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How to Write When Life is Chaotic · The Daily Writer

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hey my friend, welcome to The Daily Writer, where we help writers become authors of their own lives.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Back in 2005, I was just about to finish my second master's degree, but the only thing that stood in my way was a pesky little thesis.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: And a thesis, if you've never heard of that, is a major research project that was supposed to prove my ability to do research and write clearly on a specific topic.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in those days, I was a newly minted college professor, so I had the whole summer, basically, to work on that project before the fall semester kicked in.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: And almost every single day that summer, I gathered up my research materials and my laptop and I spent the day in a quiet room at my local library.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: And that was honestly wonderful.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: Even though the work was hard and difficult and involved a lot of deep thinking, it was great because it gave me huge, uninterrupted blocks of time to really dig into that project.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I did successfully complete the thesis towards the end of the summer, got flying colors and everything, and it went very, very well.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: But it's funny that as I look back on that time, I really missed that because you know the reality for my life these days is that my life is much more, I'm not going to say chaotic, but my life involves much more moving parts than it did back in those days.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: I have a growing ghostwriting business.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm working on multiple of my own projects.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: I have my daily podcasts and email list, as you know, and other kinds of projects going on with lots of opportunities and lots of very exciting things.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: But even in spite of the fact that I'm a full-time writer, sometimes it still can be a challenge to get my own writing done, which I know sounds really, really ironic, but I bet you can relate to that as well.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: We all have families who need us, we have social obligations, we have various business projects, and just the general chaos of life that we all experience.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: And this brings me to a great question sent in by email subscriber Karen.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: She says, How do you make time to write when life happens so unpredictably that it's nearly impossible to squeeze a minute in?
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: For instance, we're trying to sell our house and are still living in it.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: You never know when you're going to get that call to vacate for a showing.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: There are a million other scenarios that people experience, and this, of course, is just one.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Karen, this is so true, and thanks for the question, by the way.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: It is really true that life throws a lot of scenarios at us that make it harder to block out time to write.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: But I think the key here is that it's harder but not impossible.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: When life feels chaotic and there's a lot going on, how do you get your writing done?
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I was trained as a pastor back in my early days, and so naturally I have three points to share on this episode.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: First, I suggest using what's called the Pomodoro method of writing.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: And this involves setting a timer for 25 minutes, and you don't stop writing until the timer goes off.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: You're not editing, you're not rewriting, you're just getting your ideas down.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: And it's actually pretty amazing what you can accomplish in just 25 minutes with a lot of intense focus.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Surely each of us can find just 25 minutes of time in a day to write.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Second of all, I would recommend using dictation if you're really pressed for time.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: This is actually how I write a lot of material for emails and my own books, at least on a first draft.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: Dictation is terrible for editing and anything like that.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: But just to get some ideas down, this is what I do.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: I take a quick walk in the neighborhood and I have a few points written down that I want to talk about.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: Or sometimes I just have one idea and then I open up the notes app on my iPhone and I speak what I'm thinking and it automatically transcribes it.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I actually showed this to somebody else just last week how this works.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know how it works on an Android phone or another kind of phone, but if you're using an iPhone, open up the notes app and then instead of typing, it's you know, when it brings up the keyboard, hit the microphone icon in the lower right hand corner of the screen instead of typing, and it will transcribe whatever you speak.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's actually really accurate and quite a magical thing.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, technology is a wonderful thing, it works really, really well.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: I use it constantly.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: Now, my third suggestion is very simple, but it's hard to do, and that is just say no to some things.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: Say no to things like extra meetings that aren't really that important or that you don't want to do or that are unnecessary.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: Say no to some Netflix shows.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: Say no to uh maybe one of your hobbies for just a season or something else.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: I think no is the most magical word in the English language.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: So if you want to find more writing time, something has got to go.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: If you're gonna add something in, something else has to go.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: You can't squeeze everything into 24 hours a day.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: So something's gotta go, even if it's just a temporary uh exclusion in your life.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Karen, thanks so much for this question.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: I hope that these suggestions are helpful to you.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: I would recommend just picking one and giving that a try and seeing how it works.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: I know you can do it.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: These tips really work for me.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: I use them all the time, and I know that they're gonna be helpful for you too as well.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thanks for listening.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: Keep writing and keep showing up, and I'll see you tomorrow.