All These Days and What Do I Do With Them.

It’s too easy to lose time and not make an effort toward your goals. Lots of things like to get in your way and they aren’t always obvious. You might have errands to run, really want to catch up on your DVR, watch a ball game or go to physical therapy for your broken arm that you think should be replaced with robot parts. It doesn’t really matter. Unless your last name is Rowling or King, you probably write in your in-between times, like in between dinner and bedtime. The biggest problem for this creative type person is time management. It’s a struggle.

It’s not always about finding the time to fit my creative work in the schedule either. The balance of doing real-life garbage and creative endeavors is difficult. I can think of a ton of times sitting down in front of a blank canvas and starting to work and not noticing the time slip away until its too late and now I can only sleep for two hours before work. Or sitting and writing away at the computer until the sun is saying, “What are you doing being up before me?”

Time management is a beast that I’m trying to tackle to maximize my productivity. It used to be for me easy because I couldn’t ever sleep. I had at least twenty hours every day to fit in my full-time job, movie watching, hiking, video game playing and creativity. But (un)fortunately, my insomnia abated and now I have a paltry sixteen hours to work in. I’m needing to budget my time. I try to keep everything rolling. Creatively, I’m absorbed with writing, querying and more writing. Everything else needs to be scheduled too.

I’ve started to look at the day ahead of me before bed, trying figure out what I’ll need to do that following day. When I wake up, I take stock of my tasks and prioritize my day. I got my chores to do, that I do most every day, the scheduled tasks like physical therapy, appointments, and whatnots, the fun stuff like lunch and writing, the scary stuff like querying and exercise. It has been hard to cement the structure into a habit, but I know it will come. It’s getting easier and for a scatterbrain like myself, it’s invaluable.

I’ve got to wonder if other creative types find their days hard to corral like I do. If its just a curse to us creative type people or do even the normal folk struggle with it too.