I don’t know about you, but I’m quick to complain about all the “thieves” stealing my writing time. Thieves like potty training my three-year-old, my kids being out of school for the summer, and half my babysitters going on vacation (how dare my parents travel during the summer!). There are also writing-related-but-not-actually-writing tasks like the time required to plan and promote a sale in my author store. (The Reinvention of Skylar Hoyt series is on sale for a few more days to celebrate its 10th anniversary!)

I used to think the writing-related-but-not-actually-writing tasks (social media, reading craft books, querying, blogging, etc.) were the sneakiest of thieves because sometimes its easy to get caught up in those and forget that you’re not getting any actual writing done.

But over the last few weeks, I’ve noticed that I’m leaving the sneakiest thief off the list. The sneakiest thief is ME.

While all those “thieves” really do exist in my life and do take away time from writing, I am perhaps the biggest thief of my own writing time. I’m going to share 3 ways I’ve noticed I sabotage myself, and then 3 ways I’m actively combating these tendencies.

Sabotage Strategy #1:

Putting up “noble obstacles” for myself

If you’ve ever said anything like this to yourself, “Well, I’d love to write, but how can I possibly focus on my story when my writing space is such a mess?” then you know what I’m talking about.

Jon Acuff talks about Noble Obstacles in his book, Finish, and here’s what he says:

At the heart of it, a noble obstacle is an attempt to make your goal harder than it has to be so you don’t have to finish but can still look respectable.

The brilliance of these obstacles is there’s enough truth in there to make it sound legit.

I really do work better in a clean space, and I currently have 4 boxes of book scattered in my office, a stack of padded envelopes to mail out orders, Duplos, a pile of junk I dumped out of my purse before we went to Alaska a month ago, and so forth. I really would benefit from investing time in cleaning up my office.

But everyday, I have only 90ish minutes that I can mostly count on being able to focus on a task without many interruptions. This sacred 90 minutes comes during Eli’s nap time and screen time for my older two kids.

Yeah, my office needs to be cleaned. But during the sacred 90? Not really.

Other noble obstacles writers like to put up are:

• I’ll start querying when I have a platform.
• I’ll write as soon as I have a free afternoon.
• I’ll write as soon as I’ve finished putting together this elaborate aesthetics board that will keep me motivated.

See how sneaky those are?

Sabotage Strategy #2

Prioritizing easy tasks over important tasks

Sometimes it just feels more satisfying to clean out email, start laundry, order school supplies, or post on social media than it does to work on my book. These are things that do need to happen, so it’s not a waste of time, and since they can be finished relatively quickly (especially compared to writing a novel!) it can feel great to cross those items off my list.

What I find funny about this is that if you asked me, “Which do you like more, writing emails or writing novels?” I would very easily reply, “Writing novels!” And yet so often I prioritize a cleaned out inbox over adding to my word count!

Emails ask less of me. I’m done quickly. Some are truly important and need to be replied to. But again, does it need to happen during my sacred 90 minutes? Nope.

Sabotage Strategy #3:

Not working deeply

I read Deep Work by Cal Newport a couple years ago and it changed the way I structured my work time.

For a while.

(Here is a post where Jill talked about what she learned from that book: 10 Ways To Increase Your Productivity)

Eventually I backslid into old habits like leaving Google Hangouts open while I write or jumping to respond every time Instagram notifies me of a new comment on a photo. I kinda knew I was doing this, but it was way easier to complain about my lack of writing time than it was to discipline myself to work deeply again.

But as I became increasingly aware of these self-sabotage tendencies, I also became increasingly determined to fix them. Here’s what I’ve done so far:

Fix #1: “What would it look like if I actually used my writing time for writing?”

I asked myself this question in the middle of last week: “Instead of doing writing-related-but-not-actually-writing tasks and writing all during my sacred 90 minutes, what if I just write?” No email, social media, tidying my office, responding to blog comments, packing up shipments, etc. What if I decided in advance that chunk of my time is reserved for writing?

Here’s the answer: I get more writing done.

Deep, right?

Not only that, but all those other tasks are still happening. I’m still replying to blog comments, emails, and taking care of all the other writing-related tasks, but they’re happening in those little cracks of time that open up during the day instead of swelling to fill up my sacred 90.

Fix #2: I’m easing myself back into deep work.

I’m retraining myself to focus on only writing during my sacred 90. For me this meant turning off all notifications on my phone. It meant setting a timer for 25 minutes, focusing on writing until the timer went off, and then giving myself a 5 minute break to stretch, check email, whatever, before going for another 25.

I have lots of room for improvement in this area, but I also know that concentrating on one thing at a time is a learned skill in our highly-distracting world and that I’ll get better as I practice.

Fix #3: Instead of complaining, I’m telling the people I live with what I need.

The majority of us live with other people–siblings, roommates, parents–who impact our writing time. Maybe we even share a computer or a bedroom. Our need for writing time affects others, and while I firmly believe that we have to show respect for our own time before we can expect others to do the same, I know I have to be better about asking for help from the people I live with instead of just growing quietly resentful.

For me that looks like this, “McKenna and Connor, while Eli is sleeping, I need you to please let me have time in my office without interruptions.” Or with my husband, “Today Eli woke up when I was working on a chapter. Could you please be ‘on call’ for the next 30 minutes with the kids while I wrap that up?”

For you it might look like asking your parents if there’s a dedicated time every day that the family computer could be yours for writing. It might be asking a roommate if she could please do the grocery run this week so that you can get some writing done.

This can be really uncomfortable for me, so if it’s uncomfortable for you too, you’re not alone!

In the few days that I’ve been actively prioritizing my writing time, I have finished a first chapter of a book and a 5-page synopsis. I’m excited to see what this next week holds!

Do you have ways that you are your own worst enemy with writing time? What’s one thing you could change today to get back on track?