How To Use These 3 Little Time Management Hacks to Double Your Writing Output

How to Get More Time to Write

The low-scoring SEO headline above is one I wrote in my journal 2 years ago. I just came across it today and wanted to share it with you.

It seems I’d written out a list of ways I was going use to stop wasting time and get more writing done. Clearly not much in my crazy, monkey mind has changed because I still both write and read a lot about ways to have more time to write.

And yes, the irony is never lost on me that if I spent less time writing and reading about how to have more time, I’d have more time. 😊

But what I’d written in my journal on the 7th June 2020 was an interesting list, and it had insightful ideas.

Here is the list exactly as I’d written it:

1. Stop thinking that 3pm is the day end.
2. Don’t let myself get distracted online.
3. Don’t get distract by other thoughts. If I get an idea, write it down and carry on.
4. Sit down whether I feel like it or not.
5. Always do book writing first - even before emails.
6. If a problem comes up, deal with it later.
7. Be more organised in work and chores and meals and writing.
8. Have a schedule and stick to it so everything gets done.
9. Don’t schedule evenings. These are for catch-up or free time.
10. Re-read How To Have a 48-Hour Day.
11. Use the info in the 48 Day book.
12. Always end each day with tomorrow’s plan.
13. If I get distracted during the day, catch up later - don’t leave it.

Clearly 3pm seemed to be a sticking point for me back then because it’s the first thing on the list so it must have been on my mind the most.

Three takeaways from my insightful little list that I think will double anyone’s writing output are:

1. Sit down whether I feel like it or not.
2. Always do book writing first, even before checking emails.
3. Don’t get distracted by other thoughts. If I get an idea, write it down and carry on.

That’s the 3 I like best.

How about you?

I know that many people would write twice as much or more, if they implemented the second item on my list: Don’t let myself get distracted online.

I cured that one easily by using a Pomodoro timer (25 minutes) whenever I check emails or social media, both of which are an extremely minimal part of my day now.

I’m also fortunate that once I do sit down and write, I get into flow state quite quickly and then it’s easy to keep going.

They say that the hardest part of doing anything, is starting. And they’re not wrong.

Horror writer, Stephen King, talked about this in his famous book, On Writing. He says he sits down and writes for at least one and a half hours every day of the year except his birthday, and he does it even on days when he feels like he really doesn’t want to write. So clearly, even a prolific writer like him understands our reluctance to sit down and write. He also says not to wait for the muse to strike, because it doesn’t turn up for work until you do.

From my list, distractions are my problem, whether they happen before I sit down and write, or after. This is probably why some days I find it easier to go away from home and write because I don’t have any social media or email apps on my phone so I can’t be distracted. At home I have my whole computer to distract me if I let it. So I don’t let it.

I have a different computer for writing and there is nothing on it except my writing files. I have no automatic logins to any websites, no email and no text messaging set up. Nothing Nada. Zip. Zero. So all I can do on that computer is write. The problem comes when I and transfer my writing files onto my main computer so that I can upload things. THAT’S when it becomes too easy to check my emails or see what’s happening on Twitter.

Which is probably why I made my little list two years ago to take a look at what it is that stops me from writing every day. And if I’m honest, the thing that holds me back is just my own laziness, which is why I let little things distract me.

But if I stick to my list of 3 things that help me the most, writing becomes be my priority every day, not checking emails, even though I need to check them daily because clients, my online services providers and subscribers do get in touch with me. But it doesn’t have to be a distraction first thing every morning.

So now what you need to do is choose 3 things from my list that will help you the most, and use them to double your writing output.

And if you don’t know what it is that you want to write, use one of my books from my Monthly Challenge Writing Series to get you going, and keep you going.