8/8/8

I mentioned in my last post that a standard 24-hour day is usually split into three parts of 8, one for work, sleep, and free time. This isn't generally the case, though. Everybody has different schedules. Some people aren't working a full 40 hours a week. Some people only sleep 6 hours a night. These discrepancies will obviously change the ratios, but let's pretend for a moment that all people had a simple 8/8/8 split to make this easier.

If you have a day job, you can't alter those hours. You have to be there for 8 hours a day, Monday through Friday. Sleep is needed for matters of health. You need 8 hours a day. Now, you can split it up into multiple sessions or just move it into other times of the day, but no matter what, you're going to be getting 8 hours.

Since work and sleep are not negotiable, that means the only wiggle room you have in your day is that 8 hours of free time. Assuming you aren't writing as a full-time job, that means you still have 8 hours a day to write, right? Of course not. Everything that happens in life that isn't working or sleeping comes out of your 8 hours of free time. Doing laundry, making and eating food, buying groceries, traveling to and from work, getting ready for bed, and lying in bed waiting to fall asleep, all of these things come out of those 8 hours.

All of a sudden, maybe you only have 4 hours a day to write. That's not too bad, is it? No. You could get a lot done in 4 hours. The problem is that after a long day at work, you want to sit on the couch, watch TV, put in a movie, or play some video games. All of a sudden, those 4 hours become zero and it's time to go to bed.

Regardless of of how your 24 hours are actually split, the fact still remains that sleep and work are non-negotiable. That means that every other thing you do comes out of your free time. It is the most precious commodity you have. If you truly wish to write, then put down the remote, controller, or beer can, pick up your pen, pencil, or keyboard, and write something.