As a writer, it’s important to work smarter and not harder. Creating entire worlds is hard enough, so here are 5 great time management tips for writers!
As a writer you could easily spend every waking moment trying to move your career forward. You could spend hours writing, editing, tearing your hair out over the perfect submission letter, or working on any one of million other things piling up on your desk right now.
Here are 5 time management tips for Writers!
- Discover when you are the most productive.
When do you feel like your physical and mental energy levels are at their highest?
Do you feel wide awake in the morning, but start to drag around noon?
Do you feel sluggish during the day, but get a fresh burst of energy in the evening?
I’ve noticed that my favorite time of day is early in the morning before my daughter wakes up for school. I love waking up before the sun and focusing my full attention to the project without distractions.
- Learn how to prioritize into high-value and low-value tasks.
A high-value task for a writer might be sitting down and churning out at least fifteen minutes a day of writing. Maybe that’s a paragraph. Maybe that’s a page. If you have deadlines, you’ll have to determine how much writing a day is necessary to meet that deadline and then you must sit down and actually do it.
Low-value tasks for a writer might include responding to emails or social media comments, posting content to promote published books, or just doing research on locations for world creation.
Once you have your priorities, you can plan your high-value tasks for your most productive, high-energy hours and the low-value tasks for your sluggish hours.
- Plan how your ideal workday would look.
If you’re anything like me, you probably collect blank notebooks in drawers, cupboards, and stacked haphazardly on your desk. Well, here’s your chance to use one! Sit down on work out a schedule for your high-value tasks, low-value tasks, meals, breaks, and whatever else you might need to do on the daily.
The goal is to visualize your time and discover any obstacles, such as those thirty minutes you might be spending in the school pick-up lane each day.
- Create a daily to do list or plan.
Use what you’ve learned from step three to create your daily to-do list. You can set yourself up for success by identifying your most important tasks and getting them done during your high-energy times and pushing off the low-value tasks to periods of time when you’re not able to devote your full attention to the work.
It can be motivating to check items off your list and see yourself accomplishing those daily tasks.
You may find additional things that need to be done and add them to your list along the way. Keeping your list updated will help you create a better schedule over time.
- Give yourself a break!
Studies have shown that we need to take breaks, especially after periods of deep concentration or focus. A great way to break up your day would be to set aside no more than 60-90 minutes for high-value tasks, with at least 10 to 15-minute breaks in between for snacking, walking, or just watering your houseplants.
Set yourself a timer and write for an hour each day, then give yourself a break and maybe work on a quick low-value task before going back to writing again!
Do you have some time management tips that you think might help other authors? Please share them in the comments, I’d love to hear from you!
