It’s easy to say that you’ve got no time to write. However, if you STOP doing these less-than-useful things in ENTIRETY, TODAY, you’ll soon discover that you have EXCESS time on your hands.
Unless you have a close-knit circle of carefully selected folks who are all self-conscious and living their best lives, you’re likely to hear this almost daily:
I don’t have time for XXX.
The ‘XXX’ above is substitutable for anything the declarant isn’t truly interested in.
On face value, such a declaration makes sense and you’ll be excused for taking in the lie, hook, line, and sinker.
However, taking a closer look at the I don’t have time to XXX lie, presents a challenge — one that makes it immediately obvious that those who say it, especially frequently, do not only attempt to deceive their listeners; they also brilliantly deceive themselves too, in the process.
It’s worse when such persons are writers — as a good, worthy book might take more than a decade to write or painfully, won’t be written in the first place, all for one very avoidable deceit.
Usually, ‘Time’ is Habit, Nothing More
When you hear the phrase, I don’t have time, or when you say it yourself, it’s a subtle affirmation that you have amassed bad habits that are actively stopping you from getting what you need to do, done.
If you’re a writer and are always saying this either to yourself or others frequently (and not in the isolated scenarios when you may actually be ultra busy), remember that:
A writer’s principal business is to write. Everything else is secondary.
– Akaahan Terungwa.
Knowing that as a writer, your primary business is to write is just a side of the coin — an interesting one at that.
The other equally important side of the same coin is that to write, as a writer, often, consistently, is simply a matter of habit, NOTHING more, NOTHING special.
This has been proved through the ages and remains classic wisdom for writing and writers as it holds for all spheres of life.
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit.
– Aristotle.
So, how do you repeatedly do awesome things to turn the stark reality of giving excuses into a recurring habit of yours that pays off, both in the short and long run?
Importantly, how do you change little habits of yours that see that you are held down and cannot write into bit-sized habits that see you writing, even on days when you would otherwise have given the busy line excuse?
This is where these five tips come in.
1. STOP Checking your Email All the Time
Since the invention of electronic mail, it has steadily increased in popularity.
Today, it’s one of the favored means of communication used by everyone, not just the military and academia that first embraced it.
Unfortunately, for many, this means checking their emails first thing upon waking up and then, almost every moment after, when they get the chance.
This habit turns worse when they’re expecting something, say a response to an earlier mail.
Unfortunately, frequently refreshing your email box isn’t refreshing to your mind in any way: instead, it simply builds up pressure and stress, making sure that you’re stressed out to the max for no just cause and stuffed with anxiety.
The solution?
Check your mail once every twenty — four hours, even if you’re expecting the best news you can ever hope for.
Even at that, do it in the afternoons — when you’ve hopefully done your best work and won’t be negatively affected by not finding the message you were looking for or worse, finding it and seeing that it is worded in a manner you weren’t expecting.
This act alone will create some peace, quiet, and tranquility in you; in this state, you’re also more likely to get the time to write.
2. Disable Notifications — All Round
Notifications are a great way to be informed about what’s happening with your devices or in the lives of those around you (via social media).
However, in these crazy days where one person can easily schedule a gargantuan number of social media updates via any of the cheaply available scheduling tools out there, your best chance at staying sane is to MUTE all notifications on ALL your devices.
Like email, a notification creates an artificial urgency that if not resisted, takes you straight to the source of the offending notification (social media, most likely) only for you to spend hours there, scrolling from one cat meme to another and at the end of the day, wondering what you did with your day (and life).
Want to reclaim the time you believe you don’t have?
Disable ALL apps from sending you notifications on your smart devices (except, of course, a few VERY IMPORTANT ones).
Put your Chromebook or tablet on Do Not Disturb and then, get busy.
At the end of the day, you’ll be surprised just how much you’ve achieved and importantly, just how much time you’ve effectively created.
3. Shup Off The News!
Ordinarily, the news is supposed to inform you of happenings around you and keep you informed: weather forecasts, election results, security updates, etc.
To the sane, rational mind, the news is one of the most important elements of living, and shutting it off completely isn’t even a remote option.
The challenge is that this premise is wrong, ab initio.
The news (at least as we know it today) isn’t geared towards informing you or keeping you abreast with happenings around your environment (if any of these elements make it to the news, they are more like afterthoughts than what the main thrust is — or was planned to be).
Instead, the news is carefully curated and laced with shock value — and preference is usually given to the headlines that will garner the most clicks and attract the most eyeballs.
‘Perfectly’ set in this manner, the news mediums are primed for profit and reap it in the billions of dollars, year after year.
The only challenge of this shock model is that it brings so much negativity to the lives of those who are willing to read or watch all that is projected at them.
With bad news and negativity amplified and over-reported for advertising dollars, if you make it a point of duty to listen to the news, especially regularly, the much-needed motivation to take on your day will eventually find its way out.
What will remain?
A sad sorry man or woman, glued to their news source, waiting for the next disaster that he/she will worry about — all while complaining that they have no time to do what matters.
What of the important updates, you ask — like weather, crime updates, etc?
Simple: what is important will eventually get to you via friends, colleagues, or family.
If it doesn’t and you wish to be on top of things, subscribe only to the element of the news that matters to you, like weather updates, for instance, so that you can easily plan your day.
These updates can be delivered to your email, once a day and it will be a wise option to review them (along with your other mail) just before you go to bed or if you prefer, just after you tackle the major work schedule for the day before you.
4. Ignore Whatever Stats You Think You Need To See
Stats are a beautiful thing: they tell you at a glance if what you’re doing is right or wrong.
With this feedback, you can brilliantly create more of what’s working.
If you’re a traditional, independent blogger, for instance, your analytics offer special insight: they give you a unique view into the world of your content — and blog; bounce rate, hits, etc.
The same goes for other content creators, especially on social media.
The challenge, however, is this: refreshing your stats every minute, hour or day is a plain waste of time!
Beyond the time it wastes, it’s also an emotional drain, one that is likely to make you fixated on numbers that offer no immediate value.
What to do: check your stats once a week; if you’re strong of heart, do it once a month — and even then, only as a guide to figure out if what you’re doing is on track.
You’ll be amazed what energy you’ll free by this singular act…you’ll also be pleasantly surprised how the freed energy will beautifully create additional time from nowhere; time you had no idea that you had ‘stashed’ somewhere.
5. Shut Off That Time-Drain Person — COMPLETELY!
Humans are an awesome species — no doubt.
If you ever have doubts about this, all you need to do is fall in love and see for yourself.
However, here’s the sad, honest truth: some persons are truly terrible — even without either making an effort or consciously knowing it.
For some, what they find exciting, what makes them tick, or what they stand for in life is simply the exact opposite of what moves or shakes you.
Now, staying near such folks or having anything to do with them daily is going to drain your energy at a level you’ll struggle to understand.
Fortunately, it’s very easy to pinpoint such persons: after an interaction with a person, do you feel drained, neutral, or energetic?
Once you answer correctly, you’ll know what you must do with such a person to create the much-needed time and energy you need to put into your craft.
And, remember, often, it isn’t their fault: that is simply the way they were wired.
Yet still, for some, their performance in your life — or yours in their lives, has come to a logical conclusion.
Embrace this reality, make peace with it, and watch the missing hours/days magically become reclaimed.
Summary
Time doesn’t exist, it’s created. If you feel you’re running out of ‘options’, consider:
- Checking your mail once a day.
- Disabling notifications all around.
- Shutting off the news.
- Ignoring stats and
- Avoiding energy vampires.
Usually, it’s as simple as this. Good luck.
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