I lost days of time to various appointments this week. None of them were bad. No emergencies. Just things came up that stole entire days from what I could normally accomplish.
I knew going into the week that it would happen. The days had been on my agenda for a while. Some of them were happy. The kids had Monday off school! That meant I got to spend extra time with family. We played some games and celebrated one of their birthdays a couple days early. Another of those days was more an annoyance; I had an all-day meeting that I rather not have at all.
And these things happen, you know? But because of the schedule, I kind of figured I wouldn’t get a lot of writing done. That’s how it works for me; writing is not the last thing on my agenda, but it’s usually not the first, either. When life gets busy, less writing happens.
I’m not one of those writers who says, “Thou shalt write every day, or thou shalt not be a true writer!” Please. Don’t bring that up. Write regularly. Do the work of creating. That may mean rough drafting, outlining, editing, revising, whatever. Do that regularly. But every day? It’s okay to take a day off.
Which means me recognizing this would be a slow writing week because it was a busy everything-else week? Annoying, but fine.
Except… I’ve done a lot of writing this week!
Now, it helps that the current project is going super well. The words are flying off my fingers. No problems there! And that speed encourages me to squeeze writing into more nooks and crannies of time than I might otherwise try to write in. Sometimes being busy, paradoxically, means I have more energy to get more writing done!
Not every week can be like this, but I’m happy this one has been!
How about you? Have you found that you can write even when you’re incredibly busy? Do you slow down and give yourself grace when writing doesn’t happen? How do you handle these times stuffed full with activities?
Jonathon Mast: Author 