This is a particularly difficult time to be doing the 70 Days of Sweat Writing Challenge. The holidays are approaching and there are all kinds of busy things coming up. Shopping, decorating, cooking, visiting, you name it and the next couple months will be filled with it.

And in the midst of all that, you might also have a job and kids and family to take care of. And you’re also a writer. So you have to nuture a book admist all this chaos. How will you manage it? The only way to deal with it is to learn to say ‘no’, to let a few things go.

When you’re a writer, you can’t do everything. You can’t be all things to all people. It’s a hard lesson I had to learn, and I still suffer great guilt because of it, but that guilt lessons for me all the time because my writing has to come first. If it doesn’t come first, it doesn’t get done. If it doesn’t get done, then I can’t really call myself a writer, can I?

If your writing is important to you, if you want to make this a sustainable career, then you have to learn the word ‘no’. You have to choose the things that aren’t as important as what you thought they might be. And then you have to let go of them so you can carve out enough time to write. Because if you’re overloaded with too many functions, too many activities, too much pressure, you either won’t write at all, or the quality of your writing will suffer.

Which means you need to learn to prioritize. Of course your family is important. They have to be fed and taken care of. But there are always minor things that can be let go of. If you sit down and think about it, you can set a schedule so that during this oh so busy time of year, you can gift yourself with that precious time for yourself so you can write.

Don’t ever forget how important YOU are, how important writing is to you. And then be fierce about holding onto that time. Learn to say ‘No’. It’s very freeing.