How to Balance Writing and Life

Last updated on July 14th, 2022 at 08:53 am

Most writers cannot afford to stay home and write all day. The majority of us balance writing with our daily lives, including work, managing a household, and maybe even kids. This can make writing seem like a chore because you’re exhausted. So, how do you balance writing and life?

Create manageable goals

By manageable, I mean achievable. If you’re balancing a lot, writing over a thousand words a day probably isn’t feasible. You don’t want to feel bad for not reaching your goals or to burn out trying to make them. The solution is creating goals for yourself that make sense.

This can take many forms. My personal goal is a minimum of fifteen minutes every day. I personally don’t worry about reaching a certain amount of words every week. They’ll come when they come. I just focus on consistently writing. And sometimes, when it’s been a long, hard day, I change my writing goal to one sentence. Just write one sentence. That can be your goal too. At least one sentence a day. That’s it. Just do it.

Carve out time

This seems like it’s basic, but I want to clarify something. You always see advice that’s like get up a half-hour early! Getting up earlier isn’t necessarily the best thing for everyone. Personally, my brain doesn’t work in the morning. I don’t have enough in me to write. But I work well at night. I can stay up a half-hour later and write. That works for me. I also will sometimes spend my breaks at work writing so that when I get home, and I’m tired, my writing for the day is already done.

Whatever your solution, make sure you’re carving out time to write everything single day. Carve it out, say this is my writing time, and don’t give it up.

Prioritize your writing

Obviously, if you have them, you have to take care of your kids and spend time with your partner. Obviously, you can’t let your sink fill with dishes and not eat dinner. But outside of those things, the basics, prioritize your writing. (And reading.) You have to make the decision that writing is going to be an important part of your life, and then you have to act like it.

It’s not easy to balance writing and life, but it is doable. You just have to be consistent and realistic. If your problem isn’t so much time as motivation, check out my blog post on how to motivate yourself.