The blog chain question of the week started with Girl With a Notebook. She asks how we manage our time. Ah, very good question because I'm pretty sure all of us could use a pointer here and there on this subject. Who doesn't have trouble balancing at times? I sure as heck do!
If I were to go off the way I manage my time now I'd get a pretty pathetic score. For one thing I'm not writing nearly as much as I should be and that's entirely my fault. I have the time almost every night to write but I've been very focused on other things that are writing related, like blogging, networking, research and reading. All good things but the fact that I feel like I'm not truly using my time wisely is a good indicator that I need to manage it better.
As you can see I occasionally lack something called balance. The good thing is this is the way I've been my entire life. My scales tend to tip if you know what I mean. *sigh*
Now when I was neck deep in writing Sage I was the complete opposite. I wrote every second I had the chance, when my son took naps, for hours after he went to bed and every free second in between. I was completely absorbed in it - it was fantastic. The trick is I wasn't into blogging and twitter yet, I hadn't met my writing buddies yet, and I wasn't concerned with querying and waiting on submissions of a previous project. As you can guess this is my struggle at the moment. Thankfully I work extremely well under pressure so in a pinch I can bust out four chapters at a time and revise like a mad woman.
Since I don't work full time and actually work less than part time most weeks (we're talking 3 hours a week) I have no excuse for not finding time to fit it all in. Sure it's not always easy to get things done with an almost 2 yr old running around (just wait until I post about his antics yesterday - diaper cream at nap time - bad bad mix). My problem is I'm not maximizing my time to fit in all the cleaning and other fun chores into my day. I get distracted with checking emails, facebook etc and going out when I should stay home, and up losing the free hours I have during the day. This is why I plan on focusing on getting into a routine come fall and putting Sage aside if my submissions and queries don't pan out. I NEED to eliminate the "clutter" and allow myself to get back into my writing groove so I can bust out another 84,000 word novel in the span of a few months. Minus editing of course.
I'm hoping I can repost this topic in the fall and share with you some useful ways I've actually improved my time management. I think I need to get back in touch with my management side from my days as a career woman and start using lists and planners again. Love a good list.
Stop in the other blogs from the chain and see how they try to manage their time.
Girl With a Notebook, Somewhere Nowhere In My Kingdom, Flames and Shadows, From Elysium
Since I'm last on this week's chain here's the lineup for next week girls...(I did my best to see who's started the past month and strangely enough it looks like it's my turn)
Monday - Sometimes Nonsense
Tuesday- Flames and Shadows
Wednesday-Girl With a Notebook
Thursday-Somewhere Nowhere In My Kingdom
Friday-From Elysium
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