Perfectionism can really really hurt your time management, because when you're hung up on creating the perfect sentence or figuring out the perfect details or whatever you're trying to do, you literally halt your forward momentum and most of the time you'll stay stuck. So if you do have that hour set aside that you're trying to write for the day, you basically spend that hour just being stuck on the same thing and therefore your entire session more or less becomes a waste of time. Welcome to the Fiction Writing Made Easy podcast. My name is Savannah Gilbo and I'm here to help you write a story that works. I want to prove to you that writing a novel doesn't have to be overwhelming, so each week, I'll bring you a brand new episode with simple, actionable and step-by-step strategies that you can implement in your writing right away. So whether you're brand new to writing or more of a seasoned author looking to improve your craft, this podcast is for you. So pick up a pen and let's get started.

In today's episode, we're going to talk through five easy time management strategies to help you write your novel in less time. Now, it's no secret that finding time to write a novel is one of the biggest challenges writers face, but how do you actually solve this problem and what separates the writers who make consistent progress from those who stay stuck? Well, that's exactly what we're going to talk about today, and I wanted to tackle this topic because when I surveyed you my amazing podcast listeners back in November of last year, the message was really really clear Time management was a sticky point when it came to writing your novel, and this makes sense, right. Finding time to write can feel pretty hard to do between things like work, your family and any other commitments you might have. So I'm very excited to talk through some strategies today, but before I dig into those, I want to share something interesting that has repeatedly popped up again and again in my years of coaching writers, and it's a little bit of tough love. So, while it's true that you might be someone who's strapped for time that is completely valid and fair. Maybe your life is very, very busy I've noticed that there's often more beneath the surface when someone says I don't have time to write, and I just kind of want to address this as the elephant in the room before we move on to the strategies. So let me explain what I mean.

Let's say that you have managed to block out an hour in your daily schedule to write. This is a great first step, and it's what a lot of writers do. They try to block out the time. They put it in their calendar and, yes, this is all great. So maybe when you sit down to write, it's early morning before the kids wake up, or maybe it's on a quiet lunch break while you're at work, or it's late at night when your house is finally quiet and still. So you have that hour carved out.

You sit at your desk and you think about your goal of writing 80,000 words to complete your novel, but then, instead of writing, you freeze with overwhelm or you go around and around in circles because you're not really sure what to prioritize first. And then those awkward and sometimes super negative questions start to spiral in your mind. Right, should I outline more? Should I spend more time doing that? Should I just pick a random scene on my outline and start writing that? Or maybe should I start editing yesterday's work? Maybe that would be a better use of my time, right? So all these questions come up and then, before you know it, half of your writing time is gone and that one precious hour that you set aside suddenly feels super inadequate.

If you can relate to this, I just want you to know you're not alone. We have all been there, it's totally normal, but having this kind of overwhelming experience can trigger the I don't have time to write, feeling really, really fast. And so if you're someone who relates to this, then the truth is, the real problem is most likely not time or a lack of time. Instead, it's probably that you don't have a clear roadmap of what to do in each writing session. Now, this doesn't mean that you need to have a fully fleshed out outline or know everything there is to know about your story. I'm just talking about a process that will take you from A to Z. So A being you have an idea for a story and Z being your finished draft. And I'm sharing this with you because this is something I see happen all the time.

When writers don't have a process or a roadmap to follow, even if they set aside three hours a day to write, those three hours can fly by with very little achieved, and when this happens over and over again, we start to feel like failures right, or we think there might be something wrong with us or our ideas, and then we spiral into thoughts like maybe I'm not cut out to be a writer, or maybe I should just give up and quit right now. So having a process or a roadmap is really, really important, because when you combine the effective time management strategies that we're going to talk about in this episode with that kind of clear writing process, that's when you're going to start making the kind of progress that you want to be making, and you'll be really surprised what you can accomplish in the time that you do have available to write. Now, the last thing I want to say, before we get into the strategies, is that I've created a free time management guide that explains exactly how to implement all the strategies we're going to discuss today. So this guide will be your go-to resource for making the most of your writing time, and I've broken down each of the strategies we're going to talk through into simple, actionable steps so that you can easily reference them whenever you need a reminder or whenever you want to try a new approach to managing your time. So you can think of it like your go-to time management pocket guide. And if you want to grab a copy of this time management guide, you can go to savannahgilbocom forward slash time. So one more time, no pun intended, you can download your free time management guide at savannagilbocom forward slash time. I will also put this link in the show notes for easy access.

All right, so let's dive into the five time management strategies that you can implement today to help you finish your novel, and we're going to start with strategy number one, which is the Pomodoro Technique, and you've probably heard about this one before. So it's often recommended to anyone who wants to make progress in short amount of times, and it's so highly recommended because it really works. So here's how the Pomodoro Technique works you set a timer for 25 minutes and you focus solely on writing in those 25 minutes. Then, when your timer goes off, you take a five minute break, and you can repeat this cycle as many times as you'd like to. So, yes, it's super simple, super easy to implement.

Now, this is a strategy that I love sharing with writers who are struggling with time management, because it really helps to remove that overwhelming feeling of having to write an entire novel and instead it helps you break things down into something that's more manageable. So it helps to completely shift your mindset that you have to write for hours and hours, or that, let's say, you need to write a whole chapter before you walk away, it helps break that down. And instead, to write a whole chapter before you walk away, it helps break that down and instead you're just focused on the next 25 minutes. And when you only have to focus on the next 25 minutes, your brain stops fighting you and the process so much so you're not committing to this huge, overwhelming task of writing an 80,000 word novel, you're just committing to 25 minutes of focused writing time. Now, of course, there are exceptions to this rule.

So every writer knows the magical feeling of reaching a kind of flow state with their work, and when you're in that flow state, the last thing you want to do is break it and risk losing it. So when this happens to me, if my 25 minute timer goes off but I'm in the middle of a flow state, most of the time I will keep working instead of taking a break. But this is the really important part. If I do decide to keep working and take a break later, then I make sure to allow myself a longer break than just five minutes. So sometimes if I'm in that flow state and let's say I do two back-to-back 25 minute sessions, maybe after that I will take a break for 15 to 30 minutes, depending on what I'm feeling like doing or what else I have going on in the day. So this is something that I think sometimes writers overlook, and it's just because we get so excited about producing words that we sometimes forget to take quality breaks.

So, no matter the length of the break that you have set aside whether it's five minutes, 10 minutes or whatever try to make sure they're actual breaks. So this doesn't mean sitting at your desk or scrolling social media right, I'd rather see you stand up, stretch, grab some water, look out the window, go outside, play with your pets. I mean anything that really gives your brain a true rest from the screen. Okay, so we just want to make sure to pay attention to those break moments, because they are truly so important and they're key to making this technique work. Now, I kind of already hinted at this, but you can also modify this technique to work better for you. So if 25 minutes feels like too long of a stretch to write and you want to start with 15 minute sessions, you can totally do that. Or maybe the opposite is true for you and you'd rather do 45 minute blocks of writing time, that's totally okay too. So the timing of how you break out your writing session versus your breaks, those two things don't really matter. What matters most is breaking down your writing time into smaller, more focused chunks so that the overwhelming task of writing a novel feels more manageable for you, and, of course, taking those breaks in between.

And just a little trick that I see work well for other writers let's say that you're someone who plans on doing three back-to-back Pomodoro sessions. So you're going to write for 25 minutes, take a five-minute break, write for 25 minutes, take a five-minute break and then do one more of those cycles. Something that works well for some writers is using that first Pomodoro session of the day to get your bearings in your story. So you can use this first 25 minute block of time to read what you wrote the day before, jot down some quick notes about what you want to come next and kind of make a mini plan of what you're going to do in that next 25 minutes. For some writers this is really helpful, because then, when you start on your second session or your third session, you're not wasting time trying to remember where you left off the previous day. Instead, you can just jump right in and start writing. So I really like this strategy, the Pomodoro technique, and if you want to try it, it's very, very simple to get started. You can set your own timer on your phone or use one of the many free Pomodoro timers online. I grabbed a link to one of them and I will leave it in the show notes for you for easy access. So that's strategy number one. You can try the Pomodoro technique. That will help you break your writing sessions into smaller chunks of time.

All right, let's move on to strategy number two, which is to write now and edit later. Now, I know you've probably heard this one before, but it's such an important one and it's something that I also think a lot of writers tend to discount. Now, you've probably heard this one before. I have a feeling you probably knew it was going to be on the list somehow, but it's a really important strategy that I think a lot of writers tend to discount on accident. So this strategy is really meant for the perfectionists out there really anyone who has trouble moving forward with their work and I know if you're someone who identifies as a perfectionist, it's going to feel really uncomfortable to write without editing. So what this looks like is basically writing something and then editing it later. So, for example, writing an entire scene first or, if you feel so inclined, writing your entire first draft without pausing to edit anything. And again, I know this is really hard, especially if you're someone who's concerned with getting things as close to perfect as you can on the first try. So take a deep breath. I promise it's going to be okay. And here's the thing I really want you to know Perfectionism can really really hurt your time management, because when you're hung up on creating the perfect sentence or figuring out the perfect details or whatever you're trying to do, you literally halt your forward momentum and most of the time you'll stay stuck.

So if you do have that hour set aside that you're trying to write for the day, you basically spend that hour just being stuck on the same thing and therefore your entire session more or less becomes a waste of time. So it's really really hard to move forward when you're in this perfectionism state, because you feel like you have to get everything right before going on ahead. But what happens to many writers, and what I don't want to happen to you, is that this feeling of perfectionism or this desire to kind of halt progress and make sure you get things figured out. More often than not, that's the main reason that writers end up giving up it's because they don't produce something that's perfect, or they don't produce, you know, the first draft that looks like other finished books, and so they end up walking away from their story altogether, which I hate to see. So let me share an analogy that will maybe help to put this in perspective.

I want you to think about when you're spring cleaning or cleaning your house at any time of the year. The first thing that most of us do is we make a giant mess, right. So we pull everything from the closet or the kitchen drawers or whatever, and we throw it all over our counter or bed or on the floor, and it really is a giant mess. I am guilty of this as well. Then the next thing we do is maybe we separate it into piles, right, so there's stuff we want to throw away, there's stuff we want to keep and there's stuff we want to donate because we don't need it anymore. So we separate things into piles and then everything that we keep, we put away in a neat and orderly fashion, so we have this fresh, clean closet that we're super proud of, or these fresh kitchen drawers that are all organized, and it's a really great feeling, right? There's no better feeling than a freshly cleaned house.

Now, what does this have to do with writing? Well, your first draft works exactly the same way. First you need to get all those ideas out of your head and onto the page and, yes, it's going to be messy and imperfect, that's totally. And then, once you have everything on the page, only then can you see what you're really working with and only then can you start organizing and polishing that mess into something you're proud of. Now, I know this can feel really uncomfortable. The urge to edit as you go is so, so strong. But when you try to write and edit at the same time, what you're doing is constantly switching between your creative brain and your analytical brain, and every time you make that switch, you're breaking your momentum and making it harder to get back into the flow of your story. So here's what I want you to try instead when you sit down to write, give yourself permission to write something that's messy yes, messy, not tidy.

We are not worried about being tidy or having everything figured out when you sit down to write your first draft, and here's why your first draft is supposed to be a work in progress. It's literally called a work in progress, right? Your only job is to get your story out of your head and onto the page. Now here's a trick If you notice something that needs to be fixed or something that you don't know the answer to. So maybe you need to do some more research or flesh out some more details, or maybe you want to change a character's name, whatever it is, instead of stopping to fix it as you're writing, just put a note to yourself in brackets. So imagine you're writing, writing, writing, and then you put in brackets, need to come back and fix this later. Or maybe you're writing and you realize there's a whole lot of details about the setting that you don't know. So instead of stopping to research, you can write in brackets need to do some research on this or research needed, and then just keep moving forward.

So keep writing forward, and the really cool thing about this approach is that it will actually save you time in the long run. So I know it's going to be uncomfortable and it's going to be something that's not easy to do, and it's going to be something that you'll probably need to practice at before it becomes a habit. But I promise it will save you time in the long run. Because, let's be honest, how many hours have you spent perfecting a scene only to realize later that that scene needs to change completely or maybe even be cut right? That happens all the time. So there's no use polishing your words or spending a ton of time researching details if that scene could potentially be cut later.

Now, if you find the idea of trying this strategy tough, because many writers do, then I want you to just start small. So try writing for just 10 minutes without allowing yourself to edit, and then as you go let's say like each week you can gradually increase that time. So week one, maybe, you write for 10 minutes without allowing yourself to edit, and then the next week you try to do it for 15 minutes without allowing yourself to edit, and then the next week you try to do it for 15 minutes without allowing yourself to edit. I really do think you'll be amazed at how much more you can get accomplished when you're not consistently second guessing or going back to rewrite every single word. So the key point here really boils down to the fact that nobody can write a perfect first draft. It's not possible, and even the authors that you admire most cannot write a perfect first draft. You've probably heard it said around the authors that you admire most cannot write a perfect first draft. You've probably heard it said around the internet that the magic is in revision, and I totally agree. You can't edit a blank page, so you need to give yourself permission to write imperfectly, and then you can come back to it and revise it and make it better later. Okay, so that's strategy number two. We want to write first and then edit later. Okay, so that's strategy number two. We want to write first and then edit later.

Moving on to strategy number three, this is to treat your writing time like an appointment. So what do I mean by this? Well, for starters, I see many writers get overly ambitious about scheduling their writing time, and we've all done it. It makes so much sense why we get overly ambitious about it. So we sit down and we block out an unrealistic amount of time to write every day, and then, when we can't stick to those schedules we set for ourselves, we feel guilty or we feel like a failure or whatever it is, and then sometimes we start to ignore our writing because we don't want to show up and feel those negative feelings right. So, weeks and months down the road, you haven't made any progress on your book. You're no closer to finishing it.

If you can relate to this, I don't want you to feel bad about it, because I actually think your intention is signaling a good thing. So the fact that you're overscheduling your writing time or being overly ambitious about what you can get done in a certain amount of time, that means you are ready to write your novel and finish it. You're ready to put in that effort, you're ready to write that messy draft. But you're just maybe not so good at setting realistic expectations or having a realistic schedule, and the good news is we can fix that. So my advice to you, if you find yourself in this situation, is to scale back those writing blocks to something that's more realistic and then, if you're like me, maybe cut that in half. If you've set aside four hours to write every day, cut that in half. You're down to two and then cut that in half again, which would bring you down to one hour. So think about your average week and then be truthful about how much time you actually have to write. So if we zoom out from thinking about writing. We can think about it this way Would you ever schedule five doctor's appointments in one week?

You probably wouldn't, unless something is out of the ordinary or unless you're sick, right. But when you do book a doctor's appointment, you add it to your calendar and you stick to it, and you probably don't reschedule a billion times, especially if there's some kind of cancellation policy, right. So it does bear thinking about. Why do we so easily abandon our writing times but never show this behavior for other appointments? And I think it boils down to when someone else is involved, we show up, right. But when it's just us and our writing, it's easier to push it aside and not prioritize it.

So the point here is to treat your writing time like a doctor's appointment. Don't abandon it or reschedule it unless there's a valid reason. And that's why it's really, really important to make those blocks of time that you've carved out to work on your writing. That's why it's important to make them so realistic, so it's easier for you to show up. So if two hours a day feels overwhelming, scale it back to one. If one hour every day still isn't sustainable, try three times a week instead. Whatever you need to do to make it work for you.

But then, when you make that commitment, I want you to show up for it and protect your writing time fiercely. Because here's what happens when you do this Instead of feeling guilty about missing your writing times, you start to show up and you start to build confidence. So your writing practice becomes something positive and something that you look forward to, instead of a task that weighs you down. Because, let's be honest, when your writing time begins to feel heavy, or when you don't look forward to spending time with your story, that's when time management starts to fall by the wayside. Spending time with your story, that's when time management starts to fall by the wayside. Now again, this might feel really hard at first, especially if you're not used to prioritizing and protecting your writing time, but I promise, once you start doing it, once you start treating your writing time like appointments that are non-negotiable, everything will change. Your family will start to respect your time more, you will feel more committed to showing up for your story and, more importantly, you will actually start making real progress on your novel. Because remember, you're building a long-term writing practice here, right? So cramming in as many appointments as possible isn't realistic, and it's one way to get yourself on the fast track to burnout, but creating a schedule that you can stick to week after week, that's a one-way ticket to a purposeful road to finishing your novel. So that's strategy number three to treat your writing time like an important appointment.

All right now, before we dive into the fourth strategy, I just want to quickly recap what we've covered so far. So I talked about the Pomodoro technique, which is all about breaking your writing time down into manageable chunks, so 25 chunks of work with five minute chunks of break time. I talked about the Pomodoro technique, which breaks down your writing time into smaller, more manageable chunks. Then I covered the idea of writing now and editing later, which helps you keep that forward momentum because you're having to let go of perfectionism. And then our third strategy was about treating your writing time like a real appointment which helps you consistently show up for yourself and for your writing practice. These three strategies are all about creating structure and protecting your writing time. But sometimes structure alone isn't enough to keep us motivated. So that's where strategy number four comes in, and it's kind of a sneaky way to trick your brain into developing positive writing habits. So the fourth strategy is to give yourself rewards for writing, and here's how it works Basically you're going to set up some rewards for showing up to do the work or some incentives to help you show up and do the work.

So every time you hit a writing milestone, big or small, you celebrate it, and I really wanna emphasize the word small milestones here. I think they're actually the most important milestones to celebrate, because they're the building blocks that make the bigger milestones possible. So let me give you some examples. A small milestone for you might be getting through an entire writing session, or maybe getting through a writing session without editing, right, that totally counts. Something a little meatier could be finishing an entire scene from start to finish. And then, obviously, a bigger milestone would be something like completing your first draft.

Now, I know this whole treat yourself concept isn't new. We see it everywhere, from Instagram to YouTube videos to pretty much every single mindset coach there is out there, but there's a reason that everyone talks about it, and that's because it actually works. So I want you to think about this for a second how good are you at celebrating your small wins? Because most of us tend to only celebrate the big stuff, like finishing an entire draft, and this is something I am very guilty of. It's something I'm actively working on in my own life. So if this is you, I totally get it.

So for me personally, let's say I show up and I accomplish what I wanted to do with my novel that week, instead of pausing to celebrate that I actually just did something that I planned to do and I showed up and I executed the plan. I will immediately start thinking about everything else I need to do. So, yes, I might have written three scenes that week, but one of them isn't working. Or maybe I'm thinking about that section of my outline I haven't figured out yet, or that ending that I'm not sure. There are three ways it could go, I just don't know which one. I want it to go on right. So it's always like I'm forward thinking and I'm not pausing to celebrate the hard work that I actually just did.

So if you can relate to this, let's talk about how to put this strategy of giving yourself rewards or treats or celebrating the wins. Let's talk about how to put that into practice. So the first thing to do is start by setting up a reward system for your small goals. So maybe your goal is to write a certain number of words without editing or hitting an uninterrupted writing streak. So you know, you've showed up at your desk four days that week. That's an uninterrupted writing streak. Your reward for this could be something as simple as guilt-free social media time, or watching an episode of your new favorite show, or reading a few chapters of that new book you can't put down. Right. It can be anything.

Then what I want you to do is brainstorm some rewards for those meatier goals not quite the big goals yet, but those ones that are more middle-sized. So when you finish a scene or you knock your weekly writing schedule out of the park, maybe you treat yourself to a movie with a big tub of popcorn, or maybe you go to the bookstore and buy yourself a new book, right? Something just a little more meaty than reading a few chapters or whatever it is. You probably see where I'm going with this, right? So the bigger the milestone, the bigger the reward. Just remember that you only get the reward when you hit that specific writing goal. And don't worry, you don't need to break the bank here. You can get creative about this and make sure the reward is actually something that you'll look forward to.

Something I've seen other writers do is they make a physical reward chart and they hang it somewhere visible in their writing space. If you're anything like me, I love checking things off the list. I love putting stickers to let me know I've done something. So sometimes that is enough just to help you start tracking your progress and rewarding yourself for showing up and doing the work. So not only does it make the whole writing process more fun, but it also keeps you accountable to your time management goals as well. So that's strategy number four give yourself writing rewards or writing incentives. Strategy number five is to write when you're the most fresh. So the fifth and final time management strategy is about working with your natural energy cycles instead of against them.

Some of us are early birds bouncing out of bed to write at 5am. Others are more night owls who get their best creative work done when the rest of the world is sleeping. And then there are the afternoon writers who hit their stride right after lunch. There's no right or wrong time to write, but what I see happen a lot is that writers try to force themselves to writing at times that don't align with their natural energy cycles. I know there's a whole thing on social media right now that's like the 5am writers club, and 5am might work. For some people, that might be their peak moment of creativity or productivity, but for a lot of people that just isn't going to work right. I know me personally. I am much more creative and much more productive in the late afternoon, early evening, even into the night.

So it's important that we all recognize our different energy patterns that fuel our best creative efforts and then lean into that, because what actually matters is figuring out when you feel the most energized and creative and when your brain is fresh and ready, not necessarily when your favorite author writes or what worked for your friend on Instagram or in your writing group or things like that. So the key is matching your writing time to when your energy is at its peak, and I know this can be tricky because a lot of us juggle jobs, kids and a pretty packed schedule, which means we often have to fit our writing time into whatever pockets of time we have. But even if your available writing time doesn't line up with your peak energy hours, you can still make this work. If you're a morning person, but evenings are your only free time during the week, think about how you can use your weekends to catch up on those precious morning hours for the big stuff like drafting a really important new scene or working through big picture plot problems. And then you can use your evening sessions for lighter tasks that don't require as much creative energy, like light editing or organizing your notes. You can even try making small adjustments to align with your natural rhythms a bit better, like shifting your writing time forward or backward by an hour, and you'd be surprised the difference just a small tweak like that can make in your productivity.

Now here's something really important to remember Writing when you're fresh doesn't mean you have to write longer. It means making the most of whatever time you have by showing up when your brain is ready and willing to do the work. And this strategy becomes even more powerful if you combine it with the first strategy, which is the Pomodoro Technique. So imagine using something like the Pomodoro Technique during your peak energy times and then also treating those planned writing times like appointments, and you'd be really surprised how much more you can accomplish. All right, so there you have it five time management strategies that will help you make real progress on finishing your novel. I love sharing these because I've seen firsthand how they can really improve someone's writing process.

Now, before you go, I want to remind you about the free time management guide I mentioned at the start of this episode. So in this time management guide I've broken down each of these strategies into simple and actionable steps, with links and examples and things like that. So think of it like a roadmap to actually implementing what we talked about today, or a cheat sheet that kind of recaps everything we talked about today. So if you haven't downloaded that already, you can go to savannahgilbocom forward slash time to get your hands on that free time management guide. So that's it for today's episode.

As always, thank you so much for tuning in and for showing your support. If you want to check out any of the links I mentioned in this episode, you can find them in the show notes listed in the description of each episode inside your podcast player or at savannahgilbocom forward slash podcast. If you're an Apple user, I'd really appreciate it if you took a few seconds to leave a rating and a review. Your ratings and reviews tell Apple that this is a podcast that's worth listening to and in turn, your reviews will help this podcast get in front of more fiction writers just like you. This podcast get in front of more fiction writers just like you. And while you're there, go ahead and hit that follow button, because there's going to be another brand new episode next week, full of actionable tips, tools and strategies to help you become a better writer. So I'll see you next week and until then, happy writing.