Writing - Where Do I Find the Time?

Wanting to be a writer may be an easy choice for you. Perhaps you've even got a few ideas at the ready. Where things get sticky is finding the time to write, and more importantly, organizing your time to write.
 
For just as it is easy to declare your writing want, it is easy to procrastinate on the actual writing: 'I'll write tomorrow, this week is too busy, I'll have more time on the weekend.' Procrastination is a very easy trap to fall into.
 
What can you do to make sure your writing happens, and that you're happy with how you spend your writing time?
 
Make A Schedule.
If you have to schedule your life why wouldn't you have to schedule your writing? Make an appointment with yourself to sit down and write. This may help if you have a number of family and work commitments as well - make writing another commitment. Give your writing as much weight as soccer practice or a meeting.
 
Make It Doable.
If your life is busy and you're always on the run, don't schedule a five hour writing session. It won't happen and you'll feel bad and the page will remain empty. Schedule a time slot you know you can accomplish. If it's five minutes, so what? Make it happen. The consistency of writing on a regular basis is so much more valuable to moving a project forward than a power session once in a while.
 
Make It Vocal.
If you're having trouble committing to your writing get some help. There is this notion that writing is a solitary craft, but there's no reason it has to be your burden alone. Don't keep writing a secret. Tell everyone and anyone. Tell them to ask about your writing, and more specifically when you're doing it. Speak out about your writing: 'I can't go out to lunch, I'm writing then.' Make your writing more than a secret activity, and you may be amazed at how much you can accomplish. Just don't involve those who you know will talk you out of writing!
 
Make A List.
Sometimes the worst aspect of organizing time to write is not knowing how to move forward. You're not sure where to go at the beginning of each session and you're so worried about wasting time that it becomes stressful.
 
To that end, make a list at the end of each session of what you'd like to accomplish during your next session. Your list may be quite short: one writing exercise (which you've determined beforehand) and one new paragraph. The length of the list doesn't matter. Never think of yourself as less of a writer simply because you write less than another writer. Focus on your own process and progress. Focus on being a consistent writer. If you change your list, that's fine. If you disregard your list completely that's fine too. The point is that you have a starting place and a reason to get down to writing right away.
 
Make Your Day Longer.
A common complaint is that there is no time in the day to write. You have a choice: make time or don't write. Simple as that. You have to decide how important writing is to you, you have to make the decision to commit. Wake up half a hour earlier or go to be a half an hour later and use that time to write. Use half of your lunch hour at work to write.
 
There may be so many hours in a day. But with the right organizational tools, anything is possible in that day. Writing is possible no matter what your time looks like.