Do you find yourself procrastinating or writing endlessly; yet never getting anything completed? Follow seven steps to manage your time more effectively.
- Start by noting how you spend your time. Are you checking emails instead of writing? Are you spending too much time in rewriting? This step will help you to identify those things that are literally wasting your time.
- Now look at that list of ‘time wasters’. Allocate a specific time to do them. So if your time waster is emailing, try and give yourself ten minutes before you start your writing session to check them. If it’s household chores, try and get them done in the morning if your writing session is in the afternoon.
- The worst thing you can do is to take on too many writing projects. Focus only on one at a time. Make sure you get that completed from start to finish before you begin another. Some people like the buzz of having a few projects on the go. However most people find that there doing a little bit of work on one then on the other, failing to make progress on either project.
- Decide on what your current project will be and stick to it. Complete it in small bite size stages. So maybe spend a writing session on working on the plot of your story. And another day on building character profiles.
- Find the best time of day for you to write. Some people write best in the early morning, others are night owls. Don’t force yourself to write at a time that does not suit you.
- Make your writing area clutter free. It sounds simple but when the muse is calling you don’t want to be scrabbling about for a pen and your favourite notebook.
- Make time in your life for recreational activities such as hobbies. Daydreaming is productive if it helps you through the creative process and gets words on the page. Above all, for a balance in your life between writing and doing the things you enjoy.
Uzma Chaudhry I write short stories as a hobby. By profession I’m a Pharmacist.
