The Rounded Writer. Part 1: Time and Tasks.

This is the first in a series of blogs designed to help writers who have problems fitting everything in.

First of all I can’t tell you how to live your life. Only you can make your routine fit the way you work and what you can work round. If only one of the following things helps you feel in control, take it and run with it.

We don’t manage time, we manage ourselves. You’ve heard about giving a job to someone busy if you want it done. Why? Because they will be organized. Being organized takes self-discipline but I promise it will help you get what needs doing done. Use the power of the list, but don’t let it rule you.

At the same time you must remember you are a human being not a human doing and that’s why you must be organized and use your time intelligently. For example I am writing this on a Sunday. I don’t normally work on a Sunday but my husband is watching the Russian Grand Prix, so it is a good use of my time to do this piece now and have quality time with him later.

Keep in mind that you are not aiming for perfection, but balance. You don’t need to clean a room perfectly. Running a duster round and vacuuming the middle will make it look ten times better than it did. Make rough notes for a story but don’t panic about putting them in order now. Just brainstorm the ideas.

Don’t fill every waking moment with tasks. Build in down time. As a rule of thumb, you should allocate half as much time again or even twice as much time to a task as you think it will take.

Drop things that drain your energy, whether that is a person, people or a task. Look at your habits. Take a few days to keep a log of exactly how you spend your days, then you can see how much time you squander. Do you waste precious time surfing/checking FB & Twitter or reading the Daily Mail sidebar of shame? Is it a habit to talk to someone who moans all the time and saps your vitality? You don’t need that. Ditch them and don’t feel guilty. The energy-sapper will soon find someone else to moan at and the Daily Mail will survive without you.

We all have tasks that need doing around the house/garden. You don’t have to like doing them, you just have to get them done. Is there anything you love doing that your friends hate? Swop tasks. You cook a couple of meals for their freezer, they do your ironing. You write a letter for someone, they mow your lawn.

De-cluttering is vital because if your environment is cluttered so is your mind and that applies at work and in the home.

In the office you can’t work on more than one thing at once so why are there piles of stuff on your desk? Make one drawer a filing drawer. Pull out what you want to work on. When you’ve finished, put it away and get out the next job. Make sure you can shut the door on your work area at the end of the day. That applies whether you have an office or an office in a cupboard.

When it comes to the house, there are a few rules. Don’t try to do it all at once. Don’t try to do it perfectly. If you work from home, take ten minutes in every hour to move about and re-energize your brain. If you have no domestic tasks, then dance about or run up and down the stairs. If you have household jobs, now is the time for them. In ten minutes you can vacuum one room or wipe down the kitchen countertops or tidy the sitting room. Make the ten minutes energetic and make each minute count. Anybody can do anything for 10 minutes except whinge.

Do a 5 minute chaos corner tidy. Just that one corner, not the whole room.

Get out tomorrow’s clothes before you go to bed.

Make sure the draining board is clear before you go to bed.

Make a list of your main meals for the next week. (If you have time/energy, prep them and put them in the freezer. Then get one out each morning for that evening.)

I am a morning person. I’m up at 6am. Before 8.30am, I will have checked e-mails, Facebook and Twitter, walked the dog, swished round the bathroom, had breakfast, emptied the dishwasher and prepared as much of that night’s dinner as I can. I am now ready to begin my day’s work.

Deadlines: The end date is not as important as the start date. If you need something doing by next Thursday that will take 2 days, then start on Monday - remember the time rule of thumb. Don't start on Wednesday. All you will do is flog yourself to a custard. If your strategies are not working, brainstorm new ones. If you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you always got.

Focus on what is important to you. Ditch the non –productive, time consuming stuff that doesn’t matter in the big scheme. What is the most empowering word in the world? No.

Cut a task down into baby chunks. If your aim is to write 2000 words today, don’t try to write them all at once unless that works for you. Similarly, don’t try and clean the whole house in one go.

You must look after yourself, both physically and emotionally.

Take a day off each week and do something for you. Pamper yourself. Potter in the garden. Read a book. Take a walk. Go to a local stately home or museum. Browse in the local bookshop or library. Listen to some music.