Writers who also have full-time jobs and family responsibilities are sometimes asked where they find the time to write.
"Finding the time" sounds too casual for the process. Some people prefer to say you have to make the time, but we can't make any more time.
I prefer the phrase take the time because you do have to take it from something else you'd normally do. And that's the trick: if you are not writing regularly already, what will you stop doing for an hour a day or however long you plan to write? If you don't specify that, it's not likely you'll be able to keep on your new schedule.
Here are some likely candidates for your time replacement:
* Watching television
* Doing the gardening or housework
* Sleeping
* Facebook, Twitter, other social media
* Reading magazines or newspapers (online or offline)
* Surfing the web
You may object that someone needs to do the gardening or the housework. Yes, but does it have to be you? Can you delegate at least some of it to family members? If not, can you afford to hire someone, perhaps a student looking for part-time work, to do it?
As for sleeping, I'm not suggesting you deprive yourself of sleep. If you're already not getting enough then this isn't the choice for you.
You may think of reading magazines or surfing the web as research. They can be, if you are clear on what you need to find out and restrict yourself to that topic. More often, though, it's easy to let our natural curiosity lead us into all kinds of irrelevant directions.
Finally, you may say that using social media is important for marketing yourself as a writer. Again, true if the activity is targeted, not true if you spend an hour checking out what your old classmates are up to.
The cliche is true: each of us has only 24 hours in a day; the difference is in how we choose to spend them. Take some away from an activity that isn't meaningful to you and give it to writing instead.
(For great tips on how to take the time and use it efficiently, read "Focus: use the power of targeted thinking to get more done," published by Pearson and available from Amazon and other book sellers.)
