when a 5 minute shower would be just as effective? Once you have all your activities mapped out, you’ll start to see places where you can shave off some time. Do you really need to lie in bed until 11 am on Sunday morning? Can you save time by doing your grocery shopping online in the evening instead of wasting most of Saturday morning fighting your way around the supermarket? Maybe you could let the housework slide a little, or quit your full-time job in favour of something part-time?

Example: I do most of my writing in the evening instead of watching TV, and I tend to go to bed later than I should, which means I’m usually tired during the day. Sacrificing sleep for productivity probably isn’t a wise and sustainable strategy, but it’s been working for me for the last few years, and having a patient and understanding spouse is certainly a big help.

At the end of the day, if writing is really important to you, you will find time to do it. But if you simply can’t bear to give up watching House or going to the pub every night, maybe writing just isn’t for you.

Tags: Advice • Finding Time • Time • Writing