Time Management for Writers

Time Management for Writers

As part of the October Platform Challenge at Writer’s Digest, Robert Lee Brewer, asked those taking the challenge to create a time management plan on Day 14. Here are some of my thoughts on what makes a good time management plan for writers.

A little background

I’ve been using Franklin-Covey planner’s for several years now. Yes, it’s a bit “old fashioned” since it involves actually writing on a piece of paper rather than typing into an iPhone, iPad, etc; but it works for me and is quite effective.

The ABCs of Priorities

Each morning I pull out my planner and write the tasks I’d like to complete that day. I then assign a value to each task: A=What NEEDS to be done, B=What SHOULD be done, C=Things that will need to get done, but not right away. This helps me focus on tasks.
I then use the daily appointment schedule of the planner to write out appointments for each of the A/B/C items I plan to get to that day. For example, if I need to write 3000 words for my novel I know from experience 3000 words will take me about four hours so I’ll block out four hours on my planner. I set an appointment to myself.
When I work, I use a little trick I learned from Eugene Schwartz, the master copywriter; I work in blocks of 33 minutes at a time. During that time I remain laser focused on a task, then will take a ten minute break to stretch, walk, etc. It’s amazing how much you can get accomplished using this method.

Blocks of Activity

My schedule includes activity blocks for:
Writing and editing
Marketing (this includes social media, blogging for my personal websites, reading and commenting on other sites)
Reading (other authors, novels, self-help, etc.)Studying (how to write/edit/publish/etc)
HEALTH (one of the most important and this includes FAMILY time, working out, and just plain meditatin’)I realize this may not be a perfect system but it works for me, and as Robert Lee Brewer suggests in his blog, my system IS flexible.The takeaway here is to come up with a way to manage your time. I purposely didn’t include my full-time job time in this plan since that time is already blocked out by the forty plus hours I work and commute.As a writer, I’m more concerned about managing the time I have with family and work my craft.The blocks I use are designed to get me to where I want to as a writer. In fact, in my Franklin-Covey planner, all my writing falls under my Personal Master Task List rather than the Business. Once I make the transition to professional writing full time I will shift writing tasks to Business rather than Personal.

Bonus Material



I ran across this video on time management and thought it was pretty well done: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=go5XyuI7DkA . It’s from Entrepreneur Magazine and I’m sure you’ll get something out of it.

What are your thoughts? Do you have a time management plan that works for you? Can you use some of my techniques?

Why not take a moment and give me your thoughts and suggestions on Time Management for Writers?

 

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