I’ve been waiting all day for my phone to cooperate in order to post my latest braided nail tutorial. . . And it’s just not working. I. Need. A. New. Phone.

My phone is turning me practically homicidal.

Anyway. I might have to throw in the towel soon, so that I can get back into revising my novel. It’s been a while since I have. Bad Bekah. So today, we’re going to talk about timers.

Speaking of which, I better start my timer so I’m not being a hypocrite.

Writers need timers. Any kind of artist needs a timer. Why? Because that’s as structured as we’ll probably get.

My friend, Naomi, is a pianist, a professional musician. (And she has no idea I’m about to talk about her right now. Hi, Naomi!) Now, she doesn’t have any kind of instant feedback after she practices every day. Only she will know when she’s done enough. She drives herself. Only she will know when something polished and ready for the world to hear. But until then, she needs to keep at it. Butt-to-seat, fingers-on-keys.

Writers are the same way. We have something that drives us, but it’s way in the future. The only way to achieve that goal is to sit at the grindstone a bit each day and get to work.

Here’s where the timer comes in, because it’s hard to know how much is enough. Especially with art, it’s something we do because we love it. But you REALLY don’t want to be driven by emotions. That just means you’ll sit for hours, get worn out or bored, then make excuses for why you can’t work the next day, then soon laziness sinks in and you’re not writing at all. It’s all bad, all bad.

Decide a reasonable amount of time to work on each project you do. For example, I set my timer for 30min to get this post done. That way, I don’t ramble (for your benefit). And also, so that I can get back to my long term writing. And ESPECIALLY set a timer for when you look on social media sites. We all know how much life gets sucked into those.

So really. Just manage your time wisely. And, since I personally can’t, I use a timer to keep me on track. Try it. You’ll find there are more hours in a day.