Finding Time for Writing Online Articles

The hardest trick to actually publishing any articles online is finding the time to actually write them. Unless you're one of those lucky individuals without family and/or work commitments, it's easy to wonder if there are enough hours in the day to finish what you have planned already, without adding extra work to it.

And yet, it's possible. Not every article you read online is written by some idle dilettante with nothing better to do, as I'm sure you're aware. With the tips in this article, even someone as congenitally lazy as myself finds ample time to write every single day.

Firstly, I'd recommend some advice I got from Chris Baty, founder of the National Novel Writing Month and author of No Plot? No Problem! - Make a list of everything you do through the day, and how long it takes. Diarise your life for a couple of days. How long do you spend watching TV, how long at work, how long reading, how long sleeping. Put it all down on a piece of paper or a textfile. When you've done this, go back over it, and categorise everything into priorities: What has to be done, what you prefer to do, and entirely optional activities.

Obviously, these are going to differ a lot from person to person. Essential things will include any jobs you have, given that it's difficult to publish anything online when your electric is shut off and there's an eviction notice on your door. Others would include (myself, at least) reasonable time for sleep, food, and hygiene. The categories where you're more likely to find time, however, are the 'prefer to do' and 'optional' times of day.

Now, I'm not suggesting your hobbies should be done away with entirely. On the contrary, having interests and pursuits other than writing will make you more productive (and in the case of articles, give you something to write about). But these are areas you can try and reduce. You can start watching TV a half hour later or turn it off earlier, especially in these days of selective viewing, where things like digital recorders and DVD players give you opportunity to watch shows when you want. Or if you've just picked up that new bestseller you've been promising yourself, put off reading it for a few days, and focus that time into your writing.

Your mileage will vary. I personally find a lot of 'down time' when I'm on the move. I currently use mass transit to get to and from work half the time, a two hour trip each way. I take my wee laptop/PDA with me everywhere I go, both for entertainment purposes and for writing. Perhaps 90% of this article was written on the bus this morning. That's time that would otherwise have been spent staring vacantly out of the window, or being slowly driven insane by your fellow passengers.

A final note: Some of this may seem very self-evident to some readers. If so, I salute your time management skills, and presume you're only reading out of professional courtesy. Although if you (or any of you) have any other tips to share, please feel free to leave a comment. I'm always willing to learn, and I suspect anyone reading this is too.