Today’s post is part of Indie Life, a blog hop hosted by the Indelibles.  Click here to see a list of participating blogs.

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I recently took a leap of faith, dropping from full time to part time employment so that I could pursue my true calling as a writer.  As exciting as that is, however, I’ve already encountered my first major obstacle: time management.

I assumed that with so much more time available for writing, surely I would write thousands upon thousands of words with no trouble.  After all, I love to write! Well, it turns out that my job provided a little structure in my day.  It gave me a deadline: the deadline of getting stuff done before I left for work.  Without that deadline, I’m free to procrastinate well into the afternoon or early evening.

So I came up with the idea of writing a “class schedule,” allotting specific blocks of time each day for working on specific projects.  It seemed like a good idea until I actually implemented it.  You see, I have medical problems that don’t care what my schedule is.  Writer’s block doesn’t care about my schedule either.  Also, my three-year-old godson believes I went part time so I could spend more time playing with him; he’s not entirely wrong about that.

FDR once said, “Do something.  If it works, do more of it.  If it doesn’t, do something else.”  So I gave up on class schedules.  As much as I like the idea, it doesn’t work, at least not for me.  I need structure in my day, but I also need flexibility for the sake of my health, my muse, and my godson.  Fortunately, I have a new idea.

I’m going to credit this one to my friend and co-worker, Jen.  She said that if writing is a job, than I need to clock in and out.  My part time job requires me to work a total of 25 hours a week, so I am going to require myself to spend at least that much time each week writing.  It doesn’t matter when I do those 25 hours, so long as I do them at some point.  If I have to deal with anything medical, I can postpone my writing for a few hours while my medication kicks in.  If my muse would rather write at 3:17 a.m. than promptly at Noon, we can do that.  If my godson calls, I can make time for him too.  The important thing is to stay focused when I’m “clocked in” and make sure I get all my hours done.

This “clocking in” idea is still experimental.  In fact, Jen only suggested it to me yesterday.  Like my class schedule, I may discover implementing a time clock system is easier said than done.  If it doesn’t work, I’ll take FDR’s advise and try something else.  I just have to keep trying new ideas until I find a system that works for me.

But I know I’m not the only indie writer who has this problem, so what do you do to better manage your time?