Tag: time management

How we create in dark times

Man, I could really use some precedent times.

I don’t need to tell you how dark things are getting out there. You know, you have eyes.

I hope you also have plans to vote in the midterms in a few months here.

As many of you know, my personal life hasn’t been great either. The darling husband is still recovering from his stroke in December of 2024. We had to move out of my dream apartment, my soul cat Harper passed, and Haunted MTL closed in 2025.

And my favorite wine bar closed. I know it doesn’t seem like much compared to everything else. But that was where I went when the husband was in the hospital, and the house was too quiet. Basically, it was one of the things keeping me going through all the other rough shit. And then it was gone.

2026 has been a lot brighter. We moved into a new house, and it’s lovely. We have a new roommate. The darling husband gets a little better every day. And, thanks to the move, I was able to bury our girl in our own yard, where I can visit her every day.

Now, I’m decompressing from what was certainly a Tower Card year. I’m getting into a groove that has space for being a caretaker and a creative. I’m also learning to work within the way my body is changing now that I’m in my 40’s.

Writing can come back to the foreground of my life now. But even while I walked through a rough year, I kept writing. So today, I want to talk about how I did it. What kept me writing? How did I fit it in when I barely had time to shower?

Let’s talk about it.

I need the brightness

Writing is bright for me. It’s the best thing. The thing I want to do more than anything else. And when everything felt like it was falling apart around me, writing was how I handled it.

Writing my weekly blog posts, getting in a little writing time on my novel, and especially journalling. These were things I could do while the husband napped, attended physical therapy, or slowly learned to use his smartphone again. They were things that made me feel like me. If only for a little while.

Today I have a thousand things to do. I’m writing this on Sunday, and I have a hundred other things I need to do today. But I’m taking the time to write this, because it’s fun. Because I want to. Because it makes me feel bright.

Prioritize

When you have a thousand things that need to be done, you’ve got to realize that you’re not going to get it all done. Sorry, that’s just how life works. Especially when you’re a full-time caregiver. If you think you’ve got the perfect day planned in which you’re going to get everything done, something’s probably going to break. Or someone’s going to get sick. Or you probably forgot a doctor’s appointment.

Again.

So when you’re making the to-do list for the day, list your goals by priority. For me, I start with the things that need to be done to keep everyone (including my plants) alive and well. Doctors, meds, meal planning, watering schedule, doggy nail clippings. These are always the first things on my to-do list.

Then come the things I need to do to progress on my current projects. This will look different all the time. Sometimes I’ve got a blog post that’s due. Or I need to get words on the page for the current book. Or I need to get short stories submitted.

Then, I worry about things like house cleaning or laundry. Unless I’m completely out of clean underwear.

You’re going to run out of time. You’re going to run out of energy. Prioritize like hell, and make sure the most important things get done.

Time management, realistically

Time management should also be looked at as energy management. I spend some time every Saturday to see what can get done when.

Look at your schedule for the week. What days do you have work? When are you doing your grocery shopping, picking up meds, scheduling doctor’s appointments, going to the bank?

When do you have days that will not be productive for good reasons? For instance, this week was Mabon, one of the eight sabbats in the wheel of the year. We also have a local Fall Festival on Saturday. I plan for those beautiful, life-affirming days. No progress will be made on any projects that day. I’ll be living life, taking pictures, and loving on my family.

Make sure you’re planning for rest times. Make sure you’re not planning to be productive every minute of the day. Plan in time for joy, for rest, for unproductive loafing. Plan for bubble baths and movie nights.

Measuring in minutes

I want to write most days. Some days I can carve out a whole hour to work on my current book. Sometimes I can fit in ten minutes.

My homecare is usually shoved into minutes. And you know what? It gets done.

Take ten minutes to pick up your home. Spend ten minutes writing. Stretch for ten minutes. Read for ten minutes. Will it be as good as if you took an hour a day? No, of course not. But it will be a damned sight better than if you didn’t do anything at all.

Art inspires people

When it’s hard to keep going, we remember our why. This is my why. I’ve said over and over that art gets people through hard times. In my darkest times, books have saved me. It happened again last year, reading We Used To Live Here while sleep-deprived, caring for my husband when he came home unable to even sit up by himself. We watched Futurama and Shrek. We indulged in stories, and it helped heal both of us.

I want to be that. I want to write the story someone reads while sitting in the emergency room. While waiting for a doctor to call. While waiting for a job offer that might or might not come. I want my stories to be the bright few minutes in someone’s dark day. And when I feel too tired to open my laptop, this is the why that drives me to at least get in a few hundred words before I go crash out.

What’s your why?

So that’s it. There’s nothing magical. I mean, I am a witch, and I do believe that a cup of tea and a good candle can help most things. But most of it’s just making a plan, making the time, and making it happen.

What about you? What keeps you writing during hard times? Let us know in the comments.

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Station 86 Volume 1 is coming! You can get your very own copy on October Second.

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Some things are supposed to take time

I love a cup of coffee.

Yes, I am a cliche. I’m a writer and a Millennial woman. Of course my veins are full of espresso instead of red blood cells.

I make it each morning in a French press, one of the slowest and low-tech ways to possibly make coffee. I start with Cafe Bustelo grounds and a pinch of salt. (Listen to me. I said a pinch!) Then I put in a bit of cinnamon. I boil water in a kettle I’ve had for years, dressing and feeding the pets while I wait for it to sing. Then I pour the water into the press and give it four minutes to steep. The whole process takes an average of fifteen minutes.

It is the best coffee I’ve ever had. And it’s not the only thing I make that takes time. I make eight-hour roasts and garlic confit. While I have quite a strong relationship with my microwave, my favorite things take time.

Writing takes time. Writing books takes time. Sometimes, far more time than we, as writers, want it to. Publish or perish seems to be the name of the game, especially in the indie writing world. I feel like I’ve always got to have something new coming out. There’s a never-ending pressure.

Oh my God, it is such horrific pressure. When you make your passion your career, it’s a special kind of hell. One completely of our own making. Because it’s not just about creating anymore. It’s not just about writing anymore. It’s about building a backlog. About building a career.

This pressure has been killing me this year. Squeezing me until I can’t breathe, but I sure can be wracked with sobs. I published my latest novel in May of last year. And, I’m sorry to say, I will probably not be publishing anything until at least 2027.

That might be a miracle.

I’ve been writing. Not as much as I want to. But I’ve written two rough drafts for the final book in the Station 86 series.

I’ve written two rough drafts and thrown them out. Because they were just, just terrible.

Some things are supposed to take time.

Right now, I’m writing the third draft of a dark fantasy book. One that I hope to get an agent for, so I haven’t talked much about it. I have worked on this book for years now, in between drafts of Station 86 and AA. It is a passion project. I love it. I hope that someday soon you’ll get a chance to love it as well.

No one is waiting for this story. Well, the universe might be waiting for it. But I don’t have a handful of fans waiting for it. I do have a handful of fans waiting for the last Station 86 book.

I hope.

So when I work on the Station 86 book, the stress is there. The pressure is there. Time is ticking away, and every day means Station 86 fans might forget, give up, or simply move on.

This is the fear that’s been nipping at my heels. While I frankly have enough fear keeping me up at night. But for my sake, and the sake of my writing, I am trying to let go of this fear. It doesn’t serve me.

Writing takes time. Good writing takes time. And sometimes it takes walking away and taking a break to come back with the passion and creativity a project deserves.

I told you that to tell you this. If you’re a fan of Station 86, stick with me. This series is so very important to me, and I’m going to keep working on it until I give it the ending it deserves.

If you’re a writer who feels like you’re not moving fast enough, take heart. Good writing takes the time it takes. You’re not early or late.

And fans will wait. I know it’s hard to believe. To listen to faith over fear. But consider how long you’ve waited for the next book in a beloved series. Tamora Pierce published Tempest and Slaughter in 2018. The sequel is maybe coming out this year, but we don’t have a concrete release date yet. That hasn’t stopped me from checking monthly for updates.

I have a list of authors I check on upcoming releases for each month. That list includes Grady Hedrix, Stephen King, Danielle Valentine, Sylvia Moreno Garcia, Kirsten White, Paul Trembley,Tamora Pierce, Natalie Goldberg and Marcus Kliewer.

Some of those authors publish books yearly. Some don’t. I still check because their work is important to me. So if I’m willing to check for their work, why wouldn’t I think others might check for mine?

Why wouldn’t someone check for yours?

Like a good cup of coffee or a soul-nourishing roast, stories take time. Let yourself have the time you need. No matter how much time that is.

And yes, I promise that the last Station 86 book is coming.

Paper Beats World is a labor of love. If you love what we do here, you can support us by liking and sharing this post. You can also support us financially on Ko-fi.

Spooky season is coming, and Quiet Apocalypse is the cold, dark treat you need right now. Check it out here.

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When and how to update your time management plan

Confession time again. Here’s a big one, folks. 

In the past few months, I have really been struggling with productivity. And I hate it. I hate not being where I want to be for the year. I should have already finished the book I’m writing. I should have done another draft of the nonfiction book. And there’s the book I wrote last year for Nanowrimo that I’d really like to be editing right now. Then, of course, there are all of my other responsibilities that are slacking. 

A recent change in my day job schedule forced me to sit down and look at how I’ve been spending my time. And I realized that I had to make some changes. 

Now, what do I mean by a time management plan? This is the way you schedule your time and the tasks you need to accomplish. 

My time management plan worked for a long time. These days, it’s not. So it’s time to make a new one. 

There are a lot of reasons why your time management plan might not be working for you anymore. So it’s a good idea to consider how you’re doing things every six months or so. Here are some reasons your time management plans might have to change. 

Your priorities will change

Life changes. You change. Your priorities are going to change. Maybe you’ll get a new job or promotion. Maybe you’ll be inspired by a new life path. Maybe your family grows. Maybe you feel like you’re being called to do a different kind of work. 

Whatever the reason, your goals are going to change. your priorities will change. And that’s good. 

Your obligations will change

Some changes to your life are ones you cause intentionally. Some changes are totally out of your control, but now you’ve got to deal with it. 

Maybe your family grew in a way you weren’t expecting. Or you have a loved one dealing with an illness. Maybe you yourself have fallen ill. 

There are any number of ways life can start asking more of you than it did before. Some are blessings. Some aren’t. All need to be taken into account. 

Your goals will change

When I started working on AA, my goals changed. My workload changed. When I decided to drop everything last year and write a completely standalone novel for Nanowrimo, my goals changed. When I realized I had three novels and a podcast season sitting unfinished on my desk, my goals changed again. (To finishing them!) 

When I realized that I was miserable most of the time, as I did recently, my goals changed as well. 

As your goals change, what you do to meet those goals will have to change. 

Your energy level will change

This is the one that’s really been getting me. I just don’t seem to have the energy I used to. I don’t have the patience I used to. Part of that’s getting older, I’m sure. Part of it’s being angry at the world and majority of politicians. 

But this, honestly, has been what’s dragging me down. And I’m sorry to say, it’ll probably happen to all of us eventually. And while that sucks, it’s just part of getting older. 

When you’re rethinking your time management style, it’s important to be realistic. Consider not just how many hours you have in the day, but when your good hours are going to be. 

Here’s what I did when I realized I wanted to redo my time management. 

Step one: Pull out a planner or a virtual planner. Start by filling out out all of the requirement on your time that you can’t change. For most of us, this starts with our day jobs. School and work obligations are usually not something we control. So that goes in first.

Next, consider when you need to rest and commit time to self care. You need to sleep. You need time to cook meals and make sure you have clean clothes. You need time to play, to have completely unstructured time. Even if it’s just taking thirty minutes during a day off work and not planning anything for that time, that is so important. 

Now you have a better idea of how much time you have to focus on your passion projects. And yes, even after all this time, writing is still my passion. So, when are you going to work on your passion? 

I take an hour of writing time in the morning before work. This is pure creating time, not time spent on social media or other business writing work. 

I spend the evenings with my husband and pets, caring for our home and each other. 

So, when does the writing business work happen? Well, I’m blessed with two days off a week, so I spend one day working on that. Social media graphics, marketing, submitting, all those good things. I do try to get some writing done that day, but I try to keep everything at no more than five hours. 

The final day of the week is spent taking care of my home, spending time doing fun things with my family and running errands. 

This is all a lot slower than it used to be. I need time to write for pleasure and therapy. I need time to read for pleasure too. Hell, I’m a witch. I need time to contemplate the moon. I need to take my dog to get his nails clipped and stop for coffee after. In short, I need to plan my life so that I have time to live it. And when I take some time to update my time management, I allow myself to keep living well. 

Don’t forget, I just updated my Preptober Planner for the new year! Check it out now on my Ko-fi shop.

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