by Bethany Jett @BetJett

“How do you get it all done?”

Ever been asked? There’s not really a good answer.

Honestly, I never know what to say, so I usually give a chuckle and an exasperated “I don’t get it all done!” or “My husband helps a lot.” Sometimes it’s just a simple shrug and one word, “God.”

I don’t really know how I get it all done because it’s never all done. There are always loads of laundry to do. There may not be any in the queue right now, but by noon tomorrow, we’re ready to drop in a Tide tab and pull the water knob. The kitchen sink may be clean overnight, but three growing boys can dirty dishes faster than I can blink.

How do we meet deadlines for blog posts, books, school, work, and family needs?

Where do we find the time to write?

The advice that great writers and bestselling authors give when talking about writing is usually the same. It sounds great if writing is your only job and you’re not worried about income because your books are bringing in thousands in royalties. What about for the poor-man’s John Grisham?

From an overwhelmed mom of three, let’s talk about how to realistically fit in writing time, using the same advice from my real-life and virtual-online mentors.

1. Burn the candle.

We don’t need to stay up late AND get up early, although there are seasons in our life where this is exactly what we have to do. This isn’t popular advice, and probably where I get the most fallback when I say it out loud on a webinar or a conference.

This is the statement where people take a step back and subconsciously shake their head at me. Yet the truth of the matter is this: sometimes you have to stay up late and sometimes you have to get up early, even if you don’t feel like it. Not because you want to, but because something inside of you makes you.

When my husband left vocational ministry after ten years, God allowed us to endure over a year of waiting for our next step. We jokingly called it “The Year of the Suck.” Sometimes we didn’t know where the rent money was coming from. We learned to be grateful for tortillas and soup, of all things.

Justin was working full time in entry level positions, going to school at night part-time, and working military drill duty once a month while I was finishing my last year of college, homeschooling three little boys, working from home, and adjusting to the loneliness of moving away from the life we’d created for over a decade. I took every freelance opportunity I could find, and even started a business from scratch, which was the scariest thing in the world.

It was a season of super late nights and really early mornings, but when your back is against the wall, you do what you have to do. It’s amazing how God will give you strength to burn the candle at whichever end you need to. Even if it’s both.

2. Scale back.

This is another hard one. I was working as a Virtual Assistant (VA) for over a year for a client. I was making $15 an hour, but I wasn’t working as many hours as I needed to. I was also “on call” with emails from clients all over the U.S., so it kept me tied to my computer and while I liked my client very much, it was a bit stressful. But I held on to that job as long as possible because I was grateful for the little bit of money each week. It was usually grocery money or money that I didn’t feel so guilty spending on the “extras.” I saw it as a gift from God.

However, when I finally let go, I was able to take what I’d learned and really focus on starting my own freelance business. I knew where my skills were because I’d been practicing them. Once I let go, I created margin in my schedule, and God blessed my letting go of what was good by giving me the opportunity for something better.

It’s okay to say no. It’s okay to let go of volunteer opportunities. It’s okay to let someone else step in your shoes and fill your role. Sometimes God has something bigger for us, but we’re holding on so tightly to something else that we can’t accept the blessing.

3. Find the in-betweens.

If you have a laptop, there’s little excuse for not writing. Guess what! The kitchen counter is the perfect height to act like a stand-up desk. Take advantage of the time when the water is boiling, or something’s heating up in the oven, to write a first draft, or start editing something you’ve already started.

You don’t have to write four drafts in one sitting. We need to let our words have a break so they can simmer in our hearts and marinate in our minds. Getting a couple hundred words out at a time may not make them great words, but they give you a baseline when you can spare twenty minutes to edit your work.

A friend of mine is a single mom working two jobs and going to school full-time. How does she do it? Honestly, she writes all of her term papers on her phone during her breaks. She doesn’t have access to a computer during the day, so she uses her iPhone Notes application.

And she’s got a 4.0 GPA.

It’s amazing what we can do when we are truly motivated and have this burning itch inside of us to accomplish something. And if the burning desire and motivation aren’t there…we sit and write anyway, because the discipline of the work is crucial for us to grow.

Get Up Early Tips…

If you want to get up early…

• Join a A 5am club.  A lot of people work full-time jobs and this extra hour in the morning allows them to work on their side hustle. It’s a great place to be accountable.
• Use a sleep app on your phone to wake you up at the optimum time. The Sleep Cycle app senses when you’re in your REM stages and sets off the alarm at the peak of your restful state. If you want to be up at 5 AM, it will wake you up as close to 5 AM as possible at the highest point of light sleep.
• Go to bed early. I love drinking Tart Cherry Juice Concentrate mixed into 8 oz of water before bed. The natural melatonin makes me sleepy and my joints and muscles are less sore in the morning if I worked out that day. SleepyTime Tea by Celestial Seasonings is also great, and if you can handle it, SleepyTime Extra has valerian in it. Take it with a little honey and you should fall asleep nicely.

How do you create margin in your day?

Bethany Jett is an award-winning author of The Cinderella Rule, speaker, ghostwriter, and founder of JETTsetter Ink, a consulting and editing company. She has written for numerous publications, created the My Moments Planner, Serious Writer Companion, and is the founder of Serious Writer Academy and the Build Your Brand Program.

Bethany is a military wife and all-boys-mama who is addicted to suspense novels and all things girly. Connect with her at BethanyJett.com, Facebook, and Twitter.