Making Time

If you're in the Cities today and want something to do at 11:30, I'm going to be presenting a workshop on Making Time to Write at my local RWA chapter. Go to www.midwestfiction.com for more info.

And on that note, the entire topic of making time to do whatever it is that seems to be eluding us has been on my mind lately. It stems from a discussion I had with the husband about fulfilling some commitments I had made back in January/February when I was still looking for work. Those commitments were urgent while I was unemployed but as soon as I found work they became less important. To me, anyway.

So I thought about why I wasn't fulfilling these commitments. Was it time? Where the tasks too difficult? Too easy? Why had I let them slide?

The answer came quickly. The tasks were things I just didn't deem important. So I procrastinated instead of just getting them done. I kept telling myself I would do them tomorrow, someday, later. They kept falling to the bottom of my personal priority list and I just didn't make time.

Writing can be like that. We can say we want to write. We can take the classes, listen to the tapes, read the books, attend the seminars, but until we are willing to commit writing will never be a priority.

There are many reasons why we don't make time. I'm talking about some of those tomorrow in my workshop. And I'm thinking about doing a brief series about these reasons here on this blog. The concepts work with any goal we might be chasing but never seem to catch. My husband is really hopeful that I'll apply these strategies to my own tasks and finally get those commitments completed. *grin*