I have guest blogger Dale Mayer here today to talk about time management. I definitely need tips on that! She’s given some great tips here.

Thanks to Cindy for inviting me to her blog today. We’ve both been doing Nano this month and it’s amazing the kind of questions that we both get asked. As a prolific writer, who also works full time and is a single mother of four, the most common question for me is – How? How do you manage to get it all done?

The answer is really simple – but getting to the point of being able to say it isn’t. The answer is – I get it done because I have to.

Simple huh? The thing is coming to understand that life is all about priorities and you have to set your life into an order. Sure that order will shift from time to time, but the basis of your everyday life is going to be defined by the things you hold dear. Up at the top, behind my kids (lol) is my writing. My goal is to write fiction full time. In order to do that I have to produce saleable works now. That’s hard when I have a full life so I HAVE to fit it in. That’s not an option if in a couple of years I expect to be living my dream. So how do I fit it in, you ask?

Over time, I have found we waste more time than we utilize effectively. So the first trick is to find the areas where time slips by you. The obvious culprits are email, surfing on the Internet. As my life revolves around writing I will mention other areas where I have found time to write more – you can utilize these time slots for anything!

• Texting and time spent on phone calls.

• Coffee time when you do nothing but could be putting down notes for your next scenes.

• Lunchtime at work. Did you know how easy it is to write five hundred words in twenty minutes? If you don’t, you should check out Write or Die by Dr. Wicked. This software can be used online or there is a desktop version to download.

• Many people sit down after dinner and turn on the television. Instead of turning it on right away, use it as a reward after writing 1,000 words.

• Sneak bits of time away. If you have appointments take a notebook with you.

• If you have a busy family, take a time out for thirty minutes in your room. Let everyone know this is your time and expect to have the same respect for your needs as you do for theirs.

• Get up a little early and have a half hour to yourself and your goals in the morning.

• Another trick is to take that half hour to yourself in the evening.

I taught myself to write in front of the television while it was blaring, to write while the kids are doing homework beside me and to write in snippets. A fifteen minute break is 500 words. I can get three or four of those in throughout a day.

The biggest trick to getting more accomplished in a day is to be HONEST about what you really want to do. In the case of writing – do you want to write a book – or do you want to be of those people who HAVE written a book?

Getting from one point to the next is all about time management.

1. Make a list of where you waste time.

2. Then make a list of new opportunities of when you might recoup a few minutes of time.

3. Then be deadly honest here – make a list of what you want to accomplish. And be realistic about this list.

4. Then make a list of the baby steps you can do THAT day to start accomplishing these goals.

I find that by having a visual list to mark off each accomplishment, there is a real sense of satisfaction at the end of the day. I sleep well and I get up the next day wanting to get back at it. We’re all different. Finding out what works for you is what’s important.

How do you get things done in your day? Is it a mad scramble just before bedtime? Do you work better under pressure, or do you like to have spare time between you and deadlines? Are you happy with your system or are you always feeling pressure because you’re ‘behind’?

Dale Mayer
www.dalemayer.com
Writing for the Stars Finalist – Round 2 and counting! – check out Dale’s entry and vote for your favourite. I voted for Dale.

Dale can be found on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/dalemayer or you can follow her on Facebook.