Finding time to sit down and write can be a challenge for many authors. It can be especially challenging and even overwhelming when writing isn’t your only job. Therefore, you need to be prepared and make the most out of the writing time you can find in your hectic schedule. If you are committed to completing your book or next book and are dedicated to yourself, your fans, your current or potential clients, then you must not allow lack of time to be an excuse for achieving your goals in a timeframe that you set.

Here are 5 ways to make the most of your writing time.

1. Create a to-do list each week.

2. Pick the top 3-5 things you need to complete from that list. Depending on what you’re writing and where you are in the process will make a difference to what is on your list. Do you need to do research? Do you need to sit and write without stopping? Do you need to revisit the previous chapter to maintain the flow of your writing? Are you ready to start seeking out a cover design? Have you done any marketing yet? Marketing is vital from the beginning, long before your book is finished and ready for release.

3. But, how do you pick and choose those most important things? Go through the list and mark each of them as either urgent, important, or it can wait. Also, mark specific ones as money-makers. You should have one money-making activity every week and do your best to spend some of your time on it each and every day that you carve out writing time.

4. Break the 3-5 things down into workable chunks. What actions do you need to take to complete each item? How much time do you expect that action to take? Always plan for more time than you actually need.

5. From those chunks, choose 2-4 things for each day you have writing time planned. What you choose and how many things you choose will depend on how much time you can set aside to work on your writing each day. If you only have 30 minutes, you may want to focus on ONE thing instead of two or more. Yet, if you can set aside two or more hours, then it’s more likely that you can break that down into chunks.

To make this experience more fun and playful, and to lessen the stress of breaking what you need to do down into bite-sized chunks each week (or even for the month if you want to plan further in advance), consider color-coding your actions. Either use different colors for different days or use different colors for different tasks. Google calendar is one great options, but this can be done on a spreadsheet with different colored ink pens or different colored highlighted cells/rows and fonts. You could even create a sticky-note board with different colors of sticky notes.

No matter how you go about it, make a plan and implement it, all while having fun doing it.