Manage Your Busy Calendar
...and STILL Have Time to Write
If you’re a writer like me, then you know that time is one of our most valuable resources. And today, as the world moves at lightspeed, we are expected to perform more, produce more, do more, and STILL find the time to write.
If you work a Muggle career like I do, then you also know saving time for writing looks like early mornings, late nights, and/or weekends off. And this can mean sacrificing important aspects of healthy living, such as time spent with loved ones and sleep.
You do NOT have to sacrifice these things.
Managing your busy calendar can include family, sleep, work, AND writing. The eight (8) tips that follow are all the considerations I make when managing my own busy calendar. These are the ways I’m able to fit writing into my days, and my hope is that some, if not all, might also work for you.
Use your calendar as a To Do list.
In my Muggle career, I block time on my Outlook calendar for projects. Doing so helps reserve that time, marking it as “busy,” which deters others from filling my working time with meetings and pushing projects well after I’m supposed to log off (which forces me to sacrifice my writing time). And let’s be honest, most meetings can be emails, so if my colleagues need me during a time when my calendar shows a “busy” status, they can email me or find another time.
The same can work for your creative ventures: schedule your writing time on your calendar and use those timeslots as To Do lists of what you plan on accomplishing within that timeframe.
Control your inbox.
Speaking of email, for Haint Blue Creative® projects and tasks, I use Gmail, which is also easy to use as a To Do list. However, a full Gmail inbox can be overwhelming, so I have a process for controlling mine so I’m not spending all my writing time just to check messages.
Once I’ve read an email, I trash it. If I marked the email as a task but need more time to complete it, I also mark it as “Unread.” Creating folders by topic helps me to organize my saved emails and keep my inbox clean. I don’t know about you, but the way my anxiety is set up a clean inbox = a happy heart and brain… and more time to write.
Do the fastest tasks first.
If I can do a task in less than five minutes, I do it immediately and get it done. This leaves me with more time to write and less anxiety caused by my To Do list hanging over my head. Aside from email, guess what else takes less than five minutes to complete? Putting away laundry. Yes, even laundry can be a fast task.
Hear me out...
After years (let’s be honest, decades) of living out of laundry baskets, moving them from the bedroom floor to the bed and back, a couple of years ago I finally made a change.
I was sick of my bedroom always being messy and lying to family and friends when they came over, telling them, “Don’t mind the bedroom. It’s laundry day.” I couldn’t be angry when one evening my best friend commented, “Girl, quit. Every day is laundry day for y’all.” After that night, I set a goal to wash a basket, dry a basket, and put it away. And you know what? It worked! And it worked fast!
I pull clothes from the dryer, folding them into the basket, mating socks as I go, and then draping the pieces that need hanging over top. In the bedroom, I hang those in the closet, and then all that’s left are the folded clothes and socks, which take seconds to put away.
When our dryer broke and I had to use our local laundromat, the process still worked... and I actually had time to write while waiting for the clothes to dry. I got home, put away the basket, and continued writing.
Set a STOP time for work.
There will always be more to do. If you can answer an email or finish a spreadsheet tomorrow morning, stop working and move on to time spent with family, friends, and writing.
A couple of weeks ago, in a team-building exercise to help my Muggle team communicate with one another more effectively, the facilitator admitted that she uninstalled her email apps from her phone. “Work can wait,” she said. “My family can’t. We can communicate tomorrow.”
Always carry a notebook.
And you will always have something to capture your ideas. Smartphones work so well because they can be carried in pockets (or, if you don’t have pockets, a bra works). I’m an Old School Pocketbook Gal, so I carry a notebook in my purse. I write while waiting in line (wherever), or when I’m out and about and an idea strikes me. I also create a Gmail account for each of my writing projects, so I often send notes through email. I even do this when I’m on my daily walks at the park. An idea for a story manifests, I voice-record a quick email and continue on with my workout.
Work with recurring themes.
A themed calendar helps me to focus and chunk out my writing time. I work with daily energies, leaning into hashtags like #MagicMonday, #TarotTuesday, #WriterWednesday, #ThoughtfulThursday, #FollowFriday, #SelfieSaturday.
At the end of each month, I plan my Substack and social media calendar by topic for the next month, using these hashtags as guides. This process helps make it easier for me to organize my notes and schedule articles and posts.
Set boundaries.
Feel empowered to say “No” to everything that does not support your immediate goals. This might also include being firm about family and friends honoring your writing time as sacred. Because it is.
One of my friends has a sign hanging on their office door that reads, “I’m writing until [end time].” Their roommates know not to knock and interrupt their creative flow. If an emergency, they call their cell. Not an emergency? The Do Not Disturb boundary applies and the roomies wait. Because, again, most things can wait.
Take breaks.
Productivity is about energy and focus, not time. And we all know that when we don’t have the energy, we can’t focus, and time just slips away. As such, take breaks, get your sleep, drink your water, and move your body. Schedule writing jam sessions and then break. Write for a stretch, and then pause and move your body. Train your hands to reach for a water glass or bottle just as easily as they reach for the phone. And whatever you do, please consider unplugging from social media (and email, if you can). I do this every Sunday and two to three months every winter. I call that timeframe my Hermit Hibernation. You can read more about what that looks like in this Substack article.
How are you managing your calendar?
How do you make the most of your valuable time and STILL save some for writing? What works for you? Share in the comments!
About Mandy
Amanda "Mandy" Hughes is an author and instructional designer who uses the tarot to inspire storytelling. Her book Mystic Storyteller: A Writer’s Guide to Using the Tarot for Creative Inspiration and companion tarot deck are coming soon! She also writes fiction under pen names A. Lee Hughes and Mandy Lee. Mandy lives in Georgia with her husband and four sons, two of whom are furrier than the others (but not by much). Visit her website at www.haintbluecreative.com and follow her on Instagram @HaintBlueCreative.
These are useful tips for writers to carve out time to get their writing done. Thanks so much.