One of the things that we, as authors, often have a hard time managing is time to write. Few of us have a quiet little cabin in the woods we can slip off to when we are working on a story. In fact, just the opposite is usually true. We may have a tucked away spot in our homes, but unless we are single people with no family responsibilities, we are in the thick of family activities including children, televisions roaring, food being cooked and family schedules to maintain. Finding time to write has to become a priority if we are going to do it successfully but how do we manage to do so.

I am sure you have seen the example some science teachers use of the large jar and how much it will hold. It all boils down to how it is put into the jar. If you put the smaller things – rocks in this example -- in first then put the larger things closer to the top and then on the top, you will not be able to get as much in. But, if you put the larger rocks in first then allow them to be smaller toward the top the jar will hold much more. In the science examples, the professor will usually add sand and then water before the jar is completely full. We need not go that far but we do need to learn how to manage our time.

There are several things we need to consider when arranging our jar of time. If you take the rocks, and label them with names such as Urgent, Important, Urgent But Not Important, and Trivia you will be better able to arrange your writing schedule. For example, Urgent would-be something that requires immediate action, like a crisis. We all have them at least once in our lives. Sometimes we have them once a week or a day if we have a family. 

Let’s call the big rock Urgent and consider only those things that would cause life- effecting things to be in the urgent category. Consider things like the house is on fire or flooding, the kids are bleeding profusely, the neighbor’s child disappeared, or your in-laws are coming and the house is a mess. Those are all pretty big rocks and will need to take priority until the crisis is over. They are non-scheduled points of crisis. We do not usually have the leisure of planning and scheduling those terrifying interruptions.