When do I write?
Have you ever sat down with a trifold sheet of paper, a pen, and quiet to determine where all your time is going? I do this exercise, from Ryder Carroll’s, The Bullet Journal Method, once per year. I title the columns as follows:
On the left, Working On… This column is for things I must do and can’t get out of. My 9-5 job, paying the mortgage, filing taxes. The non-negotiables for which I must make time. But it’s also for the non-critical things I am currently doing. Spending too much time on Reddit. Getting absorbed in my Twitter feed. Watching too many YouTube videos. Do you see the trend here? I spend a lot of my “working on” energy on things that don’t serve me.
In the middle, Should be Working On… For the things I should* be doing, like exercising regularly, eating vegetables, and drinking water that wasn’t filtered through coffee beans. The good stuff. The positive habit stuff.
On the right, Want to be Working On… This one is pretty self-explanatory. I want to write more. I want to read more. I want to get my website up and running (hey look at that, the method works). I also use this column for more nebulous goals like, “I want to be more patient” or “I want to choose kindness,” but maybe that’s just me.
I give you this method because it’s helped me more than once as a writer. After my son was born, it helped me refocus my time after we adjusted to the constantly changing schedule of newborn parenthood. When I was struggling through a job that left me feeling devoid of life at the end of the day, it whipped me back into shape. And in 2020, it’s pulled me out of a half-dozen dark places where Netflix plays on a loop for eight hours and my shirt is more Cheez-it dust than cotton.
It’s so easy to make excuses to yourself and say, “I don’t have the time to write today, maybe tomorrow.” Hours later, it’s 1 a.m. and you’ve watched six episodes of Supernatural… again. Usually that doesn’t feel so great, does it?
My December spread for my writing journal has a focused list of times that I can write, and I encourage you to make a similar list. Everyone has a different 24 hours in their day, so don’t write a schedule that’s impossible for you to adhere to due to outside influences like work or being a parent. Your schedule must work for you. Mine looks like this:
When to Write
During quiet time (Saturday and Sunday, 12:30 - 2 p.m. while my husband does naptime with our son)
Alternating bath or bedtime (we alternate who does which routine task with our son each night. If it’s my night for bedtime, I write during bath time)
Early morning (unlikely, but feasible)
Off-Fridays (I work this really cool schedule where I have every other Friday off)
Vacation (I am taking a well-deserved two week vacation in December. I will be going no where and doing nothing)
Sunday mornings (Sunday morning is grocery day, and grocery shopping is my husband’s thing)
The me who makes excuses watches YouTube during bath and bedtime. She starts yet another playthrough of Stardew Valley during quiet time. There’s time for those things. Rest and simplicity and choosing to not be productive are important. But making excuses to only be unproductive is destructive. It ruins my mental health, confidence, and drive.
So no more excuses. When do I write? Whenever I damn well can.
*I dislike the word “should” because it implies guilt for not doing something. I’ll probably write about that later.
