Staying Productive When Life Gets Busy

Guest blog by Andrew Hacket

Get a job, they say. Have a family, they say. Buy a house, they say. 
But what they don’t say is how hard all of the above make following your creative dream to be a published author. Now, I am not saying jobs and families and houses aren’t wonderful, but they naturally come with commitments that put them at the top of our priority list. 

And our writing? 
At the very bottom. 

So how do you do it? How do you have everything while striving to make your publishing hopes a reality? I don’t pretend to be an expert, but I can share what has worked for me. The steps below have helped me balance being a good partner, parenting three young kids, and teaching full time, all while having three book releases in the same year and producing four more on the way. 

Four Steps to Do Everything

1. Make a Schedule and Prioritize
 If for nothing more than the illusion of organization, make a schedule. Open a blank document, take out a clean sheet of paper, or tap on that calendar on your phone. Take some time to write out all of the things you want and have to do. Work meetings, the dishes, kid’s activities, exercise, and oh yeah, that whole writing thing. Armed with this mighty and probably overwhelming list, you can now start to plug in those have tos, because let's be honest, whether we like it or not, they are have tos. 

BUT, what if we made our writing a have to as well? Unfortunately we lack the magical powers to create more time, but perhaps in looking at your schedule you will see little pockets of time you didn’t notice before. Half of the battle is choosing that your writing is as equally deserving to be on your schedule as all of your other priorities. 

2. Acceptance and Grace 
Armed with this glorious schedule that clearly shows how everything is possible, be ready to accept that you aren't going to do everything well or get to everything all the time. You might get sick. Work deadlines will interfere. And are you serious, those kids want to eat again? Didn’t I feed them yesterday? 

The truth is, it is impossible to do it all, all of the time. I like to say I have three fulltime jobs: Parenting, teaching, and writing, and that I can only ever do two of them well at the same time. Accepting this was freeing. I had subconsciously placed an unobtainable goal to do everything, and every time I failed I felt worse about myself. Being able to accept my own limitations allowed me to feel motivated and proud every time I was able to make that shiny schedule work and make my writing a priority. 

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3. Become a Thief
This is by far the strategy that kept my writing projects and productivity afloat during this extremely busy time of my life. I never traveled anywhere without my laptop or notebook and pen. I had works-in-progress printed and in my backpack along with my favorite editing pens. It was clear that large chunks of time were not a luxury I had, but what if I took all the little leftovers in my day and made the most of them. I turned my have tos into opportunities:
I have to bring my son to soccer practice. 
I have the opportunity to sit on the sideline and get some revising done. 
I have to wait for my car inspection to be done. 
I have the opportunity to brainstorm that new story in my notes app. 
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Lunchbreaks, hockey rinks, sidelines, and my car all became places of productivity. The limited durations of times helped me break my tasks into smaller pieces that were obtainable. And word by word, stolen moment by stolen moment, I was able to make progress and produce new pieces of writing. ​

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​4. Give Yourself a Break
Respect your own bandwidth. Going this full out can be exhausting and lead to burnout. It isn’t sustainable to do everything all the time, even if you have found a way to make it fit logistically into your schedule. So when I begin to feel overwhelmed, or when I feel like I am never going to accomplish x, y, and z, I take those cues and take a break. 

I learned that when I am stressed my creativity is the first thing to disappear. There is more to writing than writing; a hike in the woods, fishing with my kids, or the always elusive nap are some of the things I need more at those times than the need to to push through. Allowing myself a break sounds counterintuitive to accomplishing everything, but the short time away, doing activities that feed my soul, are often exactly what I need to move forward and avoid burnout 

It is not a perfect system. I am constantly adjusting and revising it to fit my current season of life. But it is through these strategies that I have been able to keep producing new stories while teaching, parenting, and promoting books. It is how I keep my sanity and my creative spirit alive when the have tos are never ending. 

I hope some piece of this resonates with you and is able to help you make space in your busy life for more writing!

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Andrew Hacket  is a writer, second-grade teacher, and father of three. He is the author of Ollie, the Acorn, and the Mighty Idea (Page Street Kids, 2024), Curlilocks and the Three Hares (The Little Press, 20204), and Hope and the Sea (WorthyKids 2024). Andrew recognizes that being a kid is hard and he writes to create ways for kids to see themselves in stories and characters, to accept and overcome their insecurities, or to escape for just a little while through the power of their imagination.
His next book, In This Classroom (Red Comet Press) illustrated by Arthur Lin, hits shelves June 9, 2026!

To learn more about Andrew, or to pre-order In This Classroom, visit his website here.
Read the Kirkus review for In This Classroom here.

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