Most writers struggle with finding writing time in their busy lives and they search for ways to be more productive with the time they do have. During a pandemic, it has become even more of a problem than ever before. As a writer, we have many other things to do besides write the novel.
Some of us are juggling extra “writerly” tasks such as:
- Dreaming of a new story ideas
- Writing the first draft
- Editing the tenth draft of another novel
- Penning a short story or three
- Working back and forth with an editor
- Querying their first novel and searching for a literary agent
- Marketing their last book or anthology
- Building their website and a social media platform
- Networking with other writers
- Researching their next story
- Being a beta reader or a critique partner
- Reading new releases or the hundreds of books stacked on your nightstand
- Writing book reviews for all of your writer friends
- Judging a writing contest
- Checking announcements of recent book deals in the publishing world
- Tracking all submissions and rejections
- Supporting and encouraging the other writers in your life
As a writer, we might be doing all these tasks above, while still holding down a full-time job, cooking, cleaning, getting exercise, and taking care of a family. Whew! I’m already exhausted reading about all of the things a writer wants to accomplish.
How does one boost their writing productivity and still have time for everything else?
Honestly, I feel this is a daily battle. However, I have discovered a few things to help you with the anxiety of getting everything done. While on a 5 am ZOOM call with my #5amwritersclub, we discussed a few valuable, time-saving items. A long-time friend, Tif Marcelo, a Romance author with Simon and Schuster, was part of our discussion. I had previously listened to her podcast, Episode 21, “Stories to Love: What’s in her Author Tool Belt,” explaining what she uses to pump out several different writing projects each year. Being organized was at the top of her list. I tried a few of Tif’s suggestions and loved most of them. I wanted to share three things that helped me the most, in case it could help you too.
1. The POMODORO APP is an excellent free timing app that you can add to your computer or cell phone. I love this one! It is simple to use and is perfect for students while studying or for a writer trying to finish writing that damn book. It allows you to focus your time in small increments of 25 minutes, giving you a five-minute break after. Repeat for four rounds, and it gives you a 15-30 minute break. Your choice.
It also can add in background noise, such as wind with crickets, wilderness, or a noisy classroom/café, if you prefer that. Or, you can select the strict mode and lock your phone, block other apps and notifications. I guess it depends on how much willpower you possess, whether you genuinely need to block everything while you write.
It is unbelievable how much of a difference this app makes in my life. Knowing that I get a break allows me to concentrate and write a whole scene in 25 minutes without being interrupted by family, phone notifications, worrying about changing over the laundry, or getting distracted about what is trending on Twitter right now.
I explained to my family that they shouldn’t disturb me unless the house is burning down. They understand. Now, my son is using it for his studying while attending online university courses. He loves it too. One of my writing friends uses the app to balance her cleaning, cooking, and writing times.
2. The PACEMAKER.PRESS APP is a free app to give you help with managing all your deadlines for projects (or there is an upgraded pro version you need to pay for if you want to keep track of more than two projects at a time). It is a fantastic tool to track your goals, how much time is needed, and how to accomplish them by your deadline. You can choose from seven different strategies by changing the intensity of whether you want a gentle straightforward approach or a hard-core get-this-shit-done approach. It also gives you the option to display your plan in a chart/table, graph, calendar, or bar graph, allowing you to see the progress easier.
Using this app gives you a wake-up call letting you know your edits will take longer than you originally planned. Example: You have 277 pages that you need to edit over the next two weeks. You aim for 20 pages a day, but you didn’t even sit down at your writing desk on Monday. The app modifies your strategy and will update your numbers on the plan so you can still hit your target date for completion.
Plus, it reminds you that your ass needs to be in the chair as often as possible to accomplish these kinds of deadlines. Of course, you could be working on something small like a short story, not due until June. If you plug the short story into the app, it will tell you that you need to write ten words a day to accomplish this goal. That’s peanuts! You realize you can quickly master some of your tasks.
3. The TRELLO APP is a free web-based productivity app that is quite similar to the old-school way of using coloured index cards on a corkboard or sticky notes attached to the wall. This digital platform is perfect for visual people wanting to move tasks on their Kanban board from the To-Do List to the In-Progress List to the Finished List, and the possibilities are truly endless on how much detail you can add to the cards.
If you are a writer, you could have a Kanban board representing your novel and break it down into scenes or chapters or as simple as the three-act structure. Or, you could use the boards for your writing life, such as reading a book for book club, writing a review, using this book as a comparison in your query letter to an agent, or writing an email to request a blurb from that same author because your book is similar. Their name on your cover would be perfect.
This app is easy to use with only a small learning curve. You could organize almost anything, such as a renovation project, a baby shower, or writing a novel. It labels goals with a checklist of all the items needed to accomplish this goal. It uses deadlines or due dates to keep you on track. You can share this with other people when working on joint projects such as an anthology with multiple writers, building a house with architects and engineers, or planning your father’s 75th birthday party with other siblings. For an example, see the attached photo (above) of a public template made by Rani Shah called “Writing a Novel,” which she used for her novel Wisdom from a Humble Jellyfish.
Anyway, the apps above are only a few of the available options to people. For me, these three digital writing tools made a huge difference in my writing life, alongside my trusted old school, January – December 2021 Planner. I don’t think I could ever go without it. I love seeing the whole month at a glance (not to mention all the colourful stickers I accumulate just for showing up and putting my butt in the chair).
Remember, each of us has only 1440 minutes in our 24-hour day.
For me, I sleep on average 300 minutes each night (5 hours) and work at my day job for 600 – 720 minutes (10 – 12 hours), which only leaves 420 minutes (7 hours) per day to cook, eat, exercise, talk to my family, check social media and write a damn novel (not to mention edit it). Honestly, that doesn’t leave me much time.
Therefore, if you are looking to boost your productivity, organizational skills are necessary. Let me know if you try any of these writing tools and if they worked for you.
Happy writing and organizing! Cheers to more productivity for all of us.
