Deb Raney on Time Management 101

Today, Deb Raney joins us. Her latest book, Silver Bells, released this month, October 2013. This is a beautiful story about a small Kansas town's Christmas miracle.

DEBORAH RANEY's books have won numerous awards including the RITA, National Readers Choice Award, HOLT Medallion, the Carol Award, and have twice been Christy Award finalists.

Deb has a heart to help writers. She recently critiqued a portion of my manuscript at the ACFW conference. I learned a great deal from her in that fifteen minute appointment, much more thank I expected. This last weekend, she shared blessings from God on my website. Click here to read. Now today, she shares time management 101 for writers with us, here on the Writers Alley.

Please welcome: Deb Raney.

TIME MANAGEMENT 101 FOR WRITERS

Deborah Raney

An aspiring writer recently asked me how I managed to stick to a writing schedule and still “have a life.” I remembered a list I’d written as a conference handout and shared it with her. This was written while I still had children at home, and I must confess that now that we’re empty nesters, it is much easier to manage my time. But many of these tips are practical at any stage of your writing career and it was a good reminder for me to read over them and remind myself how well they worked in the early years of writing.

1. Lower your standards for household chores. There is no law or rule in this world that says you have to dust every week, mow the lawn twice a week or clean closets twice a year. I dust about once a month. I have not lost one friend over it, nobody has come to arrest me, no one has developed allergies from all the dust. In fact, I opened up the newspaper a while back to discover that scientists suspect one reason people have so many allergies today is because we live in environments that are TOO clean, thus we haven't been able to build up any immunities to dust mites, etc. (It's no coincidence that no one in my family is allergic to ANYTHING!)

2. Delegate. When I started writing, my family treated it as if I'd taken a full-time job outside the home. My husband started doing laundry (something he'd never, ever done before, except maybe when I was in the hospital having babies), and my kids picked up the slack with the housework and yard work. No, things didn’t always get done quite to the standards I would have preferred, but it got done, and the kids gained all kinds of good life-skills as a result. If you already work a full-time job besides writing, maybe you can cut back somewhere else and hire someone to mow your lawn, change your oil, clean your house, or send the ironing out occasionally. 

3. Ban television from your life. For ten years while our kids were small, we didn't even own a TV, so it’s not much of a sacrifice for me to turn off the tube, but even today with two TVs in the house, the only time I watch is for 30 minutes each night while I ride my elliptical trainer, and occasionally on Friday or Saturday nights if my husband and I rent a movie. I simply do not have spare time to sit and watch TV. On the other hand, if you find inspiration in movies or sit-coms, or if watching TV is truly relaxing for you, then quit feeling guilty and count it as “work.”

4. Add a few good, nutritious fast foods and convenience foods to your weekly menu. Or teach the rest of your family how to cook. My kids all learned to be good cooks, thanks to my writing career. We also started ordering frozen entrees and convenience foods from Schwan’s, a frozen food delivery service. Yes, it's a little more expensive than home cooking, but we decided it’s worth it. If that's not an alternative for you, maybe you could spend one day every couple of weeks cooking a freezer full of entrees. Then all you have to do is thaw something out and pop it in the oven each night. The Crock-Pot is also a writer’s best friend.

5. Multi-task. If I do watch a movie or a newscast in the evening, I try to clip coupons, fold laundry, sew on a button, or clean out the junk drawer while I watch. If I go for a walk, I brainstorm the scene I'm working on. If I'm playing cards with my kids or Scrabble with my husband, I have a writing magazine beside me to skim while they take their turn or shuffle cards.

6. Practice the art of "just say no." When I first started writing, I tried to stay active with all my volunteer work, clubs, church activities, etc. I finally realized that I just could NOT do both. In the past several years, I've turned over the church newsletter to someone else (I still teach Sunday School with my husband), gave up freelance proofreading for our weekly newspaper, dropped out of one of my women’s Bible studies, and retired after my second four-year term on our city's recreation commission. Writing takes a tremendous amount of time, energy and commitment. If you’re serious about writing, you will probably have to give up some other things you enjoy. But oh, to be able to say, “I am a writer” makes it all worthwhile.

Thank you, Deb for sharing these great tips!

Reader, We count it all joy to read your comments. 

Please take a moment to share with us. 

Which time management tip could best help you?
Do you have other time management ideas to add to this list?

How is your Christmas book list doing? Don't forget to check out Silver Bells.

In addition to Deb Raney's Silver Bells, what other Christmas books can you recommend to add to our holiday pile?

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photo provided by Deb Raney.  Thanks, Deb!

This blog post is by Mary Vee

Mary has moved to Michigan with her husband, closer to her three college kids. She misses the mountains of Montana, but loves seeing family more often. She writes contemporary and romance Christian fiction and loves to pen missionary and Bible adventure stories on her ministry blog, God Loves Kids.

Visit Mary at her website and her ministry blog to families: God Loves Kids. Or chat on Facebook or Twitter