I often find myself wondering how people achieve balance in their writing time. Of course, “balance” is my eternal struggle, so it makes sense that I’d find a way to work it into this subject! Nearly all of my time writing is devoted to this blog even though there are other projects that have been percolating for a good while.
Although I have writing goals that are time consuming, I have to be realistic about the time I have available right now. And I’m finding that there have been so many benefits to focusing and using my time for my blog.
Practice, practice, practice. Writing is a muscle. The more consistent I am at showing up to the computer, the easier it is to find the words I’m looking for. The more I practice digging into a subject, the easier it is to do the next day. The more I experience the feeling of “this is never going to come together,” and then voila! it does, the longer I’m able to sit with that uncertainty and work through it.
Instant feedback and connection. When I returned my blog hosting to WordPress, it was easier for people to find me and it was amazing how much that has affected my ability to show up and write. It’s encouraging to connect with like-minded people and inspiring to see what other people prioritize and what that allows them to accomplish.
Feeling of accomplishment when I click “publish.” Small projects create such a sense of accomplishment. A blog post with less than 500 words can sometimes come together in less than half an hour and there’s nothing like seeing a streak of days that contained some writing. I can celebrate small successes every day!
Time to think about future writing goals. And of course, giving my brain some free time to think allows my ideas to grow and develop without the pressure of performing, which I always feel. My notebooks are full of ideas that I’ve had and I’m starting to loosely bring them all together.
If I were focused on a larger project, I think the isolation would be the end of me. So even though I want to dive into other projects, I think focusing on my blog is the perfect project for my depth year for all of the reasons listed above. Perhaps next year will be the year of the manuscript; but for now, I’m enjoying my cozy burrow!
What about you? Have you been thinking about or working on another BIG project? How do you balance the time spent on different goals? What makes sense to you?
The Cozy Burrow 
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