by Lindsey P. Brackett @lindsbrac

People crack me up when they ask how I “do it all.” I’m pretty sure if these same people were a fly on my wall, they’d:

a) have full run of the house because I’m too busy to buy a fly swatter.

b) realize pretty quickly, I’m definitely not doing it all.

What am I doing with my time?

What I am doing is a lot of little things that take up a lot of precious time. Some of these things help fund my writing. Some of these things help keep my sanity. A few of these things are because I’m still unable to use the word no to my best advantage.

And all the people-pleasers just whispered, “Amen.”

However, as my career grows, so do my commitments. I launched my first book and suddenly social media, marketing, and networking have become black vortexes of time. I’ll sit at my computer for three hours, look up, and realize I only accomplished one or two items on my Bullet Journal daily task list. (Canva is the culprit, I’m sure.)

There’s a Time for Everything

I’m realizing pretty quickly I can’t go through life chained to my computer. There’s a time for “butt in chair, hands on keyboard”—and there’s a time for scrolling and posting and sharing. There’s also a time for walking and reading and cooking and showering. The trick is to realize:

Your time does not manage you. You manage your time.

I like to work in big chunks, so as my needs migrate, I’m muddling through a new system. I’m constantly self-evaluating, and I’m having to remind my task list that this thirty minutes of self-reflection is going to help me work more efficiently in the future.

Three questions to ask yourself as you manage your time:

1. When do I feel most creative?
2. What finished tasks bring me joy?
3. What’s my return on investment (ROI)?

I’m at my most creative in the early morning hours, so right now I’m using those to work through my WIP and get it ready to send to my editor. I love teaching and connecting with other writers, so I’m changing some of my social media focus to allow time for engagement, rather than only sharing. I’m looking at my marketing techniques and putting my money into passive streams that make sales, but my time into places where I actually get to connect with readers, like libraries and bookstores.

We can all agree, as writers, we’re doing so much more than crafting stories. But I think we can also learn from and support one another so that venturing out into this beautiful busy place doesn’t have to be quite so intimidating. What tips could you share?

Lindsey P. Brackett writes southern fiction infused with her rural Georgia upbringing and Lowcountry roots. Her debut novel, Still Waters, inspired by family summers at Edisto Beach, released in 2017. Called “a brilliant debut” with “exquisite writing,” Still Waters also received 4-stars from Romantic Times and was named Selah Book of the Year in 2018. Connect with Lindsey and get her free newsletter at lindseypbrackett.com or on Instagram @lindseypbrackett where she often shares her favorite BuJo tips.