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Do you play video games?

What about games on your phone?

Here’s a data point I want to talk to you about:

That number doesn’t include mindless phone games.

What could you do with an extra 8 hours and 27 minutes each week?

Bottom line: If you’re looking for extra time to create, think about your phone and think about video games.

Are you like my younger cousin?

I visited a younger cousin recently. He’s in a community college program for computer programming.

He is doing well by all accounts but often stays up until 3 or 4am playing video games. He lives with his grandparents. Sometimes, his grandfather wakes up and realizes his grandson hasn’t slept all night.

What if my cousin spent even a portion of that time creating and programming new games? If he’s trying to get ahead, that would be the way to do it.

If you want to write online and be successful, then you have to give up something.

This is a lesson that I still grapple with, even though I’ve been writing professionally for more than 10 years.

I’ve completed big projects like:

  1. Achieving a master’s degree in English
  2. Writing 2 novels
  3. Creating a $10k+ course
  4. Helping multiple brands achieve Page 1 results

Yet, I still get consumed by the Netflix-and-chill machine.

What could I do with only part of that time, maybe an extra hour?

  • Map out future Medium articles
  • Brain dump ideas into my Notion file
  • Start on another book
  • Read with an eye towards research
  • Edit current articles and rewrite headlines

Where most of us get stuck…

What I described above isn’t sending a person to the moon. It’s everything that you’ve heard before.

But here’s where we get stuck: We don’t actually plan to write.

If you’re like me, you don’t add Netflix or video games to your calendar.

Most of the time, we fall into that habit. It’s down time.

With our writing and creating, it’s not so easy to fall into it for fun. We have to plan. And that means adding events to our calendar or knowing that it’s what we have planned for the evening.

Planning to write has to be purposeful.

Much like your job, attending a concert, or going out — it won’t (usually) just happen.

It takes forethought. Consistency and discipline.

If you want to make the most of your time for writing, think ahead.