Finding the time to write might be the biggest writing problem most of us face daily. And when we don’t find the time, we feel discouraged.
This month’s writing experiment this month is to change your mindset about finding time. Instead of beating yourself up, make it a game.
Go on a treasure hunt
Your goal each day is to find at least 30 minutes to write.
Here are the three simple rules:
- You don’t have to do all 30 minutes at once. You can add up small slices of time: 15 minutes while something simmers on the stove, 15 minutes while waiting for the next meeting.
- Any part of the writing process counts, including researching, taking notes, freewriting, and revising.
- You cannot carry over time to the next day. If you write for two hours on Monday, you’ve still got to find 30 minutes on Tuesday. So, don’t drain your writing tank all at once!
Winning: Keep a running tally and celebrate when you hit the day’s goal. Yay!
If you don’t make the goal one day, just reset and start playing the next day. Stressing about the game ruins it.
What the game does for us
If this sounds suspiciously like having a daily writing practice, or advice from James Clear’s Atomic Habits, you’re not wrong.
The difference is thinking of it as a game. A challenge. A puzzle, even. How can you find 30 minutes in a busy day? Get creative.
Try this for two weeks or more and see what happens. Keep a running list of your time as you write and celebrate the wins. Find someone to play with you and challenge each other.
You might find you feel more creative. Researchers have found that game playing increases creativity, and we all want more of that. Why not be playful about the writing process itself?
Is 30 minutes enough?
But Anne, you may think, I cannot possibly write anything in 30 minutes, much less 15-minute slices! It takes me that long to get into the zone.
If that’s you, I hear you—but are you confident that this is an unchangeable fact? What would happen if you tried to scavenge small chunks of time for a while? (This is, after all, an experiment.)
After several days, you may be surprised to find that you’re able to drop into your writing more quickly. For many writers, even 30 minutes a day is enough to awaken background mental processes that keep working when you’re not. When you next sit down to write, you’re primed to start quickly.
Will this happen to you? I cannot say. But it might, and isn’t that worth an experiment?
Go find that time and start writing.
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