Maybe you love telling people about it, or maybe you’re keeping mum — either way, you can’t stop thinking about how amazing it will be when you finally start working on it.

But for some reason, you just haven’t taken the first step.

Sometimes we put off getting started on passion projects because we’re waiting for just the right time, when we’ll have the energy or the spare time to tackle it. You know: After the kids go to college, or after you meet that big deadline at work.

Why your passion project doesn’t have to wait

Meanwhile, we end up ignoring all these fabulous little fragments of time we do have throughout our days, while we’re waiting for the dentist or checking Facebook on our lunch breaks.

Sure, it would be great to have generous amounts of uninterrupted time every afternoon to draft your novel or work on your magnum opus, but if you put off getting started until “the right moment,” you may never get started at all.

Here are five small steps you can take to light a fire under your passion project today.

1. Visualize why it matters — and then commit

What’s so special to you about this project? What makes it so important that you’re willing to give up staying current on the latest TV series, or say no to happy hour?

If you can identify why completing this project is so important to you, you can hold it like a beacon of light when darkness and frustration threaten to close in.

Many of us have multiple dream projects and boundless optimism about how much we can actually accomplish. Maybe dreams of writing your grandmother’s recipes into a cookbook are warring with visions of that screenplay you’ve been dying to write. Maybe you’ve thought of starting a blog, but you also have a seven-book fantasy series plucking at your attention.

Trying to work on all these projects at once will just result in none of them getting done.

Some day you might get to them all, but right now, you need to commit to the one that feels most important.

Write down the name of your project and the reason it’s so important to you, and put it where you’ll see it regularly.

2. Get organized

The thing about passion projects is so often they’re very, very big. We’re not talking “bake a cake,” we’re talking “open a bakery.” We’re not talking “write an email to grandma,” we’re talking “write a novel.”

In the face of projects that will span multiple months — and maybe even years — it’s easy to get caught standing like a deer in the headlights, frozen by just how much will be required to get it done.

It’s time to get organized. Create a new file or open a new notebook (I like to create a new Evernote folder). Now, and over the next few weeks, it’s time to brainstorm everything you know about your project:

• What research will you need to do?
• Can your research be broken down into several parts or phases?
• Will you need to enlist anyone’s help?
• What materials do you need to get started?
• Do you need to learn any new skills?

By dumping your project out of your brain and onto paper, it becomes more than just a dream. Now it’s something you’re actually doing.

3. Make a plan…

Start organizing your brain dump into action steps, breaking down every element into bite-sized chunks.

Every project is made up of building blocks: Novels can be broken into chapters, chapters into scenes, scenes into beats. It’s time to find the building blocks of your own passion project.

The best way to make a plan for completing your dream project is to get as granular as possible until you have a list of discrete, actionable tasks.

For example, one aspect of your goal to turn your hobby travel blog into a memoir that’s ready to pitch to agents might be to network with other writes who know how to write a memoir. It’s an important task, but it’s not an actionable goal.

Break it down into its components: Smaller tasks like identifying five memoirists you want to meet and becoming an active commenter on their blogs; or joining a popular weekly Twitter chat.

4. …Then make a schedule

Once you know what steps you need to take, build project time into your schedule. It’s not enough just to wish for the time. If you really want to do it, you need to make the time.

Treat your passion project time as sacred. You wouldn’t put off a job interview or dinner with your best friend because the house needed cleaning, so don’t let that get in the way of your project progress, either.

Remember, you don’t always need a big window of time! You’d be surprised how much you can get done in five minutes here in 30 minutes there — “throw away” time you might currently waste scrolling through your phone or checking your email (again and again).

Instead, why not give yourself the gift of using those spare minutes to work on your project?

5. Write something

You didn’t think I was going to let you get away with just planning, did you?

Research and planning are deceptively productive. You may need to know the history of the Chinese banking system in order to write that scene, but it’s way too easy to spiral into a Wikipedia rabbit hole once you’ve found the information you need, taking more and more notes but never actually writing.

Don’t wait for the day when you get to retire into a beautiful cabin in the woods or attend a writers retreat without any other obligations. Don’t wait for the muse to come visit. Don’t wait for a more flexible job to come along, or the weather to get better, or the house to be completely spotless.

If you ever truly want to finish your passion project, you need to train yourself to write even when there is no muse, even when there is no babbling brook, even when you’re tired, even when you only have five minutes.

If you can write 300 words in half an hour and you do that every single day, at the end of the year you will most certainly have the first draft of a novel.

What one thing will you do today toward your dream project? Tell us in the comments!

This is an updated version of a story that was previously published. We update our posts as often as possible to ensure they’re useful for our readers.

Photo via nd3000 / Shutterstock 

That’s a common approach — but it can also be exhausting, creatively.

I’ve been feeling the creative burnout lately, so I picked up Productivity for Creative People by Mark McGuinness. It’s a great book, but one section in particular really struck me. He talks about creating a sustainable workload by figuring out what ongoing work you have to do (client work, family obligations, recurring tasks) — this forms your base time obligations.

Then, in your extra time, work on a project.

One project.

McGuinness defines a project as anything requiring a large chunk of sustained work. That could be planning for an event (book launch, speech, conference), building an asset (writing your novel, creating a website, blogging), or clearing your backlog (dealing with piled up emails, errands, or housekeeping tasks).

Rather than using my method of bouncing distractedly from project to project, McGuinness limits himself to one project at a time, then works through it until he’s done. Rather than trying to herd a whole mess of basketballs toward the other side of the court in one go, McGuinness takes one ball, dribbles it down, shoots and scores before jogging back to pick up the next ball.

When you’re spread too thin, it’s hard to do your best work. Of course, life still gets messy, but keeping the principle of one project at a time in mind can help you create better art, work more quickly, and stay energized.

Find your priority

What’s the most important thing on your plate right now? Not just the most pressing — what will make the biggest impact on your career or life right now?

That’s your main priority.  

Of course, chances are you have a dozen other obligations that need to happen, too. You may be faced with multiple deadlines or an overabundance of client work. Doing this work may take greater priority from day to day, but your big priority project should always be chugging along in the background.

Even if you have multiple responsibilities or deadlines, try to stick with the One Project approach as much as possible.

What that means for me is that I now spend larger amounts of time working on a specific task until completion, rather than trying to accomplish work for five different clients in one day. I’ll generally choose two pressing client projects per day, and spend the morning working on one and the afternoon working on the other.

Commit the time

Remember that overarching priority we just talked about? Even if it can’t be your daily priority, commit a few minutes each day to making progress.

One thing I realized a few weeks ago is that the root of my recent creative block is that I’ve been waiting for a mythical huge chunk of time to materialize so I can work on my novel. In that waiting, I’ve written nothing.

Finally, I decided simply to take 30 minutes every day and work on it first thing before I do anything else. It’s been a fairly easy resolution to keep, and even though I’m only writing 300-500 words a day, that’s 300-500 more words than I was doing last month!

If you can’t find 30 minutes, I know you can find 15. Commit to spending that time on your big project, no matter how hectic life gets. Then, even when life seems crazy, you’re making progress where it really counts.

Commit to going deep

Sometimes you can’t help but be spread thin — there’s simply too many demands on your time.

But skipping shallowly along won’t make it better. In fact, it’ll just make you feel like you’re being pulled in too many directions at once.

When you need to blast through a daunting pile of projects, commit to going deep. Rather than taking shallow sips from each project, turn off the internet, take a deep breath and practice focusing on the task at hand until it’s done.

I like to make myself a visual reminder to work deeply, like putting a Post-it note on my laptop screen, or tying a piece of yarn around my wrist. That way when I have the urge to zip over to social media for a minute, I’m reminded of my commitment.

This is much harder than it should be (for me, at least!) But it’s also an incredibly satisfying practice.

Avoid getting spread thin in the future: Keep a list of “no”s

The best way to not be overwhelmed today is to have said no to half your obligations earlier — obviously. This tip may not help you if you’re already spread thin, but Future You will love you for doing this.  

Start keeping a list of things you say no to. I simply don’t take on certain types of copywriting projects, for example. I’ve also stopped taking on clients if I don’t love their company’s mission. In addition to client work I say no to, I also have a much messier list of personal projects I say no to. A few weeks ago I came up with an amazing anthology idea, which got a great response from friends who wanted to submit to it. When I told my husband, he said, “I have two words for you: Stay focused.”

Don’t worry. It’s going in my back pocket.

How can you tell what to say “no” to?

I can’t remember where I first heard this phrase, but this sums it up for me: Only say yes to what “feels light.” What’s your gut is telling you when you consider this project. Does it fill you with energy and joy? Does it make you feel leaden? If you sit quietly with the decision, can you hear a little voice in the back of your head screaming “noooooooooooooo!”?

Remember: You don’t do your best creative work when you’re spread too thin. Try picking one project and staying with it until completion — or at least until your creativity is telling you its time to change gears.

If you could pick one project to work on today that would have the biggest long-term positive effects on your life or creative business, what would it be?

After that intimate and solitary process, it can be nerve-wracking to ask others for feedback.

Even when we’re less invested in a project — say, a quick blog post for a client — it can still sting to receive criticism.

Although feedback is incredibly valuable, I still find this part of the writing process to be terrifying whether I’m writing an article for a client or sharing my novel with a beta reader.

Most writers will have to deal with negative feedback about their work throughout their careers, and that’s a good thing! Hearing thoughtful criticism on your work is what helps you learn how to become a better writer — but only if you’re receptive to it.

First things first: Change your mindset

Before you receive your next round of criticism, practice thinking of feedback as a gift.

Every time someone comments on your work, good or bad, it makes your writing stronger. It’s not a negative reflection on you, it’s an opportunity to become a better writer.

Plus, thoughtful feedback isn’t easy to give. If you’ve found a thorough first reader, an insightful editor or a client who’s really able to articulate their needs and collaborate during the writing process, cherish their involvement! It really is a gift to work with people like that.

After I consciously focused on shifting my own mindset about difficult feedback, I began to look forward to honest criticism — and even to solicit it from clients, editors, and beta readers.

Once you’re prepared with a positive mindset about negative feedback, here’s how to deal with it in the moment.

Step 1: Take a deep breath

It’s okay if your first response is anger, frustration or guilt — that’s completely natural. But what you shouldn’t do is stew in that emotion, or let it direct your response.  

Take a deep breath, then spend a few moments collecting your thoughts. If you have time,  take a walk, call a friend, or do something fun to otherwise distract yourself. After you’ve cleared your head, come back and consider your response.

Step 2: Vet your source

Not all critics are created equal, and not all feedback should be taken to heart.

When you’re first starting out, you may not have developed your own internal compass. You may be overly confident in your work, or give too much weight to someone who doesn’t really know what they’re talking about.

As you become a better writer, you develop a stronger personal rudder to help you self-edit and navigate feedback — but even when you know someone’s wrong it can still send you into a tizzy.

I once had a beta reader for a novella tell me only that she didn’t like it, and it didn’t make any sense. When I pressed her for more specific criticism, she said she didn’t have time to clarify.

Obviously not helpful, but just ask my husband about how I spent the next 24 hours stewing over whether or not I was a good writer!

Step 3: Categorize what you’re hearing

Once you’ve had a chance to cool down, go through the feedback again and try to understand exactly what you’re being told.

Is it a problem with how you are handling the topic? Do you need to tweak the voice? Did you not understand the assignment? If you’re writing fiction, is the problem with your story, your characters or your prose?

Taking this step will help you understand exactly how to fix the problem. At first glance it can often seem like everything is wrong — but when you start to categorize the feedback you’ll often see there are only one or two small things that need changed.

Step 4: Ask for clarification

Even if you think you completely understand the feedback, take a few minutes to make sure you’re on the same page. You may want to summarize the changes the person is asking for in an email, or hop on the phone to talk it through.

This is especially helpful if the feedback is from a client or editor — communicating with your clients can avoid future rounds of rewrites by clarifying things before diving into editing.

Do you have any favorite tips for dealing with difficult feedback? Let us know in the comments.

Nope — first, I set up an Evernote folder expressly for that project.

Haven’t heard of Evernote?

It’s a free app that lets you collect about a half-dozen types of notes (text, screenshots, photos, voice memos and more), organizing them with tags and folders so you never lose anything. Whether you’re working on a novel, your blog, or work for clients, Evernote can shave tons of hassle and friction from your writing process.

You can access your notes three ways: through a program on your computer, through any web browser or through a smartphone app. Your notes sync across all your devices, so you always have access to everything from your grocery list to your novel notes.

I affectionately refer to Evernote as my “exobrain.”

One reason I love Evernote is because it’s so adaptable to anyone’s writing process.

Here’s a quick Evernote guide with five ways I use it for every writing project.

1. Collect research

From learning about flintlock pistols for your steampunk zombie novel to tracking down statistics for an article on immigration, writing requires research.

This is what Evernote was born for.

Whenever you come across internet research pertinent to your project, you can save it directly into a project folder in Evernote with the web clipper extension for your browser. Photos, articles, bookmarks and even screenshots all sync into the program without having to leave your browser.

Evernote even has a feature on the smartphone app that allows you to quickly snap photos — of the cover of a book you want to read later, scenery that’s perfect for world building, you name it.

Need to capture written text? The “page camera” feature is optimized for handwriting or typed content.

2. Gather your thoughts and find inspiration

When you’re a writer, the world’s fair game, right?

We take inspiration where we can get it — and Evernote is perfect for quickly capturing ideas and epiphanies in the moment.

I used to jot down interesting ideas I didn’t know what to do with on scraps of paper and throw them in an ideas file folder. Odd character quirks, overheard scraps of dialogue, photographs of fascinating places, and ideas for stories I wanted to pitch to magazines all lived in a chaotic, unsearchable mess.

As often as not, though, those little scraps of paper also ended up going through the wash or getting tossed out by accident.

Now, I write them directly into Evernote in an inspiration file that I can visit whenever I’m looking for a little creative boost. Plus, it’s searchable, and I can tag ideas with things like “character” or “article” so I can easily find the right category later.

You can even leave yourself a voice memo if you don’t have time to type.

3. Work on the go

Stop logging onto social media to kill time, and start using Evernote instead to write a few hundred words on your latest project.

While some writers enjoy drafting in Evernote, I prefer typing up scenes and then pasting them into my Scrivener file when I’m back at my laptop. Evernote isn’t bad to write full drafts in, though — it has most of the same features you would find in a dedicated word processor, including fonts, alignments and styles.

You can also fill those spare minutes by reading through some of the research articles you may have clipped from the web, saving to read later.

4. Organize your edits

If you’re working on a larger project — whether that’s a novel, memoir or feature article — there are a lot of balls to juggle. Particularly when it comes to the editing stage.

I tend to use Evernote a lot during the editing process, creating checklists for myself of problems I need to fix, or continuity issues I need to watch out for. This lets me jot down any thoughts I have (like the need to check the color of a character’s eyes, or add references to an event earlier in the story) without breaking my writing workflow.

When I get ready to do an editing pass, I categorize all of those tasks, then check them off the list as I fix them.

5. Collaborate with others

If your writing requires any sort of collaboration, Evernote makes it easy to share what you’re working on.

Along with the ability to share notes and folders, Evernote also offers a dressed-down chat platform that allows you to converse about what you’re working on.

Then, instead of looking through your email, text messages, or Slack to find out what conversations you had about a certain subject, they’re all saved (and searchable) in your Evernote.

Have you tried Evernote to streamline your writing process? What are your favorite tips and tricks?

Fortunately, there are some really great organizations offering funding to writers all over the world.

Here are eight awesome grants for international writers, along with a whole slew of resources to help you find grants more specific to your region or niche (like journalism or academia). Now, go put your best foot forward and apply for funding for your writing!

1. Speculative Literature Foundation

The SLF currently offers four grants, all open to international writers: The Older Writers’ Grant, the Travel Grant, the Working Class Writers Grant, and the Diversity Grant. The amounts are small — all under $1000 — and are designed to be a “gateway grant” for speculative fiction writers.

Deadlines vary according to each grant.

2. The Awesome Foundation

Kristen Pope noted The Awesome Foundation in her list of grants for U.S.-based writers.

The Foundation consists of fully autonomous chapters committed to giving out $1000 micro-grants to “awesome projects” each month. There are chapters throughout the world, and artists are also welcome to apply for “worldwide” grants if they don’t have a local chapter.

Feeling philanthropic? You could start your own chapter, too!

3. Don and Gerel Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting

Open to new or amateur screenwriters based anywhere in the world, this competition has been running since 1986. It awards up to five fellowships of $35,000 each year, and fellowship winners are expected to complete one full screenplay during that time.

To enter, screenwriters must submit a feature-length screenplay and pay an entry fee (scaling from $45 to $82). The final deadline for 2016 was in May; check back for 2017 dates.

4. Brown University International Writers Project Fellowship

This fellowship is presented each year to an established international poet or fiction writer unable to practice his or her craft with free expression in their home country. The fellowship, worth $45,000, pays travel and living expenses; it also provides an office on the Brown University campus for 10 months. The deadline for 2016 was in February; visit the website for 2017 details and guidelines.

5. FT/OppenheimerFunds Emerging Voices Awards

This award offers a prize of $40,000 to a writer in Africa or the Middle East of “extraordinary artistic talent” for a work of fiction published in English.

The 2016 awards were granted in September; check back on the website to find submission deadlines for 2017.

6. Miles Morland Foundation

The MMF awards a small number of writing scholarships each year, with the intention of allowing the receiving writer time to complete the first draft of his or her book. The grant is available to anyone who was born in Africa, or both of whose parents were born in Africa.

The writer must be working in English. This year’s applications are due by October 31, 2016.

7. John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation

The Guggenheim Foundation offers fellowships to mid-career writers, open to citizens and permanent residents of the United States and Canada. Approximately 200 fellowships are awarded every year, and the amount of the grants vary according to the number of awards given. Applications for 2017 were just due; mark your calendars to visit the site next year for 2018.

In years past the award has been available to citizens and permanent residents of Latin America and the Caribbean; with any luck they’ll reopen that category again.

8. NSW

This early career fellowship awards $30,000 to a new Australian writer to allow him or her to “ undertake a self-directed program of professional development.” This includes travel, mentorships, workshops and courses, research, collaboration, and “experimentation.” The deadline for 2016 was in March, but keep your eye on the website for next year.

More international grant resources and niche writing resources

Looking for more opportunities to apply for grants? Check these resources:

International:

• TransArtists: Run by Dutch Culture, this website lets you search for international artist-in-residence programs.
• Global Investigative Journalism Network: Maintains a list of grants and fellowships for journalists throughout the world.
• Funds for Writers: A list of funds (mainly residencies) around the world. Many of the opportunities listed are open to international writers.
• Creative Resistance Fund: Grants, prizes, and emergency help for writers around the world facing persecution for their art.
• European Cultural Partnership: Lists writing contests, residency opportunities, and more available both internationally and to EU residents.

Africa:

• Opportunities For Africans: A database of grants, scholarships, and opportunities for Africans in all fields.
• African Poetry Book Fund: Prizes for African poets at various stages of their careers.

Australia:

• New South Wales Writers’ Centre: offers a number of grants for Australian writers.
• Calendar for Writers Australian Funding & Grant Resources: Lists grants for Australian writers.

Canada:

• Canada Council for the Arts: Lists a variety of grants available to residents of Canada. This includes grants especially for professional writers, aboriginal peoples, and spoken word artists, and others.

International writers, which opportunities would you add to this list?

Hi, my name is Jessie, and I’m a writer.

I can nail thriller scenes for novels, attention-grabbing article ledes, and persuasive product descriptions.

Yet one form of writing repeatedly eludes me: business emails.

Especially emails that involve my nemesis… negotiating.

Negotiation is an important skill for writers — freelancers dealing with prospective clients, novelists dealing with editors, indie writers hiring cover designers, and anyone who’s ever tried to organize a coffee date with a colleague.  

It seems like negotiating would be easier via email than in person or over the phone, especially for us writer types. After all, you can take the time to craft every sentence and make sure your point is clear and polite, right?

And yet it can be devilishly hard.

Jessie’s Big Deal: a case study

I recently went through a high-stakes negotiation with a prospect, which involved some of the biggest numbers I’ve ever quoted. In a panic over every word, I read my email drafts out loud to my husband, who works in sales.

His verdict? My writing sucked.

In my quest to be polite, he explained, I was weakening my position and opening the door for my prospect to walk all over my quote.

My first email went something like this:

Hi Prospect,

Thanks so much for getting in touch! I’d love to talk with you more about how we might work together. It sounds like what you’re looking for is [Project]. Based on [Variable 1] and [Variable 2] I feel like [My Proposal] might be a good way to proceed. My normal rate for work like that ranges from [$ to $$]. I think I’d need to know more about [Variable 3] before I could narrow that down. I hope that sounds all right to you. If so, let’s chat.

Cheers!

Jessie

“Is that nice enough?” I asked my husband, who was rolling his eyes. “Is it polite? Is it getting my point across? Am I quoting too much?”

After going back and forth about the wording for about 10 minutes, my husband finally asked if he could just write the email for me.

My husband’s email read, in a nutshell:

Prospect,

Thank you for getting in touch. Based on [Variable 1] and [Variable 2], my rate would be between [$ and $$]. Please let me know how you would like to proceed.

Jessie

The polite writer in me was appalled at his directness and lack of flowery ornamentation. But I had to admit, it would be much harder to walk all over my proposal in that email than my original version.

I touched up his version with a bit of my personality, but the lesson was clear: My tendency to hedge my bets was killing the negotiating power of my emails.

Minimize “minimizing language” for stronger emails

To show respect, many writers tend to use language that weakens their position. They aim for deference and end up timid. It’s part politeness, part impostor syndrome — and 100-percent bad for business.

The good news is that, like in my email above, it all comes down to a few problem phrases that you can learn to recognize and edit out. Business experts call it “minimizing language.”

It often sounds more polite to avoid direct statements. That’s why we say things like, “I think we need to turn left at the light,” instead of simply telling the driver to turn left.

Observe how the following deferential statements can be strengthened:

• “It seems like 3 p.m. would be a good time to meet up for me.” —> “Let’s meet at 3 p.m.”
• “I feel like [$$] would be a good rate for that type of work.” —> “My rate is [$$] for that type of work.”
• “I think I’d like to see a second draft by the end of the day.” —> “Please send me a second draft by the end of the day.”

In my original email, I used phrases like “sounds like” and “I feel like” to soften sentences that should have been direct statements. After all, it didn’t “sound like” my prospect was looking for a certain type of service; he was looking for that service.

“Do you ‘feel like’ making this proposal, or are you going to make it?” my husband asked. “Do you ‘think’ you need to know more about [Variable 3] before you can make a more accurate quote, or do you need to know it?”

Phrases like these introduce doubt in the mind of your reader and undermine your authority, but they’re not the only culprits.

“Just” is another insidious phrase that undermines everything around it. Look at how its inclusion in each of these sentences makes their meaning sound so insignificant:

• “I just have a few pages to read from my new story collection.”
• “I just want you to know…”
• “I’m just calling to check in on…”
• “My new novel? Oh, it’s just a story about…”
• “Hi, it’s just me.”

You should also keep an eye out for reassuring tag lines: phrases that go on the end of a sentence to soften its directness and ask for reassurance. Look out for phrases like:

• “OK?”
• “Don’t you think?”
• “Isn’t it?”
• “All right?”

When in doubt, throw out your English degree

Tana French’s gorgeous prose and Margaret Atwood’s intricate sentence structures make for a wonderful reading experience – but in a business email, simple is better.

Take a look at my email examples from above again. In the first email, I was hiding my basic message — “here’s my quote, give me a call” — in a whole novel’s worth of subordinate phrases. That kind of email makes it harder for the recipient to know exactly what I’m saying and what I expect in response.

Clarity is critical whether you’re hoping the response will be “You’re hired” or “Great, I’ll meet you then!”

Next time you’re writing a business email, swap your writer hat out for your salesperson hat and cut out the fluff.

I just feel like you’ll probably get better results if you do, don’t you think?

How have your negotiation skills changed as you’ve gained experience writing?

In those early days, I was working part-time at a desk job, part-time as a waitress, and picking up an increasing number of freelance clients as I built my business.

The way I took breaks was by running as hard as I could into my own mental wall until I was too exhausted to work anymore. Then my body shut me down by getting sick.

It took more of these mental meltdowns then I’d like to admit to get me to think about adding regular self-care into my life.

But eventually, I got the message.

At this point in my life, self-care and time management are becoming an obsession as I realize taking care of myself lets me get more done while living a more-balanced life.

Self-care: Because your writing brain needs to breathe

It’s been months since I’ve had a major meltdown, but I still have a lot to learn. That’s why I called Ken Scholes.

Scholes is a writer with whom I’ve taken several classes. He wears a lot of creative hats as an award-winning fantasy author, musician, consultant, and father. Throughout his creative endeavors and all the curveballs life has thrown his way, Scholes’s commitment to self-care has always really struck a chord with me.

While for years I’ve viewed taking care of my own needs as a secondary to getting the work done, Scholes told me adamantly over coffee that working on your own issues come first.

“[Authors and writing instructors] Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith told me at a workshop once that if you want to fix the problems in your writing life, you need to address the problems in your personal life,” he said. “The part of me that tells stories is the same part of me that solves complex problems. You can’t write a detective novel about solving a murder when you’ve got a murder to solve in your living room.”

Time is one of the most precious resources any of us have. And that feeling of time scarcity is what had led me to slot self-care firmly on the bottom of my list of priorities.

How could I possibly waste time going for a walk, reading a novel, or — heaven forbid — goofing off when there was so much work to be done?

But wasn’t my refusal to take time for myself just creating time-consuming health problems, not to mention stifling my writing?

How should we, as writers, create a foundational practice of self-care?

First, understand that writing requires mental and physical space

I can tell when I’m rushing through a project, whether on a piece of fiction or an assignment for  a client.

My prose and ideas will seem shallow. Uninspired. Not only that, but my satisfaction with my work takes a hit because I know I could be doing better.

Writing is hard mental work, and it requires a certain amount of space to be done well, said Scholes. “Going for a walk is writing,” he said. “Doing the dishes is writing. Sitting and talking with another writer about self-care is writing. It’s not just creating words, it’s creating the space in your head for story to emerge, that Goldilocks belt where life sparks up. It’s way more than typing words because you have no words to type if you have not lived any life.”

For Scholes, that means both a mental space free from distraction, and also a physical space free from clutter. “If you have a clutter you’re living in, then everything becomes urgent and you can’t find anything important,” he said. “Reducing clutter becomes a part of that self-care.”

Schedule time for play

Procrastination expert Neil Fiore suggests in his book The Now Habit that people who schedule playtime are more likely not to procrastinate on their work projects than people who never let themselves enjoy fun until after the work is finished.

But for writers, scheduling play isn’t just about avoiding procrastination. It’s about keeping your mind fresh and limber so you can come to your creative work productively.

Before you fill in the time blocks in your workweek, schedule treats for yourself. Maybe it’s as simple as half hour to watch an episode of your favorite TV show, or walk around the block — or as generous as an afternoon spent at the movie theater or out hiking.

Scholes sometimes finds his own creativity by staging photo shoots with his extensive collection of Batman figures in his daughters’ dollhouse while they’re at school. “There’s a little four-year old inside of me that needs to be turned loose,” he said. “He’s the one that comes up with awesome stories to tell.”

Manage your priorities, both in work and in life

The Eisenhower Method of time management (championed by Stephen Covey in his book, First Things First) categorizes tasks into a 2×2 matrix based on whether they are urgent/not urgent and important/unimportant.

Most of the time, self-care doesn’t fall into the urgent category, which is why it can easily fall to the wayside in the face of “urgent” deadlines and emails.

But it is important. And if you don’t practice regular self-care, it will become an urgent matter quickly (like I learned over and over again when I first started freelancing). Making sure you’re eating right, drinking plenty of water, and getting enough exercise may not seem urgent, but those things are fundamentally important to your work.

Scholes has established his own set of priorities, and eschews certain tasks or traps that get in the way of his work.

Along with the usual culprits like email and social media, Scholes also drastically cut down on travel time. He lives in a small town about a 45-minute drive from Portland, Oregon, but instead of driving into town to see friends, he now invites them out to visit him.

At the top of his hierarchy? Nurturing his relationships. “People come first regardless of where I am in a book or a deadline,” Scholes said. “If my kids need me, if my friends need me, if my tribe needs me, then people are always more important than work for me.”

Over the past few years, I’ve learned that creating space to work, exercising, practicing self-reflection, and spending time with family are all crucial parts of my self-care as a writer.

When I notice I’m starting to shirk these priorities because of client deadlines and overwork, I know I need to shift something in my life to accommodate what I value.

As counter-intuitive as it seems, taking time for myself has made me a better — and more productive — freelancer and novelist.

What about you? Do you have specific self-care practices? How have they changed over the years? I’d love to hear about them in the comments.

If it seems like your bank account is either flush or completely empty, you’re not alone. The freelance financial life can feel like a roller coaster.

Clients can take months to pay, steady work can dry up suddenly, and unexpected expenses can wipe out your savings. (I’m looking at you, laptop.)

The main problem with the feast or famine cycle is obvious: It’s nearly impossible to budget. But there’s a more insidious problem with it that specifically affects creative professionals.

If you’re stressed about money, you may end up making decisions that cause your business and art to suffer.

You’ll take jobs that aren’t ideal just to weather a dry spell. You’ll put up with awful clients who treat you poorly because you can’t afford to drop them. You’ll be too stressed about rent to concentrate on producing your best work.

There are a couple ways to get around the feast or famine cycle.

One, of course, is to have a day job or a partner who brings in a steady cash flow. But the long-term solution is to manage your cash flow in order to smooth out the roller coaster and strengthen the health of your business.

If you can’t figure out how to roll with the feast or famine cycle, you’re going to have a really hard time making it as a freelance writer.

But if you’re ready to hop on that roller coaster, make sure you do these three things to help your freelance finances survive and thrive.

1. Keep your business and personal finances separate

Even if you’re just starting out and only have one client, you need to start treating your writing business as a business. That means opening a separate checking and savings account to keep your business and personal finances separate. If you use PayPal to collect payments, set up a business version of that, too.

Not only does this tell the IRS you’re serious about operating as a business, it also keeps your business income and expenses from mucking up your personal cash flow.

My business checking account is with the same credit union as my partner’s and my joint checking account. Every payment from a client is deposited directly into that account, rather than into our personal account, and every business purchase is made with my business debit card.

My business account is sacred. I treat it like it’s my boss’ money — because it is! If our personal account is running low and it’s still three days from payday, I wouldn’t just whip out my boss’s company credit card for some sushi. Instead, I make beans and rice and wait for payday.

2. Pay yourself a set salary

“Payday?” you might be asking. “But aren’t you a freelancer?”

One of the biggest complaints I hear from other freelancers is that they miss having a set salary they can depend on.

I say, why not give yourself one?

From the beginning of my freelancing career, I made the decision to keep myself on a twice-monthly pay schedule rather than just depositing every check I got into our personal account.

I have my credit union automatically transfer my “paycheck” from my business account to our personal account on the 1st and 15th of each month, which makes budgeting our personal finances way less of a headache.

I also put about 35% of every check my business receives into a business savings account, and keep that money for taxes and as a rainy-day fund.

(Nicole Dieker has a great discussion of how much she saves for taxes in one of her latest Tracking Freelance Earnings post.)

If I have a really flush month, I may put extra into the savings account. If I have a lean month, I may pull a little bit out in order to make my salary.

Having a business savings account automatically spread the feast out into the famine.

If you deposit a huge check into your personal account, it will probably have all disappeared by the next lean month. But if you deposit it into your business account and pay yourself salary from it, it’s spread over the lean times. Even though your next client may be late on a check, you won’t be late on your rent.

It will take some time to build up a buffer in your business account if you’re just starting out. It took me about a year us a full-time freelancing before I had enough of a buffer to not worry about making my paycheck.

3. Give yourself a raise

The trick to building up a financial buffer is, obviously, not to drain your business account every time you pay your salary. Instead, try to strike a balance between what you can afford to pay yourself (after taking out money for savings) and what your personal budget needs.

When I first started freelancing, that amount was $500. Of course, I was making up the rest of my half of the expenses by waiting tables — but only until I built up enough of a buffer to give myself a raise.

Every time I notice the number in my business checking account is starting to outpace my salary, I know it’s time to give myself a raise. I added in $100 there, $200 there — and today I pay myself $1500 twice a month.

Raises don’t always have to come in the form of a salary increase. Once I hit the $1500 mark, our personal finances were dialed in. So instead of contributing more money to our personal account — which we’d just end up spending on sushi — I bumped up the amount I was contributing to my IRA.

Another way I’ve given myself a raise is by taking on less client work. Doing so let me “raise” the amount of time I had to work on fiction.

Of course, there are business things you can do to beat the feast or famine cycle, too, like consistently marketing yourself, seeking retainer arrangements, and creating passive income streams.

But I’ve found getting my financials in order to be one of the biggest creators of stability in my freelance career.

I’d love to hear from you. How do you deal with the financial uncertainty of making a living as a writer? Leave a comment below!

His idea is to map how productive you are throughout the day to identify your personal productivity hot spots and low points, so you can plan your creative time appropriately.

When you see swaths of red, highly-productive times (Gilkey calls these “novas”), you know you’ll get more done if you schedule highly creative tasks then.

I already had a vague idea of when I worked best, but I had never been so scientific about figuring out exactly when I hit my creative peaks.

With the heat map model, I learned I have three chunks of time best suited for creative work: Midmorning, early afternoon, and after dinner.

Turns out, I’m fairly useless around lunchtime, and I get incredibly antsy in the late afternoon. That’s the best time for me to run errands or do physical work.

I also learned — and this really surprised me — my blocks of creative time aren’t created equally.

I do my best in the mornings on things that need intense concentration, like revisions and line editing. The afternoon is much better spent working on nonfiction and client work. And my time after dinner often nets me some of my most creative prose as my tuckered-out mind drops its self-censoring guard.

(Gilkey provides a free heat map template if you want to find your own nova time.)

When you know when you work best, you can take better advantage of your creative time — rather than just spinning your wheels.

Taking advantage of creative hot spots

Finding your creative hot spots is one thing. It’s quite another to find the time in your day to take advantage of them.

Your creative hot spots likely won’t come at convenient times, especially if you’re working a day job, raising a family, or, you know, living life.

Sure, it’d be convenient to write on your lunch break, but if you’re like me, that’s when your brain completely melts down. Or maybe you keep trying to get up at 5 a.m. and work then, but every word you write before 10 a.m. is complete gibberish.

When I worked full time as a copywriter at a catalog company, my work day fell smack in the middle of what I knew was my best writing time. Worse, my brain was too fried at the end of the day to get much done if I tried to write then.

It’s a huge reason why I decided to start work as a freelancer. It was a big risk, especially at first, but now that I’m established it’s allowed me to prioritize my creative writing during the hours I do it best.

Obviously, it’s not a solution for everybody. But as you examine your own life, are there smaller changes you can make?

Can you creatively consolidate more menial tasks to your lower-energy periods to open up space for creative work during your nova periods?

Have you figured out when that time is? Good.

Now block it off in your planner in permanent marker.

We’re getting to the hard part.

Protect your creative time with your life

Knowing when you do your best work and scheduling yourself to do it is only half the battle.

The other half is fighting like hell to protect that creative time.

At its foundation, practicing your creative art is a fundamentally impractical thing, isn’t it?

It’s the tip of the pyramid when it comes to our hierarchy of needs. It’s not food, or clothing, or companionship (though it can be a gateway to those), and so it’s easy for our brains to shunt it to the back of the queue.

Only after we have everything we need for survival and comfort should art take mental space, right?

Don’t fall into the trap.

Don’t fall into believing that making your art is less important than your other needs.

Instead, tell the hunter-gatherer part of your brain to protect this precious thing with all the ferocity you would protect your home, food source, or family.

How do you protect your creative time?

First, you have to protect your creative time from yourself.

Set your writing priorities. Hide your phone. Install Freedom on your computer.

Stop saying yes to coffee dates in the middle of your creative streaks.

Stop pretending mindlessly clicking through Wikipedia is research.

Put your headphones on, crank the music, and write.

You have to respect your own time before you can expect others to respect it. Others will make demands on your time: Bosses, family, partners…It’s only natural. It’s up to you to train them that you’re not available during certain times.

I protect one day each week where I only work on fiction. I never let a client give me a deadline for Wednesday. If they suggest it, I’ll negotiate a different day.

I refuse to take phone calls, meetings, and lunch dates on Wednesdays. I don’t tell clients why. I just tell them I’m unavailable. I’ll still check my email throughout the day to make sure there are no fires that need to be put out, but Wednesdays belong solely to my fiction business.

It’s harder to make those ultimatums when it comes to family, but that’s another place where taking yourself seriously first is crucial. If you treat your blocks of creative time as unimportant, then it becomes easy for those around you to do the same.

But if you’re truly dedicated to making your creative time count? Your dedication will eventually become infectious.

Have you ever mapped your creative peaks and valleys? I’d love to hear how you protect your creative time in the comments!