Lesson Three
Welcome back! In this lesson, you learn a few more tips on how to be a successful writer. Please read through the lesson and print it off if possible. When you have a hard copy of the lesson, you can highlight and make notes in the margins. That’s the best way to proceed through these lessons so that you can get the most out of them.
Tip 6: Divide Your Day into Time Slots
Many writers don’t have endless time to devote to their writing. This is a real pity because the best writing you can do comes when you do one to two-hour blocks. Otherwise, your writing will be choppy and inconsistent.
To write for one-to-two-hour blocks, you’ll probably have to change the way you approach your writing. You will also have to schedule times when you have an expanse of at least 30 minutes to one hour to write unencumbered.
Here are a few ways to create one to two-hour blocks of writing time, despite your busy schedule.
• Look over your various roles and goals. Write them down on a separate page in your planner.
• Take out a weekly planner that has an hour-by-hour outlay.
• Write all your obligations on your spreadsheet, such as your day job, family obligations, appointments, and so on.
• Look for any times that have a one to two-hour time slot that are not used up – such as the time when you wake up in the morning or in the evening after dinner perhaps.
• Decide when you can fit in some writing time into your day and week. The best time to write for busy people is first thing in the morning or last thing in the day.
• Take out a red pen or marker and write down when you could devote a large stretch of time to write.
• Make everyone in your family aware that you will be writing during these times.
• Then when the time comes, make sure that you go and write. Make no excuses. Then your family and friends will know that you are serious about your writing.
If you look at your schedule and discover that you have very few spaces of one to two hours, you may have to rethink your priorities and pastimes so that you can fit more writing into your life during shopping times.
Look at some time sucks in your life, such as watching four to five hours of television every night or wasting time doing something else such as shining the living room floor for the third time. Can you get a housekeeper and devote that time to writing? Do you shop every day? Limit your shopping to once a week and write during these times.
By taking these steps, you will be getting a lot of writing done with little effort. We all have pockets of one to two hours a day which you can devote to writing. All you must do is discover what they are, and you will write more. This is one way to be successful and to have your best year.
Tip 7: Prioritize Your Writing Projects
Writers should always prioritize they’re to-do-list to remind themselves what they should work on first. This can keep writers committed to their most important writing projects. It’s so easy for writers to find things they would rather do instead of writing. However, writers must avoid being side-tracked from their most important writing goals to be most successful.
Yet writers seem to be side-tracked a lot. Our culture perpetuates that. So, we must make sure that we take concrete steps to avoid the internet and other distractors so that we can prioritize our goals.
Here are some things that you can try. Use three different colours of ink to prioritize your writing projects.
1. Use red ink for high priority items. Red ink signals that a project must be completed right away.
2. Use black ink for upcoming writing deadlines. Black ink signals that a project must be completed within the next one to three months.
3. Use blue ink for ongoing writing projects that have no specific deadline, or that have a contractual deadline of six months to a year into the future.
By taking these steps, you will be prioritizing your to-do list and feeling more in control of your time. But what is more, you will also make the best use of your writing time, which is limited for all of us.
It can be difficult to prioritize your writing projects at first. So, when you start this process be patient and expect setbacks. However, when you learn to make the best use of your time, you will do your best writing at the right times. This is what time management is all about.
Irene S. Roth
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