stealing your time – how i make time to write

Now that my first book is out, I’ve been getting a lot of questions that sound like this:

“When do you have time to write?”

“How did you write a book with three kids?”

“How long did it take you to write this book; aren’t you’re busy?”

The answer to all of these questions is the same — “It was freaking hard and I did it anyway.”

The truth is, I have NO time to write. There is ALWAYS something else I should be doing. Like take right now for instance…I have a long list of other things I should be doing besides writing a blog post about not have time to write. (Haha!)

I need to be washing the sheets and towels that I didn’t get to this weekend. I’m sure the toilets need scrubbing. The sink is full of dishes. I have no meal prep done for the week, so I need to figure out dinner, again. (Why do we have to eat EVERY day.) I need to go to the school and help my daughter’s teacher with a homecoming banner, because I am the homeroom Mom and the teacher emailed me at 10:00 last night to let me know she forgot about this project that is due on Thursday.

Oh my gosh, I could go on and on, but I think you get the point.

There is NO time to write. No time for ME. Because let’s face it, this writing “hobby” of mine is just that — a hobby only for me.

No one is going to give me permission to take time for myself. No one is going to care if I write or not. No one is going to notice if I don’t get this blog post out today.

But you know what they WILL notice – no dinner, no clean clothes, a messy house, and no homecoming banner in the gym.

What I have learned when writing my first book is this — I have to TAKE the time. I have to STEAL it. I have to make it MY priority, or it will NEVER happen. I steal time whenever I can, and it is never planned. An hour here, an hour there. I sit on my butt, with a sink full of dishes, and I TAKE MY TIME for myself.

When I am finished, satisfied with my work, I get up, dust off my pants, and then I get back to work for my family. I get back to the lunches and the laundry and the toilets and I FEEL BETTER ABOUT IT.

I LOVE taking care of my family. I love that I am the one they depend on and that I can be there for them. And after I have spent a little time on myself, I go back to work and feel better. My inner soul is satisfied, and happy, and I can take care of everyone a hell of a lot better when I’m happy.

I am a creative person, and I need this time to write. I need this time to create. But even if I wasn’t, I would still take time for myself to do whatever it was that I loved.

So I guess my the answer to all those questions about having time to write is this — Let’s be real. I am not living a glamorous life of writing eight hours a day at the coffee shop and neglecting my family. No. I’m writing in my kids study room with the cat and a chipped coffee mug, trying to find one quiet place in the house. I’m stealing my time, making myself a priority, and I am doing it whenever I can squeeze a drop, because it’s worth it. I’m worth it.

So take your time, steal your time, and don’t feel guilty about it. You are worth it! And once you do it, you will be a better you, and your family will only benefit from that.

Now, I wish I could write all day, but the dryer just dinged and I need to go fold the sheets. And then probably do the dishes and make some dinner. 😉

~Tiffani