I’m a busy man. Apart from my full time job, I also have a wife and two children, ages 2 and 1. I love them so much, cannot even begin to imagine what life would be like without them, but… they are a handful. They ask for a lot of time, naturally. I cherish those moments with them because I know they won’t last. There will come a day when my daughter will no longer ask me to take her to the park.

But when 8PM hits and the kids are finally down, I’m toast. My body is jelly, my brain is mush, and I can barely muster enough energy to watch trashy reality television much less sit down and write (Rock of Love Bus w/ Brett Michaels can be so taxing at times!).  I’m sure many of you can relate.

So how do you write a screenplay when life is so full of responsibilities and obligations and trailer-trash bimbos fawning over washed-up mascara-painted glam rockers?

I’ve found a couple of strategies that I hope will inspire/help/challenge those of you in similar predicaments. This is mostly common sense; no earth shattering revelations here. Sometimes, however, it helps just to hear it again.

1. Understand that consistency is better than volume.
It is better to write for 30 minutes every day than to write for 6 hours one day and then take a bunch of days off. Giving yourself that consistency, that structure, will help exercise your writing muscle on a daily basis and will, in the long run, help you to write more efficiently. Skipping a couple of days will make coming back to your writing that much harder.

2. Set a specific time for writing
It doesn’t have to be 3 hours a day or even 1 hour a day. It could simply be 30 minutes. The point is to find a length of time that works and a period of the day that best fits in with your schedule. As I mentioned, I’m toast in the evenings, so I get up in the morning and write before work. I write from 6:45 to 7:45 sharp every day. Completing that one hour a day frees me up to enjoy the rest of my time. I’ve met my goal - 1 hour - so I don’t feel the pressure of, “Oh, I haven’t written enough, I have to write this evening whether I want to or not!” You can always be writing; but if you schedule it and stick to that schedule, then spending your free time watching TV or reading a book (or, in my case, playing video games) isn’t a guilt-laden experience.

3. Guard your time jealously
You need to protect your writing time at all costs. Writing and writing ONLY - no phone calls, no research, no emails, no familial interruptions, and DEFINITELY no surfing on the intertubes. Talk to your loved ones about this. As long as you keep your commitment to the time and don’t procrastinate or goof around, they’ll respect it as well. Since my kids can wake up anytime from 7-8AM, my wife and I worked out a system: during my 6:45-7:45 hour, if the kids wake up screaming for breakfast, my wife gets up and takes care of them. As soon as 7:45 hits, however, I take over and let her grab some extra shuteye. So far it’s worked quite well.

See? Nothing revolutionary. Just some common sense tips that have helped me in the war on time management. If any of you out there have tips or tricks on how to keep writing even when life butts in its ugly head, please share.

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