Comments on: How to find more time to write

By: Daphne Gray-Grant

Daphne Gray-Grant — Thu, 21 Jun 2018 19:18:00 +0000

In reply to KW.

Yes, you are right about Parkinson’s law although I would rephrase it as: “Work expands to fill the time we have.”

As for whether we can make time for writing, I think it really depends on how important it is to us.

By: Daphne Gray-Grant

Daphne Gray-Grant — Thu, 21 Jun 2018 19:16:00 +0000

In reply to Nan Solomons. Excellent points, Nan. It's really worthwhile taking the time to track our own accomplishments and deliverables.

By: KW

KW — Tue, 19 Jun 2018 20:32:00 +0000

Thank you for this post. I think it is Parkinson’s Law that maintains that we expand into the time that we have? We set aside x, and we find we need x to do the task. Either way, it seems this concept of “taking ownership” of one’s time — it gives a person a sense of control over the uncontrollable. For example, if I took ownership of my time, then I am more responsible for my writing tasks — sink or swim, according to Middleton, eh? Perhaps people/I blame Lack of Time as a scapegoat because ‘Making Time’ and taking responsibility would indicate that we are are the reason we are not meeting our goals, reaching our dreams. For me, I think this is part of the equation. If I can “make time” — then surely, I can make my writing happen. Whether this is indeed true or not; some would argue it is true no matter what. I listened to a podcast of a woman writing on napkins, her phone, etc. Chop Chop for me, I suppose!

By: Nan Solomons

Nan Solomons — Tue, 19 Jun 2018 19:10:00 +0000

I don’t often publicly complain/lament having no time. It’s only recently that I’ve started thinking about putting some realistic metrics to the time that I have available to do the tasks in my bullet journal and Trello Board. How long will it really take me to look up those citations? How many words do I write in an hour and should I modify that count by stratifying by quality of the output?

With these numbers in mind, and given the time I have to devote to task at hand (and what is my relative like or dislike of the task), how long is it going to take me to get the job done? I try to set my deadline and start time accordingly. Now I say that I have made progress if I spend some amount of time and effort on the task for the designated day, rather than word counts and sections written. Any effort at all moves the peanut forward.