Choosing Your Time to Write

As an Educator, Cristen Faulkenberry is familiar with hectic schedules. Today she’s here to share with us her strategies for squeezing in extra writing time in a busy schedule:

As I write this, the school year of 2019-2020 is coming to a close. It’s not like any closures I’ve ever experienced in my few years as an educator, but it has led to me having more time on my hands than I am accustomed to having as a high school English teacher. 

During the school year, time seems to slip through my fingers between lesson planning, grading, cooking, paying the bills, being mom, wife, etc. I remember laying down in bed each night asking myself how I used my time wisely that day, and often my answers were lackluster. The mental exhaustion from the day’s necessary activities is real, and often entombs our desire to write. So, when you have all these activities, all these projects and duties that must be done… how can you find time in that schedule to write?

The answer is going to be different for each person, because our mental capacity to handle the day’s events will differ. For me, that first month—no, the first entire quarter of the school year—is not a good time to try and write anything vast because there is simply so much to do. This coming school year I plan to offset this by journaling: just writing about my days, funny things that students have done, or ridiculous things I somehow managed to say during the lesson. 

In order to find more time to write, you must first decide how much time you wish to devote to writing. If you already have a hectic and busy schedule, you will need to choose which aspects of that schedule to switch to writing. Ask yourself if you could:

change your ten minutes of news watching/social media scrolling in the morning into ten minutes of writing? consider using some type of dictation software during your morning and afternoon commutes? find occasional larger chunks of time to write, such as an hour or two? 

How much time you spend writing is dependent on your decision, because you are the dictator of your overall schedule. Sure, jobs get in the way, and if there is no way to change the amount of hours you are currently working… well, you will need to find a way to come to terms with that aspect of your life. If the distractions that keep you from writing are members of your household being excellent at interrupting you, be sure to communicate what sections of the day you wish to devote to writing.

My personal solution that works for the vast majority of the year is to get up earlier than everyone else. Do I sometimes sacrifice sleep to get up and write (and exercise)? Yes, but that’s the choice I make to prioritize my writing.

When, where, how, why, and what you write will always be your choice. So, write as often as you can, but do not begrudge the days when time escapes you.

Cristen Faulkenberry was born and raised in small town Missouri, where she teaches high school English. She holds an MA from the University of Missouri-Kansas City (2019) and a BA from Missouri Western State University (2012). She assisted with the Prairie Lands Writing Project’s High School Writing Day (2011-12) and interned as a docent for the First Folio exhibit in 2016.

Some of her favorite pastimes include reading, writing, cooking, exercising, traveling, and studying foreign languages. An aspiring novelist and poet, she finds inspiration in everyday life with her husband and young son.

Top photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash.