The single most important tool in your writing arsenal

It's definitely not a f#$ing pencil

Jan 13, 2026

Y’all. I’m busy. Hella busy. I know you are too.

I talk to writers day in and day out about to-do lists and mental loads, about the admin of adulthood and the energy it takes to care for and about others.

I hear the same thing from full-time caregivers and folks with demanding jobs as well as people with more flexibility and control over their schedule.

“I don’t have enough time to write,” people say to me, almost every single day. It stings to admit it, but I say it too. Pretty much everybody I know feels this way at least some of the time.

Except it’s not true. “Not enough time to write” is a big fat lie. And deep down, you know that.

The problem starts with a logical error we all make: we think we can’t write unless we have an Empty, Silent, Perfect block of time.

If you’ve ever had the luxury of three hours to yourself, you know what happens.

You got free of your obligations for a brief period, thanks in part to others covering your duties to human and pet, career and household. You exhaled with relief at the hours ahead, telling yourself with cocky certainty what you told everybody else: “I’m going to write for the whole three hours!”

And then what happened?

You f#$*ed around for two and a half hours.

Finally, panic and shame drove you to the chair and you wrote your ass off for thirty minutes.

You don’t need a half-day to write.

You don’t even need an hour.

You need a TIMER.

Want to make solid, measurable progress on that story in your heart?

Don’t wait months for that mythical three-hour time block you’re only going to spend one-sixth of writing. Write right now.

Put your phone on do not disturb and set a timer for fifteen minutes.

That’s right. Fifteen minutes.

Because there is nothing in the world that can’t wait fifteen minutes.

Because watching that clock tick will make you stop equivocating and start putting words down.

Because if you write today for fifteen minutes, you will go to sleep a happier, more sane human.

And if you write tomorrow for fifteen minutes, hoo boy—you’ll feel like you have a new lease on life.

Time is your most valuable resource. Don’t you want to spend it on what matters?

Ready? Set?

Get that timer and GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Are you ready to get serious about your writing? Do you want a plan to help you write regularly while still taking into account all the realities, obligations, and joys of your life?

Do you want to finish that #$*&ing project that you’ve been working on forever?

Join me for FINISH YOUR PROJECT THIS YEAR, a 90-minute craft talk that will give creatives working in all genres the skills and expertise to make more progress in 2026 than you thought possible.

We’ll be talking about concrete strategies that will get your butt in the chair and the pages piling up. You’ll leave fired up, with a solid plan to convert that energy into action.

Time is a finite resource. It’s time to spend more of yours on what really matters.