What Are Your Priorities?

by Danyelle Ferguson

You say you want to write, but just don’t have the time? I say, bah! You do have the time. You just need to set your priorities straight.

So, how do you do that? For me, I started by looking at my schedule. There are things I do every week that are very important to me. For example: going to the gym, taking my son to Kindermusik, my church responsibilities, and date nights with my husband. Then there are things I’d rather not do, but have no choice. Like house cleaning, laundry, car pooling kids to and from school, and cooking dinner. Yuck!

I put all of these activities into a spreadsheet with the actual amount of time I spend on each and on what days. At that point, I found blocks of free time I didn’t realize I had!

Now you’re asking, “What was she doing with all that free time?” right? Well, it certainly wasn’t writing! Watching TV and talking on the phone were pretty high on the list. So, off the TV went and more calls went to voice mail. Now I have a writing schedule that works really well. And knowing when I’m going to start and stop writing helps me focus and get done as much work as I can during that block of time. Now when others tell me they have this great book idea, but just don’t have the time to write-I just roll my eyes and tell them to turn off the TV and find the time.

So tell me-when’s the last time you looked at your schedule and set your priorities straight? I’d suggest doing it today.