Make Time for Writing with a Busy Schedule

Last Updated on August 29, 2024

I don’t know about you, but lately, my life has been a juggling act with a tough crowd. Trying to maintain a work-life balance in the midst of a very busy season is a serious struggle for everyone at some point during their life. To top it all off, I’m also trying to stay consistent with a writing schedule.

Writing for me is a hobby, passion, and now a blossoming career! Regardless, I still work a full-time 9 to 5 job. Finding the time to create is not passive: it’s a very intentional and sometimes stressful effort on my behalf! Right as I seem to get in the groove, something pulls me away (and sometimes that something is my attention span, to be honest).

Can you relate? Is your schedule getting the best of you lately? Read below for my method to creating a writing schedule that helps me get it done joyfully. 

Be Realistic

First and foremost, you have to be realistic with yourself. The internet is ground zero for instant gratification. I mean, the average webpage takes less than 1 second to load, and after about 3 seconds, most people start to get impatient! 

Not only is the tech fast, but everyone online seems to also be moving at the speed of light…

“How to Get Rich in 2 Days”

“Plot A Book In 1 Hour”

“Get Approved For A House In 20 Minutes”

…you get the picture. This is an amazing and beautiful time to live in, but it’s also highly unrealistic.

Writing takes time. It’s a constant process of researching, reading, editing, and creating. So, do yourself a favor and be realistic about the whole process. 

Are you writing a book you want to publish?  Expect that process to take at least a year.

Are you starting a blog? That will probably take you at least 6 months to learn the ropes. (NOTE: I said learn here not “be successful”; those two things are different!)

Set a Target Date

By setting a target date of completion, you make it easier for yourself to break the Big Goal into smaller, more manageable chunks. This will set you up for success. 

Research can help you find a realistic “done date”. Look around on Google, YouTube, or even Pinterest to find people who had a similar goal they were working toward. Find out how long it took them to get through the project from start to finish. 

If you’re like me and you find comfort in concrete facts and data, you could even find an average! It’s extremely easy! Just take notes from the few people you found on the internet who had similar goals to yours and accomplished them. A good number, in my opinion, is about 5 people.

Write down how long it took them and then divide that number by 5. (Hint: If you don’t feel like converting months and years into a decimal, just use a time conversion calculator online.)

Find What Works Best For You

I often times find myself on some side of Productivity TikTok or Motivational YouTube by accident. This is never on purpose; I usually just wanted to see how someone accomplished their overwhelming and impressive goal. 

Somehow, these videos end up being long spiels on how to wake up earlier, or how to train yourself to do things faster…

Sound familiar? 

Not everyone has the discipline to wake up at 5 am every day (and yes, they are telling you to do this even on the weekends). Life is too short for all that! 

If you’re trying to incorporate more writing into your everyday schedule, it’s worth the time to figure out what works best for you. Not anybody else…just YOU.

Maybe you like waking up at the crack of dawn. If so, more power to you! But if you work better at night, don’t let someone else’s lifestyle be the driving force behind shifting your whole schedule.

I have since given up the pretense that I’m anything but a night owl. If it weren’t for my full-time job, I might be completely nocturnal. 

You shouldn’t just stop at the time of day, either. It’s totally worth your time to also explore what conditions you work best in. Hard as I try, I cannot write while watching TV or having a lot of talking around me. For that reason, I play calming classical music through my noise-canceling headphones, and bam! One thousand words in an hour are done before I know it. 

Think hard to remember some of your best writing sessions. What were the conditions around you? Were you listening to a specific type of music? Were you in bed or drinking coffee at your favorite café? Try to replicate those conditions again and see what you get! 

Again, the easiest thing you can do for yourself is to collect data. With more data comes more power. 

So, stop watching those videos and create a setup that tailors to your strengths instead of highlighting your weaknesses. 

This leads me to the most practical step which is…

How to Create A Writing Schedule

Once you’ve collected data on the timeline of your project and discovered what writing setup work best for you, it’s time to create a solid schedule. 

Why don’t we do this step first? you may ask. 

If we had done this step first, the chances of you failing to meet your deadlines and expectations would be much higher. This could easily lead to disappointment and discouragement. And too much of that can and you’ll burn yourself out in no time.

The process of writing, especially if you are working on something that you plan to publicize, if often stalled by imposter syndrome. Honestly, most things we do in life can be stalled by imposter syndrome! One easy way to make this worse for yourself is to subconsciously prove to yourself that you can’t do it. 

If you don’t hear this from anywhere else, you’ll hear it here: You Can Do It. 

The problem isn’t you. It’s that the expectations are too high. 

So, set some deadlines that are completely achievable. Is there a big event on your calendar that’ll take up a chunk of your time? Make your schedule work around and with that event, not against it. 

Furthermore, when creating the schedule, set time limits for yourself. If you only have 30 minutes in a day to devote to your hobby, only give 30 minutes! Once you start trying to force yourself to do more than your absolute best, it’s a slippery slope down to disappointment. 

Spending half an hour every day may not feel like much progress, but it is! Think about it: the average person can type 40 words per minute. If you consistently write for 30 minutes, 6 days out of the week, you’d be 7,200 words closer to your goal!

Also, you should reserve the last day of the week for editing. I recommend this so that you don’t get too caught up in the perfectionism trap.

With that goal in mind, you could theoretically complete the first draft of your novel in a little under 10 weeks (which is crazy fast)!

Be Consistent!