There is one question I dread answering as a writer–How often do you write?  My answer in past has ranged from: Writing? What is writing? to I don’t see how that’s any of your business! There would be times when I would go weeks without writing anything, and I’d feel kind of embarrassed calling myself a writer. Lately, though, I’ve been more consistent, and I owe this to my new morning routine.

At the time I’m writing this, it is 6:52 AM, and the apartment is dead silent (with the exception of the hum of the nearby refrigerator). Every morning I wake up a 6:00 AM, go through my basic morning ritual (shower, teeth, hair, dress, coffee), and then I start writing at around 6:50 AM (6:30AM if I’m lucky) until it is time for me to leave for work (usually around 7:30AM). 

Some days have a higher word count then others, but the important part is that I’m maintaining the routine. Since I’ve dedicated this part of my morning to writing about three weeks ago, I have not missed a day. And as a fringe benefit, I’m more excited to get up in the morning, whereas before, I would spend forty minutes just scrolling through social media and trying to convince myself to get out of bed.

Creating this routine for yourself can easier be said than done. As a person with no kids and a regular nine to five, I’m under no delusion that it’s pretty easy for me to find time to write. There are writers out there who have a far more ambitious life than me: a life with a family, a demanding career, a labor-intensive homestead.

I won’t pretend to have an answer for these writers. Instead, I want to leave you with a few questions that have helped me identify the best time for me to work on my writing projects.

Take a few minutes to inventory your time throughout an average day and ask yourself the following questions:

1. Are there free blocks of time that I haven’t noticed before?
2. What time of day is most quiet for me?
3. Is there a time of day that I feel more energized and focused?
4. How can I best optimize my environment to make it easier for me to get in the habit of writing?
5. What time-consuming habits do I notice I do throughout my day (e.g. scrolling through social media or watching TV)?
6. What would it mean/look like to replace those habits with writing?
7. Where is there opportunity for me to make more time to write (e.g. waking up 30 minutes earlier)
8. How would that adjustment affect the rest of my schedule?
9. What is a realistic amount of time for me to dedicate to writing each day? Fifteen, thirty, forty five, or sixty minutes?

I will say that you don’t have to set aside a large chuck of time to dedicate to writing. Plenty of great work has been written in those spare seconds throughout the day: during your commute to work on public transport, sitting in the car waiting for your kids to get out of school, on your lunch hour at work, on the toilet on your smartphone.

These small moments of time that you spend on writing may not seem like much, but they compound over time.

I’m curious to know about your writing routine/schedule. How/when do you find time to write? Let me know in the comments!