by Pamela S Thibodeaux

Created on: July 14, 2009

We've all heard the old saying there aren't enough hours in the day. This is especially true for a busy husband/wife, mother/father, business owner/employee and writer.

The first -and best- thing you can do is to evaluate how you spend your time, where you can shave off a few minutes (or couple of hours) and use that time to write.

Budget your time just like you budget your money.

Another thing to keep in mind is this: Writing doesn't always mean sitting in front of the computer and pounding away on the keys, writing is a state of mind. Even in the midst of mundane, every-day challenges, writers are writing, storing up information for future use.

Many people schedule their writing time, getting up thirty-minutes or an hour early every day, setting aside one hour an evening, one evening a week, etc. and this is great! Here are a few other time management techniques I and others - have implemented over the years.

Think Multi-Tasking:

Combine activities that will allow time to write like grocery shopping, getting your oil changed and hair cut.

Washing dishes while cooking will create free time when your meal is over.

Take care of laundry while cooking supper or watching TV.

Write, edit or do research while sitting with the children when they do homework or at commercial breaks during your favorite TV shows. We all need recreation, but can you spare some of that time for your writing?

Eat at your desk while writing, carry a tape recorder while walking and traveling. Even the trip to and from work presents many with an opportunity to record thoughts and ideas.

How about noontime exercise followed by yogurt and fruit instead of that huge sit-down lunch? Or grab a bite on the way to the library to edit or write. You'll be amazed how much you can accomplish in just twenty or thirty minutes of the kind of quiet you find in a library.

People put a lot of store in exercising and we should, but it's been proven that frequent 10 minute walks are just as beneficial physically as longer walks two or three times a week. In the same sense, frequent 10 minute writing sprees can be just as beneficial as longer blocks of time two or three days a week.

Carry around a notepad and pencil, pack of index cards, tape recorder or one of those new-fangled word processors that are designed to save up to 100 pages of text and work with your computer. Check out the Alpha Smart products.

Print out and carry with you the last 3, 5, 10 pages of what you're working on or a scene/chapter

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