Need more writing time? Start billing it!

By Janet Lane

Hi, all! I’m glad to be joining the accomplished stable of writers on RMFW’s blog. I thought I’d start the conversational ball rolling by reminding you that it’s not too late to make a New Year’s Commitment:

FIND MORE WRITING TIME!

If you’re like me, one of the hardest aspects of writing these days is finding more writing time.

Being both a traditionally- and indie-pubbed author, I know that both groups of writers need more writing time. Traditionally published writers are encouraged by their agents and editors to write more books. Indie-pubbed writers are busy trying to accomplish the same–while wearing the staggering number of “also” hats that fit on top of the profession of “Writer”–hats like Publicist, Advertising Manager, Marketing Manager, Bookkeeper, and Research Director.

Since the beginning of time-keeping, every New Year has been pretty much the same, length-wise. Same number of months, weeks, days. My calendar reveals that 2015 has no gift cache of additional hours. To gain additional writing time, then, time will have to be allocated differently than in 2014, and some needless activities can be sacrificed to make that time.

What goes? What stays? All authors struggle with the promotion game, juggling various activities, gambling at which ones will produce the best results, and which projects can be dropped to gain those precious pockets of writing time.

Alas, this blog will not be able to determine the right promo mix for you. Each writer’s unique life, work and writing circumstances will determine that. I can, however, offer a small suggestion that may help you carve out some additional time.

One way to find balance among all the time demands is to adopt my husband’s practice of “billable time.”

Billable time is a way of life for attorneys and CPAs, consultants and other professionals who sell their services. How much time do you spend with your writing, as opposed to your promotional activities? Or your (heaven forbid) computer gaming time, or fill-in-the-blank-aimless-wandering-time?

My CPA husband bills his services in quarter-hour increments. You can, too! Put your week-at-a-glance calendar (all marked up with writing goals and prompts) just to the right of your computer screen. Use an internal timer on your computer or any timer. Set it to go off at quarter-hour increments and record how you’re using your time.

This will accomplish two goals. You’ll be able to track wasted time and identify the time thieves, and you’ll be more mindful of the valuable resource of time as you “spend” it throughout the day.

What’s a reasonable time “mix” for you? Of the available 16 hours a day, allocate perhaps 60% to the “paid” job and related commuting, 10% writing, 10% promo, 10% research, 10% leisure? More family time is needed for growing families; find the right mix. Translate into hours, and start billing them.

You can do it in 2015!

Recover lost hours. Become time-accountable. It will give you new freedom, and new focus. It will also increase your efficiency.

Writing is your love, your reward. Reclaim it!

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Janet Lane is an Amazon Bestselling Author, and lives in the Denver area with her husband. Her historical romance novels, published in hardback by Five Star and in ebook by Dreaming Tree Publishing, have won several awards. She is working on the fourth novel in her Coin Forest series, and her women’s fiction novels will be published in late spring, 2015. For more about Janet, visit her website at http://www.janetlane.net and her blog at janetlane.wordpress.com.