The Real Reason You Can't Find Time To Write

I used to think my schedule was too busy. But now, I realize it’s important to make writing a non-negotiable part of my daily routine.

Image via Substack.

I tell myself I’ll write later. After work. After I finish the dishes. After I scroll through my phone for just a few minutes, you know, to clear my mind. But later turns into tomorrow, and tomorrow turns into next week.

Finding time to write always feels like a puzzle I should be able to solve but never quite finish. The pieces are there, early mornings, late nights, but they never seem to fit the way I want them to. There’s always something more urgent. Laundry. Emails. The never-ending list of things that make me feel like I’m getting stuff done but somehow leave me no closer to actually writing.

And yet, I always manage to find time for distractions. Five minutes here, twenty there, scrolling, refreshing, checking, consuming. I tell myself I don’t have time to write, but somehow, I have time to fall into a black hole of notifications. Maybe it’s not time I lack. Maybe it’s permission. Permission to sit in the discomfort of a first draft, to stare at a blinking cur…