Five Steps to Find Writing Time Even if You Have Three Jobs and a Family
You’re not alone. We’re all too busy to think. Here’s how to get it done.
Time — they aren’t making any more of it. As writers, time is our most-valuable asset. Not only do we require a bunch of time to do our best work, but we’re also dealers in time.
We don’t really sell books. We buy shares of our reader’s time. It’s our duty to never squander the reader’s precious time with shoddy work.
But what if you have a family?
What if you care for aging parents?
What if you are an aging parent?
What if you’ve got a full-time job (or three part-time jobs, like some of my clients)?
What if you barely have enough time to down a bowl of cold cereal, let-alone the hundreds of hours required to write a book?
What then? How is the Average Jane supposed to follow all this magic productivity advice, become a prolific writer and producer of content, and get at least an hour or two of sleep each night? What then, hotshot?
We’re all busy. The busy doesn’t do away once you decide to be a writer. And don’t expect a lot of sympathy from those around you. My cat doesn’t care. My dog doesn’t care. My family tolerates the idea as long as I don’t cut into their time.
In the article below I’ll show you what I do to get it all done. Maybe this will help you too.
First, you must want it
Like, really want it. Not just a nice-to-have or a someday-maybe kind of thing. Writing isn’t something you do once, like climb a mountain. It’s not a get-rich-quick (or ever for most writers).
If you want to be a writer you’ve got to want it, whether or not you get paid. You’ve got to want it, because you can’t imagine not writing. And if you can’t write you feel like you aren’t good enough to do anything else, except dig holes or wave when people enter the grocery store.
Maybe not that last part… but you really must want it.
See, everything is hard with the writing process. There’s a lot to be celebrated, yes. But from soup to squash, the process will kick your ass three ways to Monday.
If you don’t really want it I can’t help you. Period.
I won’t make this sound easier than it is. I’m still in the thick of it myself. Writing is a lifelong vocation, not a goal. It’s a life.\
There are many other creative ways to earn money, which take less time than writing. There must be a small screw missing in your mind. You must be just a little bit off — if you want to make it as a writer.
Two, you must accept your limits
If you’ve got three jobs and a family, there are only so many minutes of me time in a day. You probably won’t be the person who writes 5,000 words a day, or finishes a book a month.
But you can write consistently.
You should be able to accomplish at least 250 words a day with little trouble, using the extra tricks I’ll show you.
Take stock of the hours in your day. How much of them are non-negotiable? How many are dedicated to sleep? And family? Once the non-negotiables are established, we need to find an hour a day.
This might feel insurmountable.
Maybe you need to start with ten minutes, but if you refer back to step one, your internal compass will find the time, I promise.
We’ll assume you can finish a book in a year. An 80,000 novel will take writing 219 words per day. With practice, most writers can complete that in 20 minutes.
So, to start, 250 words is our goal (this leaves a couple extra words for editing-out later).
Third, spend half your writing time promoting your work
We’ll say you’ve got an hour per day to work with. This might not be 60 consecutive minutes, but you’ve got sixty total (especially with three jobs). You’ll work on your main writing for half the time and the other half will be promoting your work and growing your tribe.
This might mean you write one article a day.
Maybe you write an article and post three social media images.
Even if you’re just getting started as a writer it’s never too late to start building an audience. There’s nothing worse for an indie writer than launching a book to an empty room.
No one is coming to help.
You’ve got to tell the others on your own.
Create a marketing calendar. Give yourself strategic tasks for every day of the week. No weekends off, my friend. Your readers are out there on the weekend. You need your work in front of them.
If you wait until you’ve finished your book to build an audience, you’ve waited too long. Building a tribe takes time.
Make a marketing calendar and stick to it, even if you only have time to do one promotional thing per day, that’s 7 a week.
…but you have time for more (I’ll share in a second).
Fourth, steal time
This the golden part. I use this exact method to write over a million words per year. I’ve got a family and a job (for now). I’ve got a dog and a cat, and in-laws, and friends, and grass to mow, and things that break that need fixing, and hobbies, and I read 100 books per year.
I found the time to write. And I’m busier than the average bear.
I found the time using two principles: stealing time and writing mobile.
I use my phone to write — a lot.
I always have my phone with me. 90% more than I’d have a laptop with me. This give me 90% more opportunities to write than I’d otherwise lose if I depended solely on my laptop.
Second, I steal time.
Here are some places I steal time without taking time from anything else:
- At stoplights
- In waiting rooms
- During boring meetings
- While on-hold for hours with the cable company
- At the check-out line in the grocery store
- In the bathroom at work
- While taking a lunchtime walk at work
- In my car during breaks
- In my car before entering work (taking a quick five minutes)
- At work if no one needs me for anything
- In bed before sleeping
- On public transportation
- When someone is sharing a boring story with me and I pretend to care
You see, your time is stolen from you every day. It’s up to you to steal it back. You don’t have to get yourself fired or crash your car to get it done.
I can already hear the flow-state folks hollering about how terrible an idea this is.
No, this is not better than four hours of uninterrupted creative time.
There’s no argument. None. uninterrupted time is always better. But when you’ve got three jobs and a family you might get four hours a few times a month.
This is about the daily process.
This is about writing when you’ve got time, even if it’s three minutes. By the end of the day you’ll have a few hundred words written, without taking an additional second from your busy schedule.
Fifth, grow your tribe yesterday
It’s never too early to start building an audience. You need an email list of readers who want to hear from you. If you don’t own your reader traffic you don’t have a writing business.
Even if you haven’t started your book, you can bring people along for the ride, and keep them abreast of your process. Like a reality show. You can even do little videos on social.
Document and share.
This will get your readers invested in your first book much more than they would had they just heard of it from a cold email.
Build your tribe before you need them.
This is part of the 50% of your marketing time. Do a little each day. All this stuff takes time. But when the book is done you’ll have people waiting to buy it, instead of scrambling and wondering how to waste money on ads.
You need an email list.
With email, you can sell your writing while you sleep — automatically. So you can have more time to do the work you love — and you don’t have to worry about your bills so much. Maybe get rid of one of those three jobs.
We’re waiting for you.
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August Birch (AKA the Book Mechanic) is both a fiction and non-fiction author from Michigan, USA. As a self-appointed guardian of writers and creators, August teaches indies how to make work that sells and how to sell more of that work once it’s created. When he’s not writing or thinking about writing, August carries a pocket knife and shaves his head with a safety razor.