How to Find the Time to Write

How to find the time to be a freelance writer is something many people ask, especially those who would like to develop a sideline career. If you’d like to be a writer, but you also have a full-time job and a family, finding time to be a freelance writer might seem an impossible dream. Here are some ideas to find the time you need to write:

• If you have a day job, write in the evenings. Make a commitment to set aside an hour each evening to focus on writing. Of course, if you’re a morning person, this strategy isn’t going to work for you, so shift your schedule to wake up an hour earlier each day. You might find your creativity is actually pretty high first thing in the morning.
• Write during your lunch hour at work. Instead of working through your lunch hour, use the time to break from the routine of your work to write. You’ll also kill two birds with one stone, feeling refreshed when you do go back to work. A caution – don’t use the computers at work for your writing activities. Buy a laptop or write by hand.
• Homes can often be pretty busy places, full of distractions. If that’s the case, and you can’t seem to find peace and quiet to write, get out of the house. Leave for work an hour early and find a place where you can write. Alternatively, come home from work an hour later, and use that time to write. Go to the park or find a nice coffee shop where you can work in peace.
• If you have kids that attend lessons, classes, or sports games, go with them. Bring a laptop or even a pad of paper and pen, and sit on the sidelines to write. The hour-long lesson for your children can end up being a great chunk of time that you can put to good use, rather than waiting around.
• Use a voice recorder. Talking is faster than typing, and your ideas will flow better, undistracted by the need to write at the same time as you think. Instead of writing, turn on your voice recorder, and create a speech that you can easily turn into writing. Once you’re done recording your “text”, play the recording back to type it out.
• Break up your task into small chunks. Instead of trying to find time to sit down at the computer to write for two hours, try this technique of forming small sessions that accomplish one goal. If you plan on writing an article, break the job into the steps of brainstorming and jotting down notes, eliminating or adding notes, organizing notes into logical order, taking individual notes and fleshing them out a bit, and sitting down at the computer to expand on the notes you have.
• Rearrange your schedule. Sometimes, sitting back to figure out how to shave off a few minutes out of a busy day and reorganize the things you have to do for efficient time management can work wonders. If you have to, take a time management course or look up strategies for busy lives on the Internet for resources.
• Ask for help. Every writer should have someone for support. Ask a spouse, partner, family member, or friend to help by watching the kids for an hour, driving them to their activities, or just taking them out of the house for an hour.

If you find yourself struggling with how to find the time to be a freelance writer even after trying every solution, then you may have to accept that you can’t do it all, no matter how much you want to. You’re going to have to cut back on some other activity to make time for writing. List all the things you do in a day and prioritize to see where you can schedule in some writing time. There is a solution for everyone; find yours, and find the time to write.

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