Getting it Done

Day before yesterday I moved back in for my final year of undergraduate studies...this is it, folks. The big one. The one you've all been waiting for.

I have so many people ask me if I'm going to teach with my English major, but that's not the goal. And most of the people here at university in the same department as me are continuing on to graduate school-- whether because they want to teach, or because they have some other plan that requires a higher degree, because they just want a Masters or a PhD for the sake of having it, or maybe because they just don't know what to do or how to do it yet.

That's not me. I'm done with school. I love to learn, but I'm tired of the three ring circus of it (and it is a circus, because I have never learned anywhere else how to more effectively juggle eighty things at one time that could all potentially be full-time at a given point). It's been a blast and a wild ride and I've loved it. But I'm ready for the next step. I'm so excited to have a horrible little apartment and a new job, whatever it may be, and to be out on my own and figure it all out. It'll be hard at first, perhaps it always will be, but I can't wait.

In any case, that's not the point of this post. For those of you who are still in school, and even for those of you who aren't and have full-time jobs already, this post is about making time.

It's really hard to work everything in the day. There never seem to be enough hours between sunrise and sunset, and I've seen my fair share of both from every angle you can imagine to know the truth of this statement. And yet we try to cram as much as possible into every single minute. However, there is one thing I'm learning that I think will prove to be the savior for those of us harried and those of us busy.

I'm a scheduler-- I like to make charts and diagrams and keep my agenda by my desk with everything written in it for a year to come. It helps me to make sure that I don't forget anything with this goldfish brain of mine (actually that 2-second memory goldfish thing was disproved), and it also helps me make sure things get done. If left to my own devices, I would not accomplish half of what I do, because, I like anyone else, love to lie around and read and laze and drink a cup of tea. Which is nice, and must also be scheduled. SCHEDULED. Always. I also tend to get up to do something, see something else that needs to be done, go do that, and then forget what it was I got up to do in the first place. Ever walk into a room and stop, wondering what it was you needed there, only to have to walk out again bewildered? Yes, that's me. I'm having senior moments at the ripe old age of 21.

I digress...again. It's turning out I need a schedule for this post.

Right now I am digressing to you during my 'writing' hour. Every Monday, Wednesday, Friday I now have a 'class' in my block of time that is set aside strictly for blogs, updates, and writing my book. I also left an extra hour on the other end for leeway should I have more to say than I originally thought. Which will probably be likely at least in terms of my book, which I have not worked on since my first huge push at it. Shameful. But the tide is turning, work shall be done!

This is really the trick behind getting it done, whether you have a full-time job or are a full-time student, or even if you're just a part-timer of either or both. Whatever you've got going on, if you don't make time for writing, you won't write. Saying, oh, I'll get to it in my free time-- it'll never happen. Because your free time will either become scheduled with company or going to the movies or whatever it may be, your free time will disappear in a sudden rush of business, or you'll get to your free time and the last thing you'll want to do is work some more.

Set aside an hour, two hours, even half an hour in which to jot some things down. Where you can take your typewriter, keyboard, or pen in hand and do nothing but write. Maybe all you'll do is stare at the paper for an hour. Maybe you'll write a few pages. Maybe you'll write a few chapters. But that time was your muse's time, and it will be put to good work. All writers know the value of staring into space. Thoughts may be vacant, but the brain is working. Or perhaps it only seems to the outside world that nothing is going on inside, but really an entire universe is being painted with a two-haired brush, layer by layer, thread by thread. That time is precious and we must not let it get hijacked by anything else.

Make your time. If you're not in the custom of writing out a schedule, simply set your alarm an hour and a half earlier than you usually do in the morning. Keep your writing journal on top of your computer and make yourself write in it for a half hour before you're allowed to open the laptop or turn it on. Or keep it by your bed and have it be the last thing you do before you go to sleep. As busy as we all are, we who do the extra job must make that time until a day when that extra time becomes our job. Perhaps it will never happen and our writing schedule will always be to 'make time'. But if that's the case, we'll be darn good at it, won't we?