Amusingly, the topic for my GYWO discussion post this month was about finding time for writing when you have a busy schedule and lots of other obligations. It’s amusing because I currently have the opposite problem – too much time!

 

I haven’t had any paid work for a few weeks, and I’m discovering that, contrary to what you might expect, having pretty much all the time in the world to dedicate to my own creative projects isn’t proving particularly helpful…

 

In fact, I think my motivation is at the lowest ebb it’s been at for a very long while…

 

Having paid work, with external obligations and deadlines, forces me to create a robust schedule for my days. And allocating ‘work’ time in the mornings gets me up and ready to be productive. I often find, after editing someone else’s work for a few hours, I’m quite enthused by the idea of setting aside time for my own writing, so I usually schedule my own projects for the afternoons of my work days.

 

But not having any paid work for a few weeks in a row has very much eroded that sense of a productive schedule and has left me drifting a bit, with little motivation to organise my time and get on with the things I now have plenty of time to focus on.

 

Oh no, you’re probably thinking, woe is you, having all this free time… And you’re right – I’m very lucky in a lot of ways. And it does feel childish to be complaining about having too much time on my hands.

 

I’ve never considered myself to be a person who defines their identity by their paid work. But, expectedly, part of my brain is spiralling into a somewhat depressive state, where it’s wondering what the point is of trying to achieve anything, when I haven’t got any ‘real’ work to do. This has taken me rather by surprise, and I’m battling against that feeling – whilst also considering that enjoying some down time and not putting pressure on myself to be achieving things all the time might be no bad thing…

 

But as it always the case – it’s about finding some balance. If drifting around, not really doing anything intentional with my time is proving detrimental, rather than beneficial, I think it would be helpful to reintroduce some structure into my routine and start setting myself more concrete goals about what I want to achieve each day.

 

My handy to-do lists are ready and waiting to help me out. And I also have a set of lovely friends and other writers who attend online focus sessions with me on a twice-weekly basis, which is also assisting with some structure and motivation.

 

And perhaps, after finishing the first draft of my seventh book in February, it’s okay to take a break from the bigger projects for a while. Maybe, once my paid work picks up again, it will become clearer which of those projects is still important to me and I’ll have a better sense of where I want to go next with my writing.