Fantastic article by Shawn Blanc:

By giving myself no room for wiggling around or making excuses, I’ve found that having this set time to write means I actually write more than if I were to wait only for inspiration to strike. I write more words in general (usually 1,500 words every day) than days when I wait for inspiration. And my writing is of a higher quality — my crappy first drafts are much less crappy.

And, though my timer is set for 30 minutes, more often than not by the time the half-hour is up, I’m firing on all cylinders and I will continue to write for another hour or three.

As someone who writes for a living, I cannot think of anything more important for me to do each day than to actually write.

It’s an apparently simple lesson, but it so often goes unnoticed: if you care about doing something, set a time for it.

This lesson applies to everything that matters: exercise, writing, reading, you name it. Anything worth doing takes time, and that time is not going to magically schedule itself. If you want to exercise more regularly, don’t just wait and see when you have some free time in the day to do it. Instead, make it your first priority in the morning, even if it means waking up earlier than usual and going to bed earlier at night. You’ll be surprised at how soon it becomes part of your routine, and that’s when the real fun begins.

I’m not saying it’s easy, but I am saying it’s worth it.