Writing requires many different kinds of self-regulation. The problem is, this term hides shocking complexity. But let’s try to get a handle on a specific piece of the self-regulation puzzle: time management.
Time management itself is complex beyond measure. You have probably heard the platitudes: writing happens best with steady effort. But most writing happens under less than ideal circumstances. Odds are that if you are writing in a burst, you are doing so specifically in response to the stress of not quite enough time. So all the platitudes about time management function as additional guilt in many real-life writing situations.
One simple fact that might help you write: the act of writing takes up a surprisingly small amount of the energy required to write. Before writing we have to plan, have an idea, rough things out, find a slot of suitable time to actually get down to it, do some procrastinating because writing is anxiety-provoking, take breaks and avoid procrastination during those breaks, roll with the unavoidable interruptions of the modern, always-online, plugged-in life. All those things drain energy. Different pieces may drain different people differently, but they are all preying on our limited, precious daily processing cycles. And after writing we need to rest, let it settle, revisit some awkward places, and do some light editing. Pre-writing and post-writing take up the most writing energy,
By way of a specific tip, we think many writers neglect putting things on the back-burner. We tend not to trust our unconscious processes to come up with something in time for whatever deadline is looming, and so we try to burst through our avoidance with nothing but power and discipline. Unfortunately, doing this too much can lead to fixation and keeping our focus too narrow to allow ideas to breathe.
So, we should not neglect the importance of roughing things out and leaving them on the back burner for days. I typically write blog posts by making three or four barely sentence-length point form notes and leaving them to sit for at least a week. I then write the blog around the prompts a week later.
This does not work for everyone, especially for the busy and overwhelmed. But we all need to find ways to let our ideas breathe.