When I first started writing, my biggest complaint was the chronic shortage of time during my day. I mean, come on, who has time to torch brain cells all day at work, be a dad and husband (or mom/wife, student, fill in the blank), pay the bills, do all the normal things that “normal” people do and still have time to slog through creating something from nothing one agonizing word at a time?
I used to think there wasn’t enough time. Truth is, I still think that on most days until I remind myself that I’m wrong. Actually, I just look at my friends who have proved me wrong time and again–people who live much “busier” lives than I do, but somehow found ways to outproduce me.
When I drilled down to how they did it, the answer became clear: they just had a better handle on their time than I did. Somehow, they squeezed more out of their 24 hours (the same 24 that I had) than I did. And it drove me crazy. I mean crazy crazy. Like, I began to suspect my friends were cyborgs crazy. Then I figured out that they weren’t and began experimenting with how to do it for myself. And I’m going to share some of these tricks with you because they just might help you reclaim hours of your day.
So, here we go. Here are a few ways to recapture your time and make it work for you instead of the other way around:
Read More Post a comment (12)“If you want to write for yourself, get a diary. If you want to write for a few friends, get a blog. But if you want to write for a lot of people, think about them a little bit. What do they like? What are their needs? A lot of people in this country go through their days numb. They need to be entertained. They need to feel something.” – James Patterson, in a recent article on NYTimes.com.
I have a friend. We’ve been through a lot together, both good and bad, and have the scars to show for it. Now this friend, he’s an artist and spends extended amounts of time in solitude creating his art. He’s quite good and, generally speaking, has the confidence to match.
But a few times a year, as we talk about the creative process and what it’s like to work through it, one of us will slide off into a funk that usually begins with the words, “I feel lost and can’t seem to figure out what comes next. My art is trash, I don’t have what it takes, so maybe it’s time to just call it quits and see what’s on TV.”
We had this conversation recently. It was his turn to slide. Normally I listen, offer a word of encouragement, and try to pat him on the back as a way of saying everything’s gonna be all right. But as we talked it dawned on me what was really going on. My friend had lost sight of who he was because no one was there to remind him.
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