How Can I Write When My Job Involves Long Hours At The Computer?

"Ask Auntie Cali" Advice Column

Dear Auntie Cali

I would love to write more but I have a busy life. In my day job I’m an IT Analyst which means that I spend long days in front of the computer. At the end of the day I’m too tired to think and I need to escape from the screen.

I love writing when I finally get around to doing it but I get so distracted. It’s so easy to end up watching YouTube videos or lost in an argument on Facebook – yes the irony of screen time is not lost on me!

How can I be more disciplined to get some writing done and make better progress with my novel? I’m fed up of talking about it and not doing it. It depresses me.

Yours hopefully

Pete

Dear Pete

First of all, lets talk about the distractions. These are resistance at play. Your inner gremlin, terrified that you might actually make progress with your novel, knows just how to stop you. And so do the algorithms on social media. As soon as you finish one video, another appears and starts playing. Facebook knows the kind of stuff you like to rant about and feeds you more of it.

There are two approaches to overcome this. The most powerful is to realise that this is just resistance. Resistance occurs when we want to do something important with our lives or answer our soul’s calling. Let’s face it, there’s no resistance to you burning away another few minutes on pointless scrolling – that’s easy to do. Next time you find this happening, tell your inner gremlin to f**k off because you’ve got writing to do.

However, our willpower is never what we want it to be. So how about utilising software which prevents you from using the internet or specific websites? Apps like Freedom, Cold Turkey or RescueTime allow you to create a list of web sites to block at certain times. That way, when you’re sitting down to write, you can activate the barrier so that YouTube is not available for the next hour.

Secondly, you live in reality, not an ideal world. You have to do your job. I used to work in IT and I remember the many hours spent staring at a screen, trying to figure stuff out and solve problems. Whilst the work isn’t physically demanding it can be very mentally draining.

Because of this I found that the best time to write was early in the morning before I started work. I used to be able to squeeze in between thirty and sixty minutes by getting up earlier. I went straight to the computer, half asleep, and got on with my writing. This also helped with distractions because there was no way I was going to waste that time on social media when I had prized myself out of bed at some ungodly hour.

Some mornings I used to commute on the train and I also used this time to write, even though I was perched in a cramped seat where I could barely get my laptop screen back far enough to actually see what I was typing. But I took the view that I could either use this time or moan because I wasn’t getting to my writing.

If mornings are an anathema to you, then I wonder if there is a way of breaking up from your work day so that you can restore a little bit of energy and do some writing after work. Again, you don’t need huge swathes of time. I know a freelance writer who has found that switching to writing fiction for just half an hour at 5.30pm allows her to make progress with her book.

Could you go out for a quick walk after work, to clear your head and energy, and then do some writing? If you work at home, could you go somewhere else in your house to do your writing so that you’re not in the workspace that belongs to your job?

Writing doesn’t have to mean typing or scribbling with a pen. Have you thought about dictation? These days you can dictate straight into Word or Google Docs. You will need a headset with a decent microphone. While that still keeps you within the vicinity of a computer you don’t have to sit staring at it. Alternatively, Dragon software allows you to use your phone so you could be out having a walk and dictating your story at the same time.

Sometimes it is necessary to set the bar low in your writing goals which makes them more achievable. This could be by aiming to do just ten minutes a day of writing, which is doable even when your brain is tired. Or maybe aim for just a couple of writing sessions a week, say an hour on Wednesday evening and an hour on Saturday morning.

It doesn’t sound like much but if you did this consistently you would make progress and feel much better about your writing.

Has it crossed your mind that you might be wasting time watching videos because you are so frustrated with yourself? But if you could just get some writing done then this frustration would ease and you wouldn’t need to punish yourself as much by staring at inane rubbish.

Finally, you are in very good company when it comes to doing everything else but writing. Many famous writers have issues with procrastination before getting on with the work. Ernest Hemingway allegedly said that the first step to starting a new novel was to defrost the refrigerator.

However, in spite of doing everything to avoid writing, authors with books to their name eventually find a way to write in spite of their chosen method of resistance.

And so can you.

Plodding gently

Auntie Cali

Photo by Pakata Goh on Unsplash

What’s your advice for Pete?

Have you found yourself in a similar situation to Pete? How do you manage to get your writing done when you have a busy job? Please share your tips. We all need the inspiration.

You might also find these articles useful:

The Only Way To Fight Resistance Is To Do The Work

Why It’s Sometimes Hard To Write, Even When You Really Want To

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