“To get all there is out of living, we must employ our time wisely, never being in too much of a hurry to stop and sip life, but never losing our sense of the enormous value of a minute.” ~ Robert Updegraff

While I know many who write full-time, others do well to squeeze a few paragraphs in between dirty diapers, laundry, and carpool duties. Many, exhausted from a regular day job, trade TV for their computers at night, hoping to drain a few more drops of creativity before the clock strikes 12. All of us are given the same 24 hours - how do we find time to write?

See what others say about the matter of time:

“You will never find time for anything. If you want time, you must make it.” ~ Charles Bixton

“Whether you feel inspired to create, or dry and uninspired, you must make time to practice your art.” ~ Janice Elsheimer

“Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.” ~ Carl Sandburg

“Our dilemma goes deeper than shortage of time; it is basically a problem of priorities.” ~ Charles Hummel

How much of our time goes to unnecessary things? Is there anything we could sacrifice in order to write more? Please share your tips, thoughts, and advice. More on this topic soon.

Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality. ~ Beatrix Potter

“It is worth mentioning, for future reference, that the creative power which bubbles so pleasantly in beginning a new book quiets down after a time, and one goes on more steadily. Doubts creep in. Then one becomes resigned. Determination not to give in, and the sense of an impending shape keep one at it more than anything.”~ Virginia Wolfe

“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.” ~ Scott Adams

“When God sends His inspiration, it comes to us with such miraculous power that we are able to “arise from the dead” and do the impossible. The remarkable thing about spiritual initiative is that the life and power comes after we “get up and get going.” ~ Oswald Chambers

“Multi-tasking is dead. It never worked and it never will. Intelligent people love to sing its praises because it gives them permission to avoid the much more challenging alternative: focusing on one thing.”
~ Timothy Ferriss

Do you agree with this quote? Why or why not?

If it’s true, I’ve now been given permission to relax and do the next thing. Our society expects us to go full-throttle and multi-task, but working like that causes the weirdest attention deficit in me. Either that, or schizophrenia (my apologies to the institute of mental health and all its members). Oh, to settle down with a glass of my peach iced tea and write my thoughts out - that’s the way I roll. Not always possible, I know. Distractions pull at us all. But when I devote full attention to the task of writing, I do a much better job.

That’s my story, anyway, and I’m sticking to it.

“Creativity is not necessarily a special calling or gift from God to the few, it is a natural expression of the fact that we are created in the image of God, who is the Creator. It is His thumbprint on our souls, a part of His signature.” ~ Michael Card

At Christians in the Arts, Leanne Benfield Martin recently interviewed Michael Card who has garnered praise for over 4 millions albums and 19 number one hits:

Michael Card - Part I - The Imagination

“Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing.” ~ Camille Pissaro

“You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul.” ~ George Bernard Shaw

“Jesus calls us to His rest, and meekness is His method. The meek man cares not at all who is greater than he, for he has long ago decided that the esteem of the world is not worth the effort. The rest Christ offers is the rest of meekness, the blessed relief which comes when we accept ourselves for what we are and cease to pretend. It will take some courage at first, but the needed grace will come as we learn that we are sharing this new and easy yoke with the strong Son of God Himself.” ~ A.W. Tozer

Vanessa tried to hide the symptoms: forgetfulness, apathy, irritability, inability to make decisions, negative thinking. “Yep,” she thought, “I’m losing it.”

Best friend, Jill, decided to pull an intervention. She noticed right away how her friend’s pleasant disposition had dissolved into frequent tears. Vanessa had withdrawn from the very people she loved and was now sleeping 10-11 hours a day. But as they talked, cried, and laughed together, these two writing buddies came up with a plan to beat Vanessa’s “burn-out.”

…because Vanessa had lost all the margin in her days. The cumulative effects of living frenetically had wiped her out.

So, she’s pruning her excesses, cutting back on commitments, and learning to respond to God’s call for her life, personally, instead of heeding the call of everyone else. In a frenzied world of strife and overdrive, it’s good to pull away from the fray.

We live in fierce times of competition and ego-driven personalities. The world teaches us to fight and claw our way to the top. But in protest of it all, we need to exercise our parking gear. Yes, ironically, we have to go against the flow in order to retain our sanity, health, and productivity.

Jill has some good advice for all of us: “Don’t idolize productivity. Let God enable you for the right tasks once you learn to rest in Him first.”

Bottom line: Are we resting spiritually, emotionally, AND physically?

“We do not rest because our work is done; we rest because God commanded it and created us to have a need for it.” ~ Gordon MacDonald