Pressfield’s always got good stuff, but his piece on Thinking in Blocks of Time  really resonates with me and how I’ve been working lately.

To expand on this a little, here is something I’ve been doing.  I’ve got a lot of stuff to do.  Tons of stuff!  And in the midst of that, my writing I know can suffer.  I have a few projects that I am working on (Dicefighter revision, All is Lost, and something I’m calling “DungeonThing”) and I want to get at least the first two done before Metatopia.

MY old approach would be to say, ok, I’ve got to work on this evry day or on X day or something *completely vague and unhelpful*.

Here’s what I do now:

I write on Dicefighter for 15 minutes a day, and stop when that timer goes off.
I write on All is Lost and DungeonThing for 5 minutes each every day.

The secret for me is that 15 minutes is a productive block of time, but is also an easy block of time to find.  5 minutes is even easier to find and stilol productive.

I am finding it really helpful.  I can see the projects build up every day, and am always amazed at the progress I can make in a week.

On top of that, on the weekend I have chunks of free time.  If I have a ton of energy or more I want to work on with these projects, I can sit for a few hours if that’s what I choose.

I can take advantage of inspiration when I need, but working in these short bursts, lets me keep the creative pressure up so I always have something to write, and also short circuits the brain’s impulse to go “I’ve got no time for that!”  For freelance assignments I have developed a different workflow, but the two complement each other, so I can do both in the same day without feeling like I’ve burnt myself out on creating and writing for the day.
If you have some creative and/or personal project you’re working on, I completely recommend trying this approach.  Tell me how it works for you!