Write Time
By Camy Tang
Working Full-Time and Writing
(or for any busy writer)
As always, remember that these tips won't all work for everyone, so pick and choose what's right for you.
Telephones, loops, and Desperate Housewives
You've tucked in your last toddler and kissed the last boo-boo of the day. Your husband is snoring to wake the dead, and the kitchen is finally cleared of the dirty supper dishes.
It's midnight. You're exhausted.
Where did my writing time go?
You promised yourself you'd have time today to write. You were determined to knuckle down and just do it.
There are a multitude of reasons why we lose the time, and each person has different reasons, different scenarios. I want to give a few tips that might apply to your hectic household.
Get a telephone answering machine.
And use it. Don't answer your phone if you have a machine, let the machine pick up the message.
"But my spouse/parents/friends/telemarketers hate leaving messages!"
Well, this may be harsh, but they have to get over it. And if it's urgent enough, they WILL leave a message against their inclinations.
If it's not urgent, and they don't leave a message, then you've just avoided losing fifteen minutes they would have taken from your precious writing time.
Limit your TV and email time.
For some people, it helps to set a time limit, like only one hour of email every day, or one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening. Or they allow themselves to check email only once or twice a day.
That sometimes means you have to keep your email program closed during your non-email times. "But what if I get an important message from an agent? Or an emergency from my husband at work? Or an emotional breakdown from my writing buddy?"
You have to trust that:
1) the important people in your life--your spouse, the kids' teachers, your parents, your friends, that agent you queried--have your telephone number,
2) they know to leave a message on the answering machine, and
3) God will take care of everything from phone tag to timing, so you don't have to freak out about the "what if?"s.
Create message folders for your email: Now, Later, Action Required, or make up your own. Move your emails into folders so you can prioritize what to take care of first.
For TV, use a VCR, Tivo, or digital recorder. That way, you can save time by skipping commercials. You can plan to watch your shows all on a specific day, or only on certain days. Or watch only a certain amount of time each day, like one hour. Same thing with magazines and books--read only on certain days, or limit your time reading each day to an hour or so.
In case you noticed, I changed the title for this article because the whole subject of Kids was enough to take up its own space--next month.
