Many writers find it hard to balance their writing goals with their family and personal life. This doesn't have to be this way. While many entrepreneurs find it challenging to learn new time management skills, for me, as a writer, it has been harder to manage my writing time and goals then it was to manage my other entrepreneurial pursuits.

At first I thought that doing a lot of time management with my writing would take away my creativity. After a long time in discovering what works, and what does not work for me and my writing, I am happy to report that my creativity has soared now that I have time management systems in place.

I am writing this series of articles to help those of you that also struggle with managing your writing time and goals.

One of the first steps is to discover where you are having time management issues and where you are doing well.

It is important to be kind to yourself during this discovery process. The point is to see what needs to be changed and to recognize what already works for you.

Before you dive into this quiz, take some time to hone your true goals as a writer. For example, don't just say, “I want to sell more books.” Or, “I want to make more money with my writing.” Those are good business goals, however, to create a new time management system that will enable you to get to any of your goals you first need to identify what you want to accomplish as a writer.

Do you want to write more often? Do you want to be able to outsource somethings like editing?
Do you enjoy writing at certain times of the day or night? Identify your writing goals, your process and what creates enjoyment for you with your writing.

Once you have done that, then you can take this quiz to help you see what areas need some improvement. Once you know what you want to be doing as a writer, the actual writing and creating part, along with areas that need to be improved, you will be able to use the next few articles to achieve your goals and improve your writing time. This in turn will help you to earn more, enjoy your writing more, and have more time for family and friends.

Remember, don't worry about what is not working. We will cover that in the next articles. For now just identify what works and what does not. Also, if there are things you want to add or change that are not listed in this quiz, go ahead and make some notes for later on.

Time for the Quiz

#1 Are you able to write as much as you want to write on a monthly basis?

* Yes
* Most of the time
* Some of the time
* Rarely
* Not at all

#2 Are you able to write as much as you want on a weekly basis?

* Yes
* Most of the time
* Some of the time
* Rarely
* Not at all

#3 How about daily? Are you able to write as much as you want on a daily basis?

* Yes
* Most of the time
* Some of the time
* Rarely
* Not at all

#4 Do you feel that you have enough time to be as creative as you would like to be when you are writing?

* Yes
* Most of the time
* Some of the time
* Rarely
* Not at all

#5 Do you ever feel you get bogged down with the business end of writing?

* Yes
* Most of the time
* Some of the time
* Rarely
* Not at all


#6 Do you ever feel you get lost or slowed down by the technical aspects of writing. Like editing and rewriting?

* Yes
* Most of the time
* Some of the time
* Rarely
* Not at all

>7 Do you spend more than an hour a day with social media?

* Yes
* Most of the time
* Some of the time
* Rarely
* Not at all


#8 Do you feel that you accomplish most of what you want to accomplish in your writing on a daily basis?

* Yes
* Most of the time
* Some of the time
* Rarely
* Not at all


#9 When you are writing, do you spend more than five minutes looking for paper, notes, or files on your computer?

* Yes
* Most of the time
* Some of the time
* Rarely
* Not at all



#10 Do you have any repetitive tasks in your writing?

* Yes
* Most of the time
* Some of the time
* Rarely
* Not at all

#11 Is your writing stressing you out?

* Yes
* Most of the time
* Some of the time
* Rarely
* Not at all

#12 Have you found that you fall more and more behind in your writing projects?

* Yes
* Most of the time
* Some of the time
* Rarely
* Not at all

#13 Do you make backup copies of all your writing on a regular basis?

* Yes
* Most of the time
* Some of the time
* Rarely
* Not at all

#14 Do you have as much time as you want to have for your writing?

* Yes
* Most of the time
* Some of the time
* Rarely
* Not at all

#15 Do you have time each week to organize your writing?

* Yes
* Most of the time
* Some of the time
* Rarely
* Not at all

Now that you have answered each question. Make a few notes.

Where do you see areas that you are doing well in right now?

Where do you see areas that you need some improvement in?

Keep you notes handy for next week's article. We will go over some basics to identify some
of the the most important areas for improvement for you.

Now, take some time and relax. You now have a map. In the next few articles, you will find the
directions you need to finally be able to manage your writing time better, and enjoy the rest of your time more.

Happy Writing.




Follow @ThriveandGrowMe