Note from the Editor: The following post is taken from Writer’s Time: Management That Works. This program functions with an open enrollment. How do you prioritize your memoir writing time? Time management calls for understanding how you think of yourself and what you are willing to consider as important in your life. It entails becoming conscious […]

Note from the Editor: The following post is taken from Writer’s Time: Management That Works. This program functions with an open enrollment.

How do you prioritize your memoir writing time? Time management calls for understanding how you think of yourself and what you are willing to consider as important in your life. It entails becoming conscious of your priorities.

Prioritize your memoir writing time

While you cannot say “first priority”—prior means first in Latin and there cannot be a “first first”—you can have a number of things that are in first rank in your life:

• your spouse,
• your kids and grandkids,
• your community and
• your memoir. 
You can have several priorities at the same time even if you cannot be involved in every priority concurrently.

You can have several priorities at the same time even if you cannot be involved in every priority concurrently.

Once you decide what your priority is—writing a memoir is our focus in this program and so we presume that your memoir is a priority, time management becomes easier.

Writing becomes what you prioritize in certain moments of your life in order to produce a published memoir.

It’s as easy—and as hard—as that.

With your articulated sense of how important completing your memoir is for you, you no longer slide unconsciously in and out of activities without realizing that your “in and out” is a choice. Instead of whiling away time surfing the Internet or binge-watching episodes of favorite TV series, you choose to manage your time well. That may include actually writing your memoir, but managing your time well may include sweeping the kitchen floor in the evening so that you do not have to do so the next day. Instead, you will be free to sit down to write your memoir.

When writing is a priority, it accedes the first rank of importance in our minds. We re-organize our daily activities to support writing. If that means leaving the breakfast dishes until noon so that you can get to writing immediately—why ever not do that if writing is your priority?

Again, it’s as easy—and as hard—as that.

Unfortunately, we spend time doing unimportant activities which are “in our face.” For instance, “to do” lists—whether on paper or in our minds—often contain tasks that may seem important in the moment, and they may even be shouting at you. Once you articulate your priorities and commit to them, learning to silence this shouting is much easier.

How many tasks in your life keep you awfully busy without adding up to anything of value—certainly not adding up to writing your memoir?

Do you find yourself checking off items on your to-do list all day long and still not feel you have accomplished anything of importance? In other words, you may not have managed your time well in spite of being busy working from a list.

In conclusion

If you would like to learn how to manage and prioritize your memoir writing time, click here to learn about Writer’s Time: Management That Works Program

Action steps you can take today to prioritize your memoir writing time:

• Review a to-do list you wrote recently or make a list of things you did on a recent day
• Which of the things you did might have been done in combination with another activity on a different day?
• What activity got done at the time you believe to be your most efficient time to write? This co-opted your memoir session. Was it worth it?