One of the most common reasons I see aspiring writers give as to why they are still ‘aspiring’ and not yet ‘writers’ is that they don’t have time to write. I said this for many years. I still say it on occasion. I spend some days thinking ‘I need to make time to edit the novel/write the blog/read…and then I catch myself.
We all do it. We rush around in our lives, promising ourselves that we will ‘make‘ time for our writing just as soon as we’ve got this other thing done. But then something else comes up, we get distracted; we waste half an hour checking Twitter and Instagram, or scrolling through Facebook. Then we get to the end of the day, collapse into bed and remember that we didn’t make time to write, and suddenly we feel guilty because we wanted to write, we love writing, but we really just didn’t have time.
Time is a privilege…spend it well.
There’s a reason we talk about ‘spending’ time, because every hour is something we never get back. And we aren’t guaranteed the next hour either. If you saw time as money – as the saying goes – would you choose to waste it, or would you calculate and attribute it carefully on the things that are most important to you?
Time is about CHOICE
It’s a hard lesson to learn. But, what we spend our time on is a choice. Though, it often doesn’t feel that way. We have jobs, responsibilities, obligations. Some of us don’t have a sliver of time that we feel is our own. This is where the fallacy of ‘making time‘ comes from. We believe if we could just ‘make’ time then everything would be okay.
But, let’s get one thing straight. You can’t make time. You can only use it. And a lot of us have forgotten how to use it wisely. We forget that we have the choice to commit our time to things. And, before you start shaking your head and thinking that I simply don’t understand the complexities of ‘real life’ I want you to try something.
Reconsider your language of time
The next time you start worrying about how busy you are, try rephrasing ‘I don’t have time’, to ‘it’s not a priority for me right now’. You might be surprised at how just tweaking those words can make a real difference to how you choose to spend your time.
I don’t have time to write – becomes: Writing is not a priority for me right now
I don’t have time to eat healthy – becomes: Eating healthily is not a priority for me right now
I don’t have time to play with the kids – becomes: Spending time with the kids is not a priority for me right now
You’ll find the whole energy of the task you’re applying it to shifts. Suddenly you start to reassess the things that are important to you everyday. It puts you back in control of the time and energy you are spending and allows you an opportunity to make the decision that is most important to you in that moment.
What will you do with this power?
Of course, now you know this, it’s up to you to decide what to do with it. Spend a day just repeating these words – it’s not a priority for me right now – every time you believe you have no time to spare.
It can work in reverse too. When you find yourself searching social media out of habit you can ask: “is this a priority for me right now?”. Sometimes it might be – to make connections, to message friends, to find out what is going on in the world, or just to take a break from everything else. But, other times you might decide that it isn’t, and then you can choose what is a priority for you in that moment.
Is writing YOUR priority?
So, how important is your writing to you? Instead of trying to ‘make time’ for it, choose to spend your valuable time on it when you can. We’ve all heard the stories of writers penning their great novels as the kettle boils, in the car at kid’s football practice, on their break at work. Decide how much of a priority your writing is and deliberately choose to do it instead of some of those things that you do because you ‘should’, or that aren’t really that important for you.
Put yourself back in control of the time you’ve been given by the universe. CHOOSE how you spend your time. And spend it wisely on the things that you really care about.
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