Guest Author - Lucinda Moriarty

One complaint I hear over and over from fellow writers is that there is never enough time to write.

I’ve said it. You probably have too.

Finding time to write in a world of afterschool activities, household management, and those necessary “day jobs” outside the home isn’t easy. Here are a few suggestions that might help you get a little more wiggle room for your writing life.

Get Connected. Obviously you can use the internet to gather information for your writing project, but an additional time saver is to use it to log into your local library account and browse the collections at your branch. Many libraries now allow you to reserve books online and the librarian will hold them for you. All you have to do is drop by the branch and pick up the books and you are off in minutes.

Get Disconnected. Visiting with friends online, answering emails, reading newsletters, visiting forums is a great way to network and stay current on the latest trends in publishing. But minutes can become hours. Limit your internet time. Grab that egg timer you never use and set it for one hour. When the buzzer goes off, close off your internet connection. If you only cut your internet time by ten minutes a day, you can save over an hour a week.

Go to Lunch. Try scheduling a “lunch” meeting with yourself once a week. If a coworker asks you to go to lunch that day, politely decline. Grab your brown bag and you will gain another hour you can devote to outlining your next easy reader.

Say Please. If you are a control freak, it is time lose control. If every task around you needs your input, your supervision, your guidance, you need to do yourself a favor learn to delegate. Just say “please” to a family member – if you have a strong supportive family, they will be more than happy to load the dishwasher while you steal away to your keyboard for fifteen minutes.

Use It. Don’t Abuse It. The fact is, there are only 24 hours in a day. Within that time restraint you have to sleep, eat, and bathe with some regularity. If you have family obligations or a job outside the home, your time available to write is going to be cut proportionately, so once you manage to save a little time – use it to write. Don’t barter that precious time you saved by volunteering to do an extra carpool shift or chair the local PTA. Those are very good causes too, but if you are looking for time to write, the time you save must be your own.