Over a month ago, I wrote a post about how I was struggling to create a doable writing schedule. Click here for that post.

Since that time, I’ve been working hard to establish a schedule and thought I’d share what I had learned.

1. Analyze your time constraints. I examined the tasks I must do and how much time these take. I can’t alter the school run in the morning. It takes me over two hours to get the kids to school, and that’s all there is to it. When the kids get home, I have to oversee homework. I can’t write and help them with homework at the same time, so the evenings on the weekdays are out.
2. Figure out the best time to write. This is easier for me than some people because my kids are in school during the weekdays. When I’d completed all the necessary, unchangeable tasks, I found I had four hours during the weekdays to write. Problem was, during those four hours, I still had shopping, cleaning, and other work to do.
3. Choose a reasonable schedule. If you aren’t finding any time to write now, don’t set a goal of an hour a day. Try ten minutes. With my four hours, I decided to devote two hours to writing, which includes my blog, responding to comments on my blog, my novel, and any other kind of writing.
4. Once you set a schedule, stick to it. At the Ohio Christian Writer’s Conference, Edie Melson said if you don’t fiercely guard your schedule, no one will take your writing seriously. Give any new writing schedule two months to see if it will work for you.

It hasn’t been easy trying to get in two hours each weekday, and sometimes, with appointments and other one-time demands, I can’t. But now that I have the goal in mind, I can focus my writing efforts, and I don’t get frustrated trying to shoehorn writing in between grocery shopping and school dismissal.

What have you learned about establishing a writing schedule?