Writing Tip: TOP TEN TIME-WASTING STRATEGIES

When you’re not in a go-get-’em writing mode, the most important thing to do is keep your creative engine warm and running. The following list of possibilities is designed to help you keep your head in the game by doing things that indirectly benefit your writing life and can quickly create a feeling of either relaxation or reward.

1. Write a blog post. Reinforce your expertise while doing a little fun, informal writing.

2. Visit your online community. Take a five-minute coffee break with other writers on Facebook and Twitter. Let their good news, struggles, questions, and insights percolate through you; chime in here and there. Notice any seeds of new ideas, projects, or collaborations taking shape in your peripheral vision.

3. Make order. Sort and purge your in-box. Vacuum or do dishes or fold laundry. You can improve beauty and order around you while resetting whatever brain pretzel you may be locked in.

4. Stand up and stretch. It’s far easier to keep butt-in-chair if blood is flowing to it!

5. Do your due diligence. Enter your business expense data into QuickBooks or pay bills.

6. Get prepared. Update your to-do list.

7. Empty your mind. A quick, three-minute meditation can settle your stirred waters so you can see clearly again.

8. Manage your contacts. Add business cards and other contact information you’ve collected recently into your contact database, sorting and categorizing appropriately by type of audience (students, colleagues, newsletter subscribers, etc.).

9. Share the wealth. Visit a few favorite blogs or websites and tweet about your findings.

10. Call your mother. (But don’t open the mail while you talk; she won’t like that.)

WE ARE NOT GIVEN TIME TO WRITE; WE TAKE IT
I remember as a young person reading somewhere that parents don’t give you independence; you have to take it. I think that same premise holds true for establishing oneself as a writer. When you decide to write, the universe does not say, “How wonderful that you fancy yourself a writer, I’ll give you three hours off of your job every day so you can fulfill your destiny.” The reality is that it’s up to you to create your writing time, to claim it, as if your blustery, teenage know-it-all self’s future depends on it.

By: Rachel Scheller

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