Back Burner Syndrome

Managing priorities while juggling multiple projects can, by times, seem like a daunting task. If you're like me, and the majority percentage of America, you may be reporting to a full time job in order to pay your bills. You may have family commitments--getting the kids on the bus for school, helping with homework, making dinner in the evening--on top of your nine-to-five. Losing all that time which you would otherwise spend writing can make it even harder to focus. Your projects end up simmering on a back burner while you tend to your day to day, and the next thing you know, the whole week has passed by and you're left feeling like you haven't accomplished a darn thing!

Life has a way of sometimes just getting in the way. It can feel frustrating and self-defeating. But keep in mind: you're not alone!

Effective time-management is critical to maintaining this juggling act. The good news is, there is no right or wrong way of achieving this. Some people make to-do lists. The simple act of writing down what you need to focus on can be enormously helpful. This can even be taken a step further, by numbering your list, giving an order to your priorities.

Another approach is to carve out a set block of time during which you focus on your project of choice. Think of it like any other appointment you'd keep, only it's an appointment with yourself. The amount of time and when it occurs can be varied to suit your own needs. Maybe it's an hour after dinner each evening. Maybe you take a large block of time all at once on your day off if your weekdays are packed. Any time you can dedicate as your writing appointments will bring you closer to your end objective. If you're the kind of person who likes to write schedules, by all means, include this on your calendar or planner. "Writing Appt." is fine, but it may be helpful to narrow your focus further. Be more descriptive. Name your chosen project on your agenda/calendar/appointment book.

It might seem unorthodox on the surface, but I'e found a bubble journal very helpful to my time-management. It's a handy place to organize my projects, where I can also create schedules, write lists, and even make calendars and graphs to track my progress. I've found success in assigning each of my projects a specific day of thee week routinely. I have dedicated what I've dubbed Novel Days, Editing Days, Short Story Days and Website Days. These always recur on the same days each week It takes away the pressure of choosing what to focus on during a given day, because let's face it: sometimes the indecisive hemming and hawing in trying to decide becomes a waste of time in itself. Or I'll tend to lean more heavily into one project while the rest go entirely untouched on that same back burner.

Find what works for you and stick with it. Setting goals like "I'll write three chapters per week" have their merits, but may not be attainable for someone lacking in free time. And when projected goals repeatedly go unmet week after week, the writer can become discouraged, start feeling like they're just spinning their wheels, which is counterproductive to setting the goal to begin with.

Setting more manageable goals when your time is limited is vital to being able to achieve them, as well as to keeping your sanity. When you stand back at the end of your week and see that you kept your appointments; whether the end result is you wrote two pages or twenty, you're that much closer to your overall goal of completion. This, my friends, is far more gratifying and encouraging than not accomplishing anything at all because life's distractions prevented you from finding the time.

And while any time management strategy which works for you is a good guideline to follow, if you still have a day when life gets in the way of your writing, do yourself a favor and don't beat yourself up! Life is never completely predictable. Adhering to a rigid schedule 100% of the time isn't always possible. You may not be able to keep all of your writing appointments, but that's okay! Keeping your self appointments 85% or 90% of the time will bring you ever closer to your end goal. Never give up--never give in. Repeat this mantra to yourself.

Chin up, and cheers to you and your success!