Alex.J.Cobalt

You might think that having all the time in the world to do your writing is a good thing. You have these images of people with unlimited time sitting there with a candle burning, a notebook and a pen on their desk, wistfully staring out of the window and contemplating existence.

However, I don’t think that having all the time in the world to do writing is always a good thing.

Trying to focus when you have a lot of time is difficult. When you have a stretch of time beyond what you normally have (say, an entire day when you normally have only a few minutes), you can begin think about all the things that you want to do or that you could do. You might make a To Do List with all of the items that you want to get crossed off…

And then you stare at it and contemplate. Which task are you going to do first? How you going to tackle it all? And before you know it, it’s three hours later you haven’t written a single word.

(or maybe you’re just more productive than me, but this is the story of my life).

As much as I am an advocate for structured writing time and making time in your day, I’m also an advocate for understanding that sometimes you are more productive when you actually have less time. The 15 minutes it takes to make a cup of tea in the morning could be enough to finish editing a post. Another 15 minutes whilst waiting for dinner can allow you to dictate the contents of another. These little 15 minute snippets can add up to wuite a large number of words after time, with the added bonus that I find I put myself under less pressure to complete a particular task by breaking it up into smaller, more manageable chunks.

So the next time you think that you don’t have enough time to do your writing, consider it a blessing rather than a curse. Maybe you only have your 15 minutes every other day that you can devote your creative project – that’s OK. You might find your creativity in those little 15 minutes, and add them up to create achievements that are much bigger.

In fact, taking the pressure off and finding those little times to bright and new ways to write and new ways to capture your ideas, you might actually become more inspired – and then one of those little 15 minute sessions suddenly becomes your most productive 3 hour writing session to date.

Since focusing on small blocks of tie rather than dedicated hours, I’ve found my creativity come back from hibernation, and the large looming projects I was struggling to tackle suddenly aren’t as insurmountable any more.