How to Prioritize Your Work and Hobbies

A writer is commonly asked the question “What activities do you enjoy besides writing?” For me, the answer is simple: I ride my bike (during the warm months), and I collect car-related memorabilia. Most people will have a quick response to a question of this sort.

It is fun and good to have hobbies, but sometimes they become stressful. There can be difficulty in setting aside time for each of your hobbies, while still performing the tasks necessary for your life. I am realizing this as I find new things that interest me. A dreadful truth is emerging: there is no time for all my hobbies.

This depressing blog post could end right now, but that would be a sad ending. Instead, I need to find a way to incorporate my activities into the daily schedule. There could be many ways to do that, but the best way I have thought of so far is to create a priority sheet.

A priority sheet lists the major work/hobbies for each day, categorized in order of their importance. For example, if my two tasks for the afternoon were doing the dishes or playing video games, it would obviously be smarter to wash dishes (although the gaming is funner!) Below is a priority sheet I created that lists my work and hobbies.

My Priority Sheet

Necessary (highest importance)

1. Schoolwork: For starters, I am home-schooled. This gives me much more time in my day for both work and activities by eliminating the bus-trips. When it is time fo school, I pull my textbooks from a cabinet, and our dining room is transformed into a classroom. School is the most important part of a 5-18 year-old’s day. It is the equivalent of a job for an adult. Learning not only makes you smarter, it helps with many hobbies, including writing.

2. Chores: These are no fun, but are highly important. Doing your chores will remove stress from parents, and they will make your home a cleaner, better place to live for the whole family. Whether they be taking out the trash or vacuuming the living room, these daily tasks are second in value to schoolwork, and should be done without complaint. This can sometimes be difficult, but if you complete your work before writing, you will feel better when you are writing or doing your other hobbies.

Semi-necessary (Not necessary, but still important)

1. Only Time Will Tell: This is my second novel, which is currently being prepared for publication. I do not consider it work, but finishing this book is my highest priority for hobbies. I have been neglecting it for a while, when ideas keep popping into my head of other hobbies I could have, but it is time to buckle down and work on releasing Only Time Will Tell.

2. Third Book: A Month Well Spent and Only Time Will Tell will be part of a trilogy. The title of the third book has not fully been decided yet, so I will not mention any of my plans. However, the manuscript has been completed. With this book, I am in the same position as with Only Time Will Tell: it has been temporarily moved to the back burner to make way for other ideas.

Nice-to-haves (Those projects that are not very important in my schedule, but I still want time for)

1. Other books: I come up with a lot of random ideas for stories I would like to write in the future, and can’t help starting many of them. Sometimes, they turn into full-scale operations, where I finish the first half of the novel before taking a break and realizing I have more important things to do. Currently, I have five such books, three of which I have already begun writing. The other two occupy pages in my Moleskine notebook, where I write the main plot so I can come back later and complete the story.

2. Inkscape: This is a departure from my other projects and hobbies. Inkscape is a two-dimensional vector graphic design program, and it gets addicting. Sometimes I sit down to work on it for a couple minutes, and then find that it takes up three hours of my day. Computer software like this is interesting to me, but it can get very time-consuming. There are many different tools to learn on the program, and once you know several of them, it is tough to stop drawing.

Alright, there is my completed priority sheet. It includes all of my tasks in order of their importance. Next, I will copy it onto paper and use it for a week or two. Once I have seen how I like it, I will create a response to this post. I’m not sure if the idea of making a priority sheet is the solution to my problem, but there is no harm in trying.

If you have any suggestions on what else I can do to prioritize, or if you have any experience with these problems, write a comment to the box below.

In the meantime, I need to do school. But I really should finish Only Time Will Tell. Oh, but that Inkscape is so fun…