Hello dear writer,

I think a lot about energy. I have chronic illness and chronic pain, as so many of us do. We don’t have the luxury of NOT thinking about energy and how to manage what we have.

TRUE: I can only do what I can do. If I push past that, I’ll regret it.

ALSO TRUE: I forget this, again and again.

I’ve written about this before (my 1-10 energy scale), but this is on my mind this week because I have way more to do than I can possibly do. And some of the to-dos are actually non-negotiable—they’re deadline items, or tax stuff that has to be done by the end of the month or they come speak very sternly to me (Kiwis, you know), those kinds of annoying but essential things.

It’s so easy to let everything feel so essential that the writing is driven right out. Not today, can’t write today, I’ll write tomorrow.

But you are a writer.

Your one essential, as a writer, is to always get some writing done. (Even if it’s not very much. Over time, a little bit of work eventually adds up into books.)

TIME BLOCKING

Oh, how I hate time blocking. This scheduling method works for some people, but usually when I try scheduling my week by thirty-minute blocks, pre-deciding what I’ll be doing in each, I make it about three hours before dousing the plan with gasoline, flicking a Zippo, and cackling while it all burns.

But this week, I needed to do it.

Here’s how I time block when forced to do it:

1. I look at my list of things to do for the week, and I put stars next to the things that will actually be bad for me or others if I don’t do them. Those are essential, non-negotiable.

2. Then I think, OH CRAP, I forgot to put writing on that list, because I always forget.

3. I shove the word WRITE on top of those “essential” tasks and it gets the biggest star of all.

4. In Google Calendar, I work through adding the things on the essential list, starting at the top. My regularly scheduled things (classes, Writing Guild Sessions, podcast interviews) are already in there, so I start with WRITE, putting my writing blocks on my calendar. Then I move to the second-most important task, guessing how much time it will take (I’m usually wrong), and making a spot for it on the calendar. Repeat all the way down.

5. Once this is done, I’m allowed to fit in all the other tasks I really think I need to do. And HAHA, JOKE’S ON ME because there’s no room left.

6. Remember this is why I hate time blocking the most: my calendar, which I should be able to control, looks me up and down and says, You don’t have time for all that, and did you even brush your hair today?

I have to admit that time blocking is an occasionally useful tool to remind me that just because I can fit something on a list doesn’t make me superhuman enough to do all the things.

And it has an added benefit, especially when I’m struggling with energy: time blocking leads to time boxing.

Similar names, different things.

Time blocking - scheduling your day in blocks

Time boxing - limiting the time spent on a task

While time blocking can bite me, I LOVE time boxing. It’s the secret to writing, to fun, to life itself. I can’t live without it.

And this week, time boxing has been gorgeous. I could have spent 12 hours revising a short thing I was sending my agent. Instead, I gave myself one hour, because that’s all I had.

And I can feel that in that one hour, I did almost as much good work as I would have done with 12. Could I have done better with more time? Possibly. But was it good enough to send her? Absolutely. I often need this kind of assistance to get to good enough, which equals done for now.

(Omg! I just looked at today’s time blocked calendar to see how far behind I was, and yes, I SHOULD be done with this email and I’m not quite done yet, but I already recorded and uploaded my podcast for this week, so I have a full hour to finish this up and maybe have a break! This is the FIRST TIME EVER the calendar hasn’t smacked me in the snoot! No, I do not expect this to continue.)

Writing in the Junkyard - THIS SUNDAY!

You know when I’ll be chill again? On Sunday, when a bunch of us are going to write together in the junkyard (AKA our normal lives, no need to clean up/make it pretty).

Please join us on Zoom for all (or part) of it!

All we’re going to do is hang out and write, in a chill way. My friend Luísa just reminded me of how chill capybaras are - we’re going to be capybara writers. Together.

CLICK HERE to join (reminder that Ink Villagers at every level get it for free - check your email if you haven’t signed up yet and want to attend!)

Okay, my time box is running out, so

ONWARD!

❤️ Rachael

Website | Ink Village | Instagram | Podcast | Patreon

PS - 100% human-made, please forgive the inevitable typos.

PPS - Like this letter? Will you consider forwarding it to a writer you like? They can subscribe HERE! (And they’ll get to this part of the email and think, hey! My friend really DOES like me!)