Finding The Time To Write Every Day

In order reach the ultimate goal of 30.000 written words in November I should - according to my calculator - write 1,000 words per day. This seemed doable because on a very good day, I average 1,000 words in an hour when writing a story. 

However, what is usually my downfalls when it comes to NoNoWriMo is that there are two days in which I only manage to write a measly 20 words, and come the next week I am suddenly 20,000 words behind schedule. This year, I want to avoid such situations by writing every day. 

So I had to work out how I am going to be able to write every day. This is a bit of a challenge because even though I don't write little, I generally do not write every day. Usually life tends to get in the way: either you have had a long and hard day at work, and then you need to mind various chores as well. Then it is almost bed-time and you rather spend the one hour left watching a cheap show on the telly because trying to think of a blog post is too exhausting. 

In order to try and reach my daily average, I have to use the few spare minutes whenever it was possible: 

Looking at my day, I realized that there were a few minutes that I could use to squeeze in a little bit of writing. For example, I could write the finishing words of a post on the train back home. Or write the beginning of a scene in the last few minutes of my lunch break.

Of course, since those are mere minutes and not hours, I don't get much done. However, every word counts, and a little bit is much better than nothing at all. On Thursday, I had only written small bits and bobs, and those gave me 210 words alone. I was able to see the progress with the small steps.

Another thing that tends to stall writing is the almost endless procrastination and distractions. Every writer knows the seducing call from the nearest social media outlet, and the small piece of lint on the bed that needs a thorough inspecting.

Usually it isn't even done on purpose, it just sort of happens. You end up at the end of sentence and wonder which direction you're meant to go now. So you think, stare into the distance and ... has that picture always been there?

The problem is that when you don't have a whole day for writing you can't allow these moments. Otherwise, you've written only twenty words and somehow ended up on Fernando Alonso's Instagram in 2015. I don't exactly know how I ended up there, but it started with research ...

real life example

Instead, one must resist the siren calls and keep on typing!

I found it rather useful to hide the phone on the other side of the room. This way you'd have to get up first. You'd be surprised how quickly this is not worth the bother and you keep on typing. This method doesn't eliminate the threat of the computre itself. It also contains the endless doors to procrastination and distraction. Luckily, there is a simple tool called "flight-mode" which cuts you off from all temptations.

Last but hardly least is, that I try to block off time to write at least one hour per day! 

For this I picked one hour during the day I know I am going to be free. This month I am going to fill it with writing. This way, I am hoping to establish a habit in writing every day, and at the very least get a few words in. In this particular hour I am only going to write and nothing else! No television in the background, no casual instagram or twitter scroll and no getting up to find a small snack to eat! 

With the help these little tips, I am going to be able to write on a daily basis!

Do you have any ways that help you to keep writing every day? If so let me know in the comments below.