Always Late to the Party

Because your time management skills lie somewhere between the next KDrama on youtube/dramafever and the adorable/possibly horrifying thing your cat just did to a plant. So how do you manage your time responsibly in order to validate your claims of adulthood and keep yourself fed and sheltered? Sadly, this answer is different for everyone. What works for one person will probably make another throw themselves out a window. At least in my experience with windows. Luckily I live on the ground floor so it's not too much effort to get back in the chair after. So, suggestions from your friendly neighborhood editor: 1. Make a time schedule. Have a loved one/friend/enemy/app bludgeon you over the head with a club every time you fail to meet it. Or you know, just set an alarm for when you can start writing and a gentler alarm for when you can stop, so that it won't interrupt you when you're in the zone but you can still force yourself to stare at the screen in despair without looking at the time every five seconds to see when you can stop now. Key point: make it a reasonable amount of time. Start slow, and gradually increase based on your expected output. Read: don't kill yourself by trying to sit for eight hours on your first day at the computer/typewriter/notebook. Also schedule breaks if you're blocked. Like five minutes to get up and walk around and bang your head against a wall before sitting back down and banging your head against the desk. Whatever works for you. Pros: Provided you can keep with it, you'll eventually turn it into a habit, and I hear once it becomes a habit you look forward to it every day. You learn to love it. Like Stockholm Syndrome but for writing. Cons: Not everyone can handle a set schedule. Because real life. And also having a system and order and organization can give some people hives. 2. Make a word count schedule. Have a set number of words you want to accomplish in a day, and do. In blood if you have to. Preferably someone else's, but I'm not here to judge your hobbies. Again, same as above, start slow. Don't give yourself a 40k word schedule and expect to not stab yourself in the eye within the first 5k. In fact, depending on your self-expectations, you should seriously consider what you believe you're capable of, and gradually increase that. Going over is fine, going under is okay once in a while. However if you find that after a week you're meeting your word count by ending every paragraph "I hate the world kill me please I hate the world kill me please I hate the world kill me please" it's okay to regress to a smaller word count. Seriously, don't kill yourself. You want to make a living as a writer, or you just want to grow as a writer, either way it won't happen if you're dead. Unless ghosts can write but until I see evidence of that my authors are not allowed to try it, and you shouldn't either. Pros: You can actually include this with the time schedule once Stockholm Syndrome sets in. Also, meeting this goal gives you a daily sense of accomplishment that you can carry into the next day, even if your notebook is filled solely with "oh god why is this happening to me" 5,000 times. Cons: Sometimes you look at a set goal of words and if feels like you're staring into the abyss and something is staring back in disgust. That's fine, by the way, everyone feels like that all the time--er, sometimes. Everyone feels that way sometimes. 3. Get out of your house for the love of all the gods. Sometimes, you just need a change of environment. This goes with the "what to do when words just come" issue as well. But if you find yourself struggling to meet your goals and especially your deadlines not because of internal distractions, but because of external ones, it might be a situational issue. And coffee shops are great places for writing. If you like coffee or tea. Otherwise, go where you know you can both focus and not hate your life. A park works for some people, if you enjoy being outside. A library if you need quite and to be surrounded by books. Wherever you can focus on your writing will work. Pros: No one asking you eighty million things because you work from home and don't actually do anything and of course you can bring your SO their forgotten EVERYTHING WHY CAN'T YOU KEEP TRACK OF YOUR OWN SHIT because you totally have time. Ahem. Cons: Yes, you have to leave your house and go into the scary world. I feel you. But sometimes it's for the best. You can do it. 4. Ask for an extension. Don't. Meet. Your. Deadlines. It's your job. Though sometimes, sometimes, only sometimes, life gets in the way. Hospital visits, death, illness (your own, your kids, your SO, your family, literally everyone carries the plague run away run away). For things like this, just like in a "real person" job (quotes because to hell with people that tell you that you don't have a real job), you can as for an extension if necessary. Depending on your publisher it's either not a big deal, or a huge deal, but most people who aren't machines on the inside will understand the occasional need for compassion. Only occasionally. Dog eat dog out there. 5. Anything else that will keep you on track. Like I said, not everything works for everyone. Maybe you have a different way to keep yourself on track. Maybe you do 1 and 2 but split them throughout the day rather than trying to work in a chunk. Maybe you have your own office in your house and it has sixteen deadbolts and soundproof walls god I'd kill for that. It's about what you can do, not what works for other people. How you keep your life on track without derailing into cat videos--in general. Every once and a while cat videos are acceptable. So, what works for you? Any of these? None of these? Comments are always welcome.