As a book coach and editor, I haven’t met too many people who have the luxury of spending a full day every week working on their book. Most of my clients have family and business commitments, and many additional interests besides, and they reach the end of almost every day wondering where the time went. Add in another 200-400 hours to write a quality book? Yikes!

Time Audit for Book Writing

Enter the time audit.

If you’ve been struggling to find the time to tackle your book in a steady and consistent manner, I invite you to keep in mind the fact that we don’t “find” time to write a book. Ever. But we can “create” the time we need to make that book happen, and a time audit is a great first step. It involves nothing more than the detailed tracking of a full week of your activities. When my clients do this one of two things will happen:

1. They realize they actually have been spending a fair bit of time on less productive activities like binge-watching or

2. They amaze themselves with how busy they truly are.

Either way, a time audit allows us to reallocate how we are spending our time so we can prioritize our book writing. Nobody gets more than 168 hours in a week. And yet some very busy people will finish off this year having become published authors. It’s not that those people are luckier, smarter, or “chosen.” They have just learned how to prioritize their book writing activities.

So, what’s stopping you from writing your book? Especially since, as I may have mentioned before, the Universe has been facilitating you your entire life to the experiences that have made of you the perfect funnel through which your book(s) is (are) meant to flow. And, since that’s true, you know you can count on the entire power and majesty of the Universe to aid and assist you through the writing of your book.

May I take a few more steps together on this?

We know your book doesn’t have to come out perfectly formed in its very first draft.

We know you can put a team together to support you in your writing process. And, if you are not a good writer, you can hire a strong editor to help bring your grammar and sentence structure up to snuff.

We know you are the only person on the planet who can write your book.

We know there are people out there who are yearning for the comfort and inspiration, advice and information, or just plain entertainment value that they are going to find in your book.

We know that becoming the published author of a quality legacy book is one of the most thrilling experiences you can possibly imagine. Some of my book coaching clients have previously invested, sometimes quite heavily, in “get-your-book-done-in-a-weekend/day/month” programs that resulted in a shabby book they are embarrassed to have put their name on. Or no book at all. But a quality book that shares the wisdom you have spent your life accumulating – now, that’s a worthy project. It takes time, care, organization, and commitment.

Even if all you can find is half an hour a day, it’s a start. And that half an hour a day is equivalent to three-and-a-half hours a week, or 182 hours in a year. So, what if it takes you a couple of years to write your book? It took me 13 years to write my first book! But I wasn’t motivated, I wasn’t committed, I had no vision of myself as a published author, and I was unbelievably busy. I didn’t prioritize my book writing time and I didn’t “Create” the time to write.

My recommendation? Try a time audit. See what the results tell you about what you are prioritizing in your life. And ask yourself if that’s aligned with what you want to prioritize.

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