Seems Professional Writers Have Time Management Problems, Too
It doesn’t help me, but now I know we’re all in the same boat
I’ve written off and on about the difficulty of finding writing time in a busy schedule, and I assumed that professionals didn’t suffer from these problems. So, it was refreshing and amusing to read a Substack post from Jojo Moyes recently. That showed that even professionals have time management issues.
She starts the post with a question that, apparently, many (all?) professional writers are constantly asked.
When do you write?
What follows is as amusing as it is supportive, in an odd kind of way. I had always believed that turning professional would mean that a writer never again has to juggle life’s various commitments to find a few hours here and there for creativity. I’m sure many pros have figured it all out, but for now, it’s refreshing to know that they, too, have difficulties sometimes.
Resistance Lives
I started writing again, after several years of not having the guts to even try, at the beginning of 2023. As the year progressed, I reduced my day job commitment from a five-day workweek to four. The reasoning was sound, I think. Now that I had an extra day every weekend, being able to time block at least eight hours every week would be a breeze. Of course, it hasn’t worked out like that at all. The extra day was quickly filled with everything apart from creative time. I’m still exactly where I was when I worked a 5-day week.
Last weekend, we were in Dublin for a short city trip, which was amazing, if very short. I have no regrets; it meant, of course, no creative writing time apart from this newsletter. This past week was a hectic and stressful week at the day job, which meant that all day Friday and half of Saturday were lost. The story repeats with monotonous regularity if I look back over the last month or two. I’m beginning to suspect that most, if not all, of these, on the face of it, reasonable-sounding reasons for not writing are all that they seem.
When I think back to Steven Pressfield’s book The War of Art, it starts to sound very much like Resistance is making a successful comeback; maybe I’m fooling myself, or maybe not. But even spending an hour is better than nothing, surely? I wrote about the concept of Micro-Creativity way back in March, then promptly forgot all about it, conveniently aiding Resistance in the process. In fact, thumbing through the last few months of newsletters reveals a common theme. If Jojo Moyes can squeeze in time to write, even with everything she deals with, then why can’t I?
Excuses, Excuses
Yes, we are all guilty of making excuses, aren’t we? It’s easy to say that it’s not my fault, that next week it’ll be different. But it never is unless we recognize that we are inherently lazy. Anything that excuses us from pushing through life’s difficulties. Next week? Don’t fool yourself. Next week, there will be another ‘good’ reason why the writing project will be pushed back, and the week after, and so on—ad infinitum. There is only one person you can rely on when it comes down to it. Yourself.
Writing about finding the time to write is another way to avoid the real difficulties. It is not and never is any external factor; it’s always internal. No matter what the day job or the family demands are. It is always possible to spend some time writing. Even 5 minutes is better than nothing at all. But we don’t really believe that. We kid ourselves that it’s not worth it unless we commit a minimum of one or two hours to the work—total garbage. Anything is better than nothing.
I suspect one way successful writers become successful is to cultivate a mindset that views any creative time, no matter how short, as worthwhile. This can range from the shortest micro-creativity session to a full day (or half a day) devoted to creative pursuits.
Of course, saying (or writing) is easy. It’s the doing part that makes all the difference.
Final Thoughts
No more excuses, then; it’s time to put my money where my mouth is. I’m committed now. After a long commute to and from the stressful day job, it can no longer be used as an excuse. I promise to myself, as much as you, that things have to change. Not starting tomorrow or next week. But starting right now.
My long-form writing tool of preference is Scrivener, and, like an idiot, I configured project and session word count targets. The only thing these targets achieve is to demotivate me from even starting a session. They have to go.
I’m going to use every tool at my disposal to be creative, cultivating a creativity mindset. I’ll send myself emails, record a voice note, or jot something down on my iPad. Pulling it all together will be a hassle, but it’s better than the alternative of achieving nothing.