Write More! Time and Distraction Management for Busy Writers

The first step in finding the time and space you need for writing is adapting your attitude about why you write and the importance it plays in your life.

Many people who want to write say they don't have time – and yet, most of the time, that's not actually true. Time isn't something you "find." It's something you must create. In this lesson, we discuss proven strategies for making more time in your life for writing, and then following through and showing up for those writing times.

Many people write better at particular times of day. The tricky thing is, the best time of day for writing varies from person to person. Furthermore, our most productive time for writing might not be practical with the schedule we keep.

In this lesson, you'll learn how to determine your best times of day to write (and the answer might surprise you!) We'll also look at how to be a productive writer even when you can't write during your most ideal times.

It's time to head out on a fun series of missions to determine your optimum writing spaces and times.

There are so many things in the world that can interrupt our writing in a variety of different ways. Some are things we feel tempted to do instead of writing. Resisting those temptations is fully in our control. There are other things we don’t have as much control over, such as family commitments, career obligations, or people walking into the room and interrupting us, which we need to approach a little differently.

Different kinds of distractions must be managed in different ways. We kick off this section with a look at the different things that distract us from our writing, and we gain a clearer understanding of the variety of approaches we can take to manage these interruptions.

In the history of distractions, the Internet a new arrival on the scene. It is one of the most potent distractions writers face, yet it is also one of our most powerful writing tools – which means that often, we can't just turn it off. In this lesson, we focus on the World Wide Web. We gain a better understanding of how websites lure you into staying on their site or heading elsewhere on the web, and we learn techniques to help thwart those temptations!

Phone calls, e-mail, and text messages are a few of the ways people can interrupt us from afar. Depending on how we use them, they can help or hurt our ability to get more writing done.

The people in life who we are most close to can sometimes get in the way of our writing. Talking to them about the time and space we need for writing is hard for some people – but there are fun ways you can approach them and have honest discussions with them about our needs as writers.

It's time for a special guest! Andy Bombeck, son of the iconic American humorist, Erma Bombeck, joins us via Skype to chat about how his mother managed to write more than a dozen books and 4,000 (wow!) newspaper columns – all while working at home and raising three kids.

If you want to be a travel writer, you need time to write while you're traveling. But how do you work that out when you're traveling with someone who isn't a writer? Since travel writing is one of the genres I specialize in (and many of my travel writing students are enrolled in this course), I've included this lesson to help you find the writing time you need, even if you're on vacation with someone who isn't a writer.

Some final thoughts on managing our distractions, and writing productively in spite of them.

Another fun journaling exercise to help you explore the things that distract you.

There are lots of different ways and reasons to procrastinate. Identifying them helps to change them.

Proven techniques to help you stop procrastinating and get more written.

Discover one of the most common ways people sabotage their writing projects – and how to avoid doing that to yourself!

What do you do when you're in a writing dry-spell? What can you do during the times you're not writing to keep your writer's brain active, and how do you get rolling again?

This bonus lesson first appeared in the first course in this series, but its information is equally relevant here – so for those of you who haven't taken that course, I'm including it here as a free bonus lesson.

Another fun writing exercise: In this one, we switch from journaling to letter writing.

We take a look back at the key points to this course and re-examine the steps you can take to be a more efficient and productive writer.

An course is coming to an end, but some bonus lessons are on the way! You can also find out in this lesson about how to reach me if you're interested in my other courses, one-on-one writer coaching, or if you have quick follow-up questions or just want to say hi.

Your final assignment for this course will help you get more written -- today!