Time Management for Writers/Authors
Much has been written on the subject of time management, even for authors. This is not the definitive word on the subject. As proof, go ahead and google the phrase “time management for writers.” Since this can’t be the last word on time management, we’ll instead focus on how I manage my time, tips and tricks I’ve heard or am in the middle of using, and setting the stage for future articles that will make use of psychology to force you to be more productive without making you feel terrible at the same time.
This post assumes you’ve read the How to Plan a Writing Career series and the Costs of Writing series. If you haven’t, here’s a brief summary: the average writer attempts to write 10 books in 10 years with the hope of being published. To do so, they must write ~500 words/day (on average), learn craft, read in their genre, and manage their online presence. This takes about 3.5 hours/day, 0.5 hours in excess of the average person’s 3 hours of free time each day. Money is up to you.
How do you fit this in? There are four basic approaches that can be used in various combinations:
Re-prioritize your life - This includes determining how where writing fits into your other obligations and needs. Moving writing up the list means that other things fall off when the unexpected occurs, ensuring the writing gets done, but maybe the dishes don’t.
Find more time - This includes cutting activities you don’t need to make room for writing. Such as sleep, which is a common but ill-advised activity to cut.
Make more of the time you have - This involves making yourself more efficient, at writing-related tasks and/or non-writing-related tasks. For example, learning to type faster is a common first stop, but finding ways to do chores faster can also increase your available time.
Cut your writing goals - what it says on the tin. This is about changing your goals to better suit your needs. Most commonly done out of a desire for mental health or a social life.
We’ll go through some steps that will work with the above four approaches to find ways to get you the time you need.
Catalogue your schedule for an entire week as it happens. Don’t make it ahead of time. It won’t be accurate enough if you do. Instead, pick a day and keep track of everything you do for the next 7 days. Record the time you wake up, the time you get up (if you like to lounge in bed), time spent getting ready for the day (it’s ok to lump in all the activities here), your commute, etc. Don’t forget meals and meal prep. A special note about work time. When documenting work time it is tempting to record it as one solid block. Instead, try to break it up so you can track how much break time you have, as well as how much time you spend goofing off with social media or office chatter. Be honest with yourself, otherwise everything else in this post falls apart.
Try using Excel or another spreadsheet tool to track this
Mark each activity as regular (things that you do consistently) and one-offs
Format this into an hour by hour breakdown, or even a 15 minute breakdown. Whatever timescale works best for you.
Now that you have a breakdown of your daily routine, you can identify points where you have spare time. For example, if it was a one-off that you had to have the dog’s nails clipped, you can safely count on that time in the future (unless you always use that time slot for errands). Another example, if you take a one-hour lunch break each day, that’s time you can put to work, provided you don’t already do so. Capture these free times on a separate sheet, broken out by time of day.
Cut activities you can live without. Do not cut activities that keep you sane. Some people need an hour of video games every now and then to avoid hurting others. This is not a bad thing. Be honest with yourself. Add the time from things you cut to your free time.
Label each time as free, inconsistent, or interstitial. Free time is time you consistently have with nothing to to do. Inconsistent time is free time that is often used for other tasks. Interstitial time is for small chunks that you can only use in a limited capacity.
Count up how much of each of the three types of free time you have.
Break your various writing tasks into two categories, either full-attention of partial-attention. Full attention is reserved for things best done in large blocks, such as writing or website management. Partial-attention tasks are those that can be done on the run, like listening to an audiobook or checking twitter.
Use the Writing Career series to get an idea of your goals and the time required to reach them. For example, if you want to write ten books in five years, you’d need to double the writing per day. But if your writing speed is 1,000 words/hour, that’s not a problem.
Now, assign your partial-attention tasks to your interstitial time slots until its full. If you need more time, dip into the inconsistent time. As a last resort, start consuming your free time. By doing it this way you ensure that the bulk of your true free time is available for writing and other difficult tasks. This is where you decide if your budget can handle audiobooks instead of novels. This can work for both craft books and genre reading, but beware overusing this for craft time. You may ignore exercises and other thought experiments. Try to keep some part of your craft work in the true free time slot if possible, especially if you plan to do writing exercises.
Place your writing and other difficult tasks into your remaining free time. If you’re lucky, you have a little bit of time leftover. If you’re like everybody else, keep reading.
How much more time do you need? At this point you’ve already re-prioritized your life and have cut unnecessary time-sinks. All that is left is to accept that some things will need to spill to your weekend, or get faster at doing the things you do.
If your overage is due to partial-attention tasks that spilled over into your free time, see if you can listen at 1.5 or 2x speed. The voices get a bit tinny, but you won’t lose comprehension (even though you think you will).
Get better at typing. This is not improving your base typing speed. Most people are around 40 WPM, which is well in excess of their writing speed (4.16 - 8.32 WPM). This is about learning to turn off your internal editor and just write. Let the words flow, use stand-ins (like bracketed phrases [char name here]), whatever it takes to get yourself to a better speed. Where possible, aim for 8.32 - 12.5 WPM. Not everyone can do this, and that’s ok.
Use speech-to-text software to make writing an interstitial activity. Takes some getting used to, but you can get up to 200 WPM if you’re good.
Delegate - what parts of your schedule can be handled by someone else? I’m not giving you license to offload all your work on your significant other or kids. But you can have an honest conversation with them and see if they’re willing to take some of the burden off you in exchange for a regular date-night or a small allowance. Or just because they love you. But try the money first.
Hire someone - if your budget permits, offload certain tasks to a professional. Social media and website management are prime candidates. Use freelancer.com or any of a number of other sites to hire someone that can do the job for you so you have more time to do the things you love.
5. Work on discipline - your time is valuable. Don’t go off-script unless you need to. That means no checking social media while writing, no researching while writing, no writing at the dinner table (unless your family is cool with that), etc. If you need to, silence your phone, lock it away and give your spouse the key, whatever you need to do. There are websites and apps that can force you to stay on task. Make use of them.
At this point, everything should fit. If not, you’ll need to cut some writing tasks or rethink your schedule. There are other tips we could go into, such as doing your least favorite tasks first, getting your writing done in the morning (separate from the previous point), or changing your diet/sleep schedule. However, those are for another article. Now, get back to planning your writing.