Time Management, or Writing a Novel While Commuting

To write people often think they need long stretches of time and ideal conditions, but I have found I can make the most of those opportunities when I use the little crummy bits of time that my daily life leaves over. I am talking about scraps of time like the cookie dough that remains after cutting and lifting out all the big shapes like washing, dressing, walking the dogs, commuting, working, buying groceries, cooking, eating, cleaning up, walking the dogs, and sleeping. Obviously, eventually, a good amount of work time needs to be cleared for a major project. For me, for my novel, that was summertime when I didn’t teach. For students’ projects, it traditionally means hours at night in a coffee shop or a secret corner of the library on the weekend. During the summer of the COVID-19 pandemic, maybe it means an isolated chair in a park. I kept my energy and focus going for my project despite interruption because I owned my scrappy time, and I think this approach can be adapted by anybody.

First, and most importantly, match the kind of work to the kind of time. I wasn’t going to write a new chapter of my novel in the middle of October after using up my mental energy grading papers. But my novel required research and planning. I could do research in the fifteen to three minutes of consciousness reserved for bedtime reading. Or in twenty unplanned minutes at any given point in the week. A surprising amount of planning could be done while driving to work on New Jersey’s notoriously frustrating Route 1. I imagined bits of the story. Snippets of dialogue. I heard a song that reminded me of one of the characters in my novel. When I got to campus, I would sit in the parking lot for a few minutes typing notes to myself on my phone. Months later I would know to listen to that song, get the feeling back, and start writing again. The trick is transforming patches of time.

A car commute isn’t the best for productivity, but I developed ways to use it. For example, to plan a class I started by imagining everything we might do. Then I decided on a strategy and activities to do in sequence, and I reduced the plan to three to four key phrases. I said the phrases aloud so I could hear them and did that again periodically during the drive to make sure I didn’t forget my outline. Then I typed notes to myself when I arrived. Clearly, I had to develop a folder system for notes on my phone!

A colleague of mine once said he never trusts an idea he has while driving, a thought that I admit contains some wisdom. Yet keeping his warning in mind, my method can work. The pitfalls? Marinating in the solitude of one’s mind, with music playing to enhance emotions and faith in the world, grounded judgment fades and one can slip into fantasy. Self-awareness is a must! But if you keep the pressure for quality low, and enthusiasm for collecting inspirations and ideas high, I have found sifting through this reclaimed time keeps momentum going.