How do you write with a full-time job - Part two
Okay so on from my post ranting a little bit about people asking this question and being furious when the answer they get is ‘sacrifice your personal time mostly’ here is a concrete list of ways to write around a full time job. Please note, I don’t have kids and while some of this advice will be useful to parents with full-time jobs some of it just doesn’t apply.
Finding Additional Time
This is about finding time in your day/week that goes to waste and using it for writing. The first part of this is deciding which way(s) you’ll write on the go. The options I suggest are:
Download the Microsoft Word or Google Docs app to your phone (both are free on GooglePlay, I assume it’s the same for Apple,) and use your phone to write in these free, wasted moments. The notes app your phone comes with is another option, as is drafting emails to yourself.
Use voice-to-text features to dictate writing when your hands are occupied. Buying a specific device results in the least editing time later, but Google Docs and Microsoft Word both have this function built in.
Buying a small, portable notebook and bringing the notebook and a pen everywhere with you.
I personally use Microsoft Word on my phone and after recently being offered the idea of using voice-to-text dictation I’ve been trialing using it in the car. I don’t have to commute to my job but unfortunately I do have to commute to my friends. So far I find it better for plotting and planning than actual writing but it’s getting easier to add punctuation by voice. Practice makes perfect.
So, onto the wasted time examples.
1. Your commute
If you don’t work from home, then chances are there are 15+ minutes you spend in a car or on a train twice a day. If you’re driving give dictation a go. If you’re on the train bust out your notes app or notebook.
2. Your lunchbreak
That blessed 30mins to 1 hour where you don’t have to think about your job. Use it wisely.
3. Waiting
Sitting in the waiting room for an appointment? Write. ‘Watching’ your kid’s sport practice? Write. Stuck in a ridiculously long queue? Write.
4. Cooking and cleaning
‘What the fuck,’ I hear you mutter. ‘I need to cook and clean.’ Yes you do, but do you need to think about washing dishes or cooking one of the five-fifteen meals i your usual rotation that you’ve cooked a hundred times before? Probably not. So why not, dictate to your phone and get some writing in. Hate the idea of being overheard? Me too, I live alone it’s the best. But even just thinking about your book will help. I actually find having my hands occupied in some mundane task I don’t need to pay attention to can be some of the best thinking time. The solution to plotholes, the revolutionary new idea, the character’s secret that is so secret you’ve yet to think of it, all that comes out when I’m cleaning. Give it a try.
Finding Ways To Save Time
In this I have two major categories.
One is the much hated personal sacrifices. But let’s be honest, you’re trying to do another job while you have a job. Writing takes a lot of time and unfortunately you have a finite amount of that. There are certain things you must do. You have to sleep, eat, work, do household chores, and care for your own personal hygiene. The things that you can choose to do are the only ones you can replace with writing, and those are usually the things you want to do.
The other, which you’ll much prefer, is efficiency. It’s all down to ways you can more quickly do those things you must do to make more space for writing. Be warned, some of them cost money.
Personal Sacrifices
Too Many Hobbies
This one is going to be controversial, but you only have 168 hours in a week. You’re supposed to sleep for 7-10 hours. The average workday is 8 hours. If you sleep 7 hours and work 5 days a week, you have 87 hours a week to do everything else.
That’s getting ready for work, commuting to work, coming home from work, cooking, cleaning, showering, going grocery shopping, caring for children, eating, any appointments you have to attend, spending time with family and friends, resting, and of course, writing.
If you want to write a book, you need to commit serious time to doing that and if you don’t want to burn out, you still need to do the restful activities that don’t drain your creative or mental energy. It might sound strange, but sometimes prioritising the 2 hours of Netflix with your partner of an evening over a second hobby is the best choice you can make.
If you’re trying to be a leather worker, painter, writer, competitive fps player, and potter, you’re just going to end up being just okay at all of those things. You’re also not going to write very much.
Too Much Rest Time
There’s a big difference between watching 2 hours of Netflix to let your brain log off and watching Netflix from the time you get home from work until the time you go to sleep. It’s okay to do that sometimes, of course, but as part of your regular after work routine? Write for a few hours before you sit down to Netflix (or after, whatever works for you.)
Choose Reading
So reading is a writer’s apprenticeship. Reading books helps make you a better writer. You’ll only have limited hours of downtime in a week and reading is the only downtime activity that is also making you a better writer.
Don’t Overbook Social Activities
Going to hang out with friends will drain your spare hours quickly. You have to get ready to go, make the trip to wherever you’re meeting (or perhaps clean the house in anticipation) actually spend time with them and then make the trip home. I dedicate one weekend day to myself every week. No plans with friends or family. I write, I mealprep, I grocery shop, and I clean, but mostly I write. I also recommend you’re careful with after-work socialisation. Save at least 3/5 nights for yourself to write and rest. I’m excluding people you live with in this, but you want to hang out with them in a way that lets you rest. Watch a movie together. Chat while eating dinner. Play on the same Minecraft server. Build lego together. Whatever it is.
Efficency
Clean As You Go
This is a phrase that was repeated to me over and over at McDonald’s when I worked there as a teenager. McDonalds are nothing if not efficient. Put your dishes straight in the dishwasher or sink when you’re done with them. Don’t drop your clothes on the floor when changing, put them in the laundry basket. When you are finished with an activity, clean up the mess you’ve made doing it before moving on to something else. You’d be amazed at how much less tidying up you will need to do if you clean up after yourself in day-to-day life.
Meal Prep
I’m not talking about the insanely beautiful meal prep you see on TikTok and Instagram. I mean cooking a week’s worth of dinners on Sunday night. Every dinner I eat for the week is cooked on Sunday. All my lunches are prepared on Sunday. I don’t do a high effort breakfast; I eat toast and yoghurt with strawberries but if I wanted something more interesting, I would cook it on Sunday.
Outsoucing
Pay for someone else to do the work for you in order to claw back time in your busy week.
Get your groceries delivered,
Buy pre-made meals and freezer food that require no meal prep,
Subscribe to a meal delivery box to save time grocery shopping,
Pay someone to clean your house,
Pay your kids to do extra household chores (it’s good for them)
Use a laundry service,
Hire a gardener,
Hire a babysitter and go write in a cafe.
If anyone has any additional tips, add them on!