As a working mom, this is something I relate to big time. I’ve struggled so hard to write another book. Running and marketing a business, teaching at universities, working with clients, being the default parent as a military spouse, volunteering at school, driving and driving and driving and driving my kids to school, practices, rehearsals, games, performances, and omg how are there so many birthday parties?

Yet drumroll please….I’m finally, finally closing in on a draft of my new novel! Because this struggle is still real, I’ll tell you a little about what’s been working for me.

First of all, I had to make it a top 3 priority. It took me way too long to do that (for very legitimate reasons), but until I did, it just kept stalling out. I have a whole post on prioritizing your book, but doing that isn’t enough. So many things will get in your way from time constraints to imposter syndrome and perfectionism.

To help you keep going, here are my best tips and tricks

1. Forget about writing consistently. Believe it or not, you’re more likely to finish a book by writing inconsistently. Seriously.

Some successful authors will positively insist that you have to write Every.Single.Day. Why? Because it works for them, especially now that they are full-time writers.

I have a whole post on the fallacy of writing every day because the thing is, it doesn’t work for most people, including the vast majority of authors I know, even New York Times bestselling authors..

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with writing every day, and I love it when I’m able to do that. Reality check: most of us can’t pull that off. If we all shrugged and said oh well, I guess I’m not a writer, most of your favorite books wouldn’t exist.

The problem with any all-or-nothing writing schedule is that it usually ends up being nothing. It’s like gorging on pumpkin pie over the holidays and then vowing to work out every single day starting January 1. How long does that usually last? A few weeks? Then we miss a day, beat ourselves up, and tell ourselves that we failed again, that we always fail. We start to believe it’s too hard, we’re too busy, or we suck at this. And then what do we do? We give up.

Alternatively, we keep pushing until we get sidelined by injury or illness.

Overworking, like overtraining, leads to fatigue and burnout. Just like athletes, writers need rest!

If instead of expecting a non-stop perfect record, we’re happy when we write inconsistently, say 75% or 50% or even 25% of the time we plan to, then it’s a lot easier to meet expectations, feel good about it, and build momentum. (As long as we have an easy way back in after a break. See #2 below).

Consider this. The writer whose New Year’s resolution is to write 1,000 words a day, every single day, is statistically likely to quit by the second Friday of January (aka Quitter’s Day). This year, that was January 10.

That writer would have hit the 10,000-word mark and quit because it was too hard. Let’s even give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they made it a little longer, to the 30,000 words where the vast majority of writers quit.

Now compare that to the writer who only manages to write 25% of those days (1-2 days a week or 7-8 days a month), but who is able to comfortably bear that load all year long. They have 91,000 words.

Again, if writing daily feels right for you and you won’t give up if you miss a few days, fantastic. But if it doesn’t, that’s perfectly fine too, probably even better.

2. Set goals with a twist.

Although you do want to cut yourself slack when you can’t work on your book, you also don’t want to just say “ah, it’ll happen when it happens.” That’s a little like sitting on the couch with your hand in a bag of chips and thinking you’ll magically get in shape.

I encourage you to set some kind of goal or writing schedule—a word count target or number of days or hours with your butt in the seat. Whether you reach the goal or not, you’re going to get a lot of helpful information.

The key here is knowing that when you fail to reach the goal, it doesn’t mean you’re a failure. It means you’ve got insight into what’s getting in the way and what might work better. Then try something different.

3. Make it easy to start.

For any effort of any kind, starting is the hardest part. Just ask my kids when it comes time to clean their rooms. “Mooooom, I don’t know where to start.”

You know that starting is going to be hard, so arm yourself with an easy way back in. That could be editing what you wrote last time, writing from a prompt, re-reading your last few pages or chapters, visiting or researching a setting.

In my post, the Best Advice I Ever Got About Writing, I told you about how my marathon-running friend’s running advice got me back in shape. To sum up, my only goal was to lace up my running shoes and take those first few steps out the door. If it sucked, I had permission to go back to bed. Guess what? By starting, I almost always finished. Almost was more than good enough to get me some great results.

Since then, I’ve been using that advice for my writing and pretty much any other goal I have.

4. Create a daily book habit.

This is not a daily writing habit. (See number 1.) As I said, you don’t have to write every day, but the trick is to keep your book at the forefront of your mind as close to every day as you can get. So, if possible, schedule SOMETHING for your book on a daily basis, even if it’s only for 5 minutes. This could be as simple as editing a paragraph, brainstorming ideas, or listening to a song that reminds you of your book’s themes or emotions.

If you do that, then when you’re in the shower, driving the car, or mowing the lawn, your unconscious will focus on your book…not rehash what you should have said to your obnoxious uncle Buck at the last family gathering.

When you can’t even manage that, don’t beat yourself up! It’s fine. Once again, see #1.

5. Engineer some writing binges. Retreats, DIY or otherwise, are heaven sent.

This one isn’t for the faint of wallet, but thanks to Hilton points and an affordable hotel on our local Air Force base, I have been able to make massive progress by taking occasional long writing weekends away from home. I set my email vacation responder and then write and write and write, pretty much from the second I wake up until the second I go to bed. Nothing to cook, no one to interrupt, nowhere to drive, not a single inspiration. I literally get a quarter’s worth of writing done in three days. Keep in mind, there are subsidized and free writing retreats out there. You just have to apply and be able to plan ahead, which I can’t do quite yet (military life!).

What about you? Do you have any tricks for writing when you’re short on time or inundated with distractions? Let me know in the comments.