How do you find time to write? What are you doing that makes it so you can write as much as you want? How does your wife feel about you spending your time writing? How do you do it all?

These are questions I get asked on a weekly, oftentimes daily basis.

Let’s answer the first one and keep going.

Finding this time isn’t easy. It takes a commitment to do something that you want to do. I told my wife this morning, “I wake up and want to write.” This isn’t something that I’ve always had. Three years ago I stared at my Twitter feed, read blogs and wondered how the hell these people found the time to do everything. Some of these people I knew offline or I knew their family situation.

Here is the easy answer: I find the time because I took things away that were occupying my time. I took the TV away. We watch seven hours of TV a week in our house. Sometimes more, sometimes less. But it has changed things. My kids no longer stare at the TV, my wife finds other things to do and I have time to write. There are times I miss TV, NHL playoffs, NFL Playoffs, UEFA Cup Futbol. But the trade off is better than anything I could have ever dreamed.

Elimination of distractions.

There are tons of distractions in our everyday lives. TV, video games, politics, the economy, Afghanistan, Africa, North Korea, Iran….I could go on for a while. Eliminate things that are distracting you. This could be that extra few minutes you spend stopping for coffee or the time you waste going to the bank when you could do it online.

For most it is TV. I have HULU Plus and Netflix on our XBOX 360. We don’t have regular cable. If it’s not on any of those we can’t watch it, and I’m fine with that. These distractions are what cause the writer not to write more than writers block. “I can’t write I have to watch (Insert TV Show) tonight.”

My Wife is my biggest supporter

Initially my wife had some apprehensions when I started writing a lot. We had a three year old and she didn’t want me to miss anything. She knows that my writing is what I love and like her and our kids my love for writing is endless. I wake up and want to write as much as I want to pin my kids down and tickle them or give my wife that wonderful morning breath kiss.

My wife and I made a deal recently about my writing. It was at a time when I was struggling with my book and I asked her what I should do. I was worried she would be disappointed in me. She told me, “The only time I will be disappointed is if you stop writing.” That was it. When someone loves you enough to let you follow your dream you will have true love.

It takes a schedule

Writing as much as I do takes planning. I have a set schedule that I follow. I work my day job Wed-Sun. I leave the house at 8:30 to be ready for work at 10. After work I eat dinner, sometimes with the family. Usually they are done with dinner and I heat my food up. The kids are in bed soon after and I either sit with my wife for a while or write.

Mon-Tue I’m off. These are the days I spend with my daughter. She’s still little and loves doing things with daddy. After spending the day running errands and doing something fun I pick up the King from school and fix dinner. Mon-Tue are the only two days I get to sit and have dinner with all of them. They are my favorite days.

On Mon-Tue, when the Princess is taking her nap I have a few hours of writing time which I will use for this blog or for my Live Journal page.

Between 10 p.m. and whenever I feel like going to bed is my writing time for the book. I have these things planned out and doing that has helped my writing immensely.

Sometimes it feels like things are moving really fast and I’m trying to catch up. But we have to do things that are hard to get what we want out of life. It is the work that makes everything worth it in the end.

I work forty hours a week, have two kids, wife, dog and three blogs and I’ve written one book with another almost done. I plan on sending two books out this year. If I can do all of this, anyone can!