T is for Time Management

Time management is something I'm not very good at.  I tend to procrastinate to the last second and then rush through everything.  I'm slowly teaching myself to be better at it, but it's still a struggle to do what I know I need to in a specifically alloted time.

I've got something of a schedule and I'm training myself how to follow it.  Get up at 8.  Take my shower.  Check FB/Twitter/email/blog.  Start writing at 9.  Write until 11:30.  Take care of whatever other little things I need to.  Go to work.  Come home.  Write from 11 to 12.  Go to bed.  Rinse. Repeat, except on the days where I have to be to work earlier.  Then my schedule changes.

I'm not making much progress on my schedule.  Then again, I was one of those kids who hated schedules.  I wanted to do things in my own time and my own way.  I hated having to follow the class schedule.  I didn't want to abide by my mom's rules of scheduling homework right after school.  Okay, so I never wanted to do most of my homework anyhow.  But that's beside the point.

I'm also a poor judge of what would constitute a good use of time.  Watching cartoons all day?  Hey, that's a GREAT use of my time.  Never mind the dozens of things I have to do at any given moment.  Sleep all day?  Sounds good to me.  Except then nothing gets accomplished.  Sleep in?  Sure, I can do that.  I throw off my entire schedule and feel rushed all day but I can do it.

Time management, especially for a writer, is vitally important.  Often we have only a limited amount of time to dedicate to our writing.  We have to be able to manage that time well.  We can't let ourselves get drawn into any kind of distraction (unless you're a parent & have kids...kids always take priority) if we want to get our books written, revised, edited, polished, and published.

How about you?  What are your time management skills like?  What are some of your tricks for maximizing what time you do have for writing?