Time is a precious resource. You need to guard your writing time. There are so many distractions in today’s world, and it is easy to let your planning, writing, and revising slip. Here are some things you can do to eliminate some of the interruptions and time hogs that cut into your writing time.
Figure out how much time you have for your writing and put it on your calendar or task list. We reserve time for things we need to get done. Your writing is important. Treat it that way.
Writers need to balance their day-to-day duties and relationships and often day jobs. I found when I told people that I was working, they were more understanding of my schedule than when I said I was writing. Some see it as another hobby. It is work, so I call it that.
Find a place that is free from as many distractions as possible. When I really need to concentrate on something, I use my noise-cancelling headphones. They help me focus.
It is so easy to get distracted with fact-checking while you write. When you’re writing, make notes in your manuscript of things you need to research. Then later, go back and do all your research at one time. If you hop on the internet each time you need to look up something, you could be on there for hours looking at cute dog or llama videos.
Turn off the TV. We often spend hours watching television or movies. You may be surprised at the extra writing time that’s available.
Record shows that you want to watch, so you can fast forward through the commercials. It saves quite a bit of time.
Schedule your social media posts for the week. I spend about an hour once a week scheduling posts for Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Don’t check your phone every five minutes. It’s too easy to get sucked into email or a social media feed when you’re supposed to be writing.
Training and learning are good things. Just be careful not to over schedule so that you’re always attending training or watching training videos. I did the same thing with writing books in the early days. I was always reading about writing instead of writing.
Networking is great and much needed. I am on a lot of online groups where each post creates an alert to all the members. I adjusted the frequency of the emails for these sites to a daily digest when I didn’t need to follow the conversations in real time. I also turned off the alerts on my phone, so it didn’t beep every time there was a new post. This helped me cut down on a lot of the distractions. Just don’t let the social and marketing part of your writing career take over your writing time.
Spend a few minutes unsubscribing to sites and newsletters that you don’t need or aren’t interested in. By pairing down your inbox, it saves you time when you review email.
Writing is a business, and you should treat it like one. It’s hard to juggle all the daily expectations and distractions, but if you don’t protect the time, it will slip away.
About the Author
Through the years, Heather Weidner has been a cop’s kid, technical writer, editor, college professor, software tester, and IT manager. She writes the Delanie Fitzgerald Mysteries, The Jules Keene Glamping Mysteries, and The Mermaid Bay Christmas Shoppe Mysteries. Her short stories appear in the Virginia is for Mysteries series, 50 Shades of Cabernet, Deadly Southern Charm, and Murder by the Glass, and she has non-fiction pieces in Promophobia and The Secret Ingredient: A Mystery Writers’ Cookbook. She is a member of James River Writers, Sisters in Crime – Central Virginia, Sisters in Crime – Chessie, Guppies, and International Thriller Writers. Originally from Virginia Beach, Heather has been a mystery fan since Scooby-Doo and Nancy Drew. She lives in Central Virginia with her husband and a pair of Jack Russell terriers. She earned her B.A. in English from Virginia Wesleyan University and her M.A. in American Literature from the University of Richmond.