How to Find 20 Minutes Every Day to Write
If you had more time to write, how would you spend it?
That article you’ve been meaning to submit? A short story collection? Maybe you’d finish the novel that’s tugged at your heart for years. Think how good it would feel for that weight to dissipate! So, let me share a few easy ways you can find 20 more minutes each day to write.
In fact, these tips will free up way more than 20 minutes, but I know you—you’re not going to use all that fresh new time to write. And honestly, maybe you should put your feet up a little and let your imagination run, or take your dog for a long walk. Both are good things for the writer’s mind!
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Before we start today’s article, let me introduce you to Cole Smith.
Cole Smith of Cole Smith Writes is a fellow author with great advice for making the most of your writing life—and today she’s visiting The Novel Smithy to share how she finds more time to write each day! If you’d like to see more of her site, you can also check out the guest post I wrote for her here: How Pen Names Make Your Novel Feel Real 🙂 – Lewis
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4 Ways You Can Find More Time to Write
Contents
Automate Your Meals:
Let’s face it, we waste a lot of time on the same problems. You know the question that sets off a fear flare into every family’s kitchen at the same time every afternoon:
“What’s for dinner?”
Ugh.
Years ago, I started planning our meals by the week. With a husband working a rotating shift, it was necessary. And now it’s a habit! I don’t even think about it, and this simple step at the beginning of the week saves me so much time.
Read: you don’t have to be Giada DeLaurentiis to pull this off. Don’t go full-blown perfectionist, or you’ll end up spending more time than you save.
For this to work, choose meals you actually like.
Load up your freezer with chicken tenders and frozen pizza, if that’s your thing. Make friends with your slow cooker and set a reminder on your phone to turn it on in the morning. This is especially good if you’ve planned healthy meals in the past and let those salads rot in the fridge while you bailed for takeout. Make it as easy as takeout and set an intention to shift to healthier meals over time. Just look for quick wins for now.
Even if you live alone, take five minutes at the beginning of each week to plan meals you love. I know how easy it is to eat cereal for two meals a day when it’s just you at home.
Time saved automating meals? Up to an hour each week!
Automate Your Grocery Shopping:
Use a shopping app to add to your grocery list when you plan your meals and update it throughout the week as you use things up or remember an item you need.
Then, use grocery pickup. If you’ve never tried it, commit to using it for a month. If you hate it, you can always go back to the old way. But many stores have waived their usual fee—only $4.95 regularly, which I easily save by not being in the store and finding “steals”—and added extra shoppers this season for Covid-19 considerations.
Time saved automating grocery shopping? Up to forty minutes each week!
Make a List and Set a Timer:
This is old, tired advice, right? But how often do we actually do this? We think we can manage everything mentally, that we know how long we spend doing all the things…
I know it takes me five minutes to empty the dishwasher in the morning and fifteen minutes to clean the kitchen and reset it each night for the following day. But I still set the timer. If I don’t, I will lose myself in those soapsuds like a little kid staring into a new snow globe. Parkinson’s Law says that the task will expand to take up whatever amount of time you allow yourself to complete it.
The solution? Set time limits.
Of course, don’t kill yourself trying to set a new personal best every time you begin your to-do list. Although, I know some people who really enjoy this—they are typically obsessed with the Strava app, too. To avoid burnout, only allow two high impact items on your to-do list each day. That way you’ll be amazed at your progress, but you’ll also be able to relax and WRITE. 🙂
Time saved by making a list and setting timers? Approximately an hour each day!
Kill Your Time Vampires:
Okay, this is the place you knew I was going, right? I’m betting you’ll find twenty minutes or more in this category alone!
And you know your phone is the nastiest vampire of all.
But before you drive a stake through its heart, do a quick survey. In your settings menu, find out how much time you’ve actually been spending on your phone. Each model is different, so find out how to do this by typing a quick search like “how much time am I spending on my phone” into your search bar. WARNING: This is a timesaving exercise, so don’t fall down the rabbit hole and sit scrolling through the internet for an hour…
Once you know how much time you spend on each app, consider whether you’re getting as much value as you’re giving away. Does Facebook really give you enough joy to justify forty minutes a day?
This is where your old friend, the timer, gets promoted to your administrative assistant. If I have to go on Facebook or other social media to post an update or look up info for an event, I set the timer—every time!
I know myself too well to wander through that feed with no leash, ya’ll.
Maybe you’re getting sucked into news headlines. Try to go on an information fast for a week. If something genuinely terrible or wonderful happens, trust me—you’ll find out about it. At the gym, at the cafe, standing in line at the post office—you’ll hear everything you need to know.
And need is a flimsy word here, isn’t it? Many times, world events can leave us wringing our hands with no clear action to take. Focusing on too many problems makes you a less-effective problem solver. Pick one cause to spend your time and energy on and pour your free time into it rather than spending your precious minutes and hours scanning articles. That way, you save time and end up making a much greater impact in the world.
Time saved by limiting media? Between fifteen minutes to an hour each day!
Making the Most of the Time You Have
Finally, maybe most importantly, don’t forget to use your new time to write! We’re very good at getting more efficient at tasks that don’t matter. Do what matters to you! Be more afraid of skipping your writing practice than you are of a sink full of dishes or a growing Netflix queue.
What about you? Have you discovered ways to free up more minutes a day to write? I love finding new, creative hacks, so I hope you’ll share. 🙂
Post your ideas in the comments!
Cole Smith
Cole Smith is a writer and consultant in West Virginia. She's the author of the cozy mystery, Waiting for Jacob, the young adult book, Ursula Spark and the Fourth Frankenstein, and a new workbook, Writer's Write: A Workbook to Keep You Fierce, Focused, and Moving Forward. She lives with her Husfriend, their wire fox terrier, Slarti Barkfast, and an ex-stray, bob-tailed cat, Mark.
She believes we are all created to create, and blogs about it on Cole Smith Writes.
These are all such convicting time vampires. I’ve become an early morning writer (must be that jolt from the java) who spends an intense two hours Immersed in several poems. Before I know it, those five minutes I meant to use for revisions actually stretch out into the morning…
Poetry! I *so* admire your journey into poetry, Sarah. It seems like magic to me, for sure. How to write it so simply, but with such complexity??? I can definitely see five minutes stretching into hours…
Brooke, I never thought I was that bad until I looked at the time tracker on my phone… Uh, yikes 😆 And I totally feel you on #writergram 😬
This is an excellent article! I literally struggle with just about every one of these! …Scrolling through social media is, of course, the worst. I try to justify it by telling myself I’m building up relationships with other writers (through my Instagram writing account anyway), and I am, but I don’t have to do it EVERY DAY.
I’m seriously going to buckle down and try these! Thank you, Cole, for the tips!
I’m glad I’m not the only one Brooke! I swear, scrolling through Pinterest for two hours is “for work.” 😛