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STILL STRUGGLING WITH FINDING TIME TO WRITE? Take Steven Covey’s sage advice, “Schedule your priorities, don’t prioritize your schedule.”

When I picked up his landmark work, THE SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE, I finally organized the scraps of paper pushed to the back of a kitchen drawer, published and sold my first book, a slim collection of poems, TILTING WINDMILLS. Throughout career changes, intercontinental moves, marriage, parenthood, going back to school, and oh, yes…writing…I’ve used his theoretical framework and practical tools to reach my goals and keep my sanity. I offer them here as one way, not the only way, of managing your time to reach your goals.

I recommend reading his book cover to cover, but in the meantime, here is the crux of his philosophy and how I use his time management system.

First, I wrote a mission statement, identified my main Roles and wrote long and short term Goals for each of them. Role: Writer  Goal: Complete first draft of novel by October 22. This process is described in detail in his book.

Next, I identified what I need to do this year in order to reach those goals. My goals include personal as well as professional success. After all, if I’m not healthy or if I am going through a divorce, I won’t have much energy left to put into my writing. He calls is sharpening the saw.

Next, before I try scheduling anything, I tracked how I was currently spending my time. Place each of my activities into one of the four quadrants. After a week, I made some surprising discoveries about where I was actually spending those valuable hours, minutes and days. In order to reach my personal and professional goals, I needed to spend most of my time in Quadrant 2 – doing the quiet, consistent things that are Important, but not Urgent. If I did that, I wouldn’t have to spend so much time Quadrant 1. Quadrant 1 is fighting fires, Quadrant 2 is fire prevention.

Finally, I was ready to use this knowledge! Knowledge really is power.

Each week I pull out my calendar and my Roles and Goals sheet. I use Week-at-a-Glance, because it has both weekly and monthly views. I ask myself this question, “What do I need to do this week to reach my annual goals?” Simple. I plug those items in first, then let the rest of the week fill itself up-which it always does. If I wait to try to fit in exercise, cleaning fresh vegetables and bagging them up for healthy snacks at work, planning a date with my husband, calling my Dad, keeping up with my grown children, visiting my in-laws, take time to meditate, paint, dance, or garden, my personal health and relationships suffer. There is never any ‘leftover’ time at the end of the week to do these important, but not urgent things.

How does that work for a writer? Well, I also schedule chunks of time to write, but also to research police procedure, take that class, sit at a McDonald’s and listen to natural dialogue, attend that conference or writers group, learn that software program, write 2 blog posts a week, find local book fairs, etc. We are honing our skills as well as producing sentences, paragraphs and chapters.

I still waste time on Facebook. I still sometimes get behind on my writing schedule. But I am aware now, and can pull myself back on course when I fall off the wagon. Because I am so easily distracted, I need a system like this to keep me focused. It works for me – try it and see if it works for you.