I just finished an essay that was due last week.

I’m not proud.

I packed so much into an already overloaded schedule that my synapses just plain cooked themselves into a nutritious (for zombies anyway) grey goo. It felt a lot like porridge sloshing around inside my skull. I knew the particular essay was due, and it wasn’t like it was a tough one to finish. I just didn’t do it.

The problem was that I’d gotten so good at both finding and making time to write I was ignoring the other things that my body and my brain needed to keep me from keeling over sideways. In case you were wondering, if you’re going to keel over, sideways is the worst way to go.

This was going to be a blog about how to find more time in your already super busy life to write, but instead I’m going to give you something a little different. Go get a piece of paper/open word/open a vein.

Write down the top five things in your life right now, the things you do that you simply can’t do without. You get two freebies in eating and sleeping, you don’t have to write them down. My list looks like this:

1.  Family

2. Work

3. Physical health/training

4. Writing

5. University (yes I’m 28 and at university. I was a late starter at this).

Notice anything missing there? I’m willing to bet your list doesn’t have it on there either. These five things sucked up my entire waking life. The thing that’s missing is relaxation time. You need recovery folks. I do a lot of physical training, and for every hour of hard core exercise I do, my body demands some down time before I can punish it again. I have often ignored these demands and paid heavily for it. Last year I nearly died because my beleaguered body just caved in and I woke up in hospital.

Writing puts the same stress on your mind (and sometimes body) that physical training does. Instead of just making time to write, which you can do, I also want you to book yourself in for some downtime. I don’t care if these means going for a walk or playing some Playstation. If you don’t book in that downtime you’re going to keel over, mentally if not physically. Burnout for writers is particularly ugly, as we will keep writing, chasing our dreams until we simply can’t do anything else.

Even though my essay was late I made time to keep going on my novel. I forwent sleep to do this. I don’t learn quickly. So, get that list back and expand it to seven things. You get to keep your top five things that dominate your life, but you’re going to add in another two things that you are going to make time for. One of those things is you time. This doesn’t mean more time looking after the kids, doing laundry or working. This means time that’s just your to do…nothing. You’re not allowed to be productive, or even useful.

You only get away with cooking as down time if cooking really makes you happy. Cooking for your family because you have to counts as work.

The other thing you’re going to add to your list is research time. Time you spend looking at websites or books about writing. I do a lot of this and it’s half work, half downtime. Actively plan it into your day and don’t confuse it with writing time, working time or down time. Make time for research and then leave it alone. Once you’ve done the research you need for your week you should either be writing or relaxing. Spending four hours staring at writing blogs won’t get your book written but it can and will still consume your poor brains precious resources.

My new list looks like this:

1. Family

2. Work

3. Writing

4. Downtime

5. Research/reading time (reading novels counts if you’re researching them)

6. University

7. Physical health/training

Now that you’ve read all that, switch of the computer and go do something just for yourself. Not for the kids, your partner, your boss or even your novel. Go for a walk, eat a cookie, take a bath.

Your brain will thank you.