how to write an essay about time

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Best practices for including time references in your essay writing.

Time plays a crucial role in writing, adding depth and context to your ideas. However, properly conveying time in an essay requires attention to detail and consistency. Whether you are discussing historical events, comparing timelines, or simply narrating a sequence of events, the way you handle time can significantly impact the clarity and effectiveness of your writing.

In this comprehensive guide, we will explore best practices for writing time in an essay, including how to format dates, express time intervals, and maintain chronological order. By mastering these techniques, you can enhance the precision and coherence of your writing, ensuring that your readers follow your argument with ease and understanding.

Using Consistent Time Format

When writing time in an essay, it is crucial to maintain consistent time format throughout your work. This consistency helps the reader to follow the timeline of events and understand the progression of time in your writing.

One of the key aspects of using consistent time format is to decide on the format you will use for representing time. You can choose between the 12-hour clock and the 24-hour clock, but make sure to stick to your choice throughout the entire essay.

Additionally, it is important to be consistent in how you punctuate and separate the elements of time. For example, if you choose to include the time of day, make sure to use the appropriate punctuation and separations, such as “7:30 AM” or “14:45.”

By using a consistent time format, you can enhance the readability and coherence of your essay, making it easier for the reader to follow the progression of events and time in your writing.

Avoiding Abbreviations in Time References

When writing about time in an essay, it’s important to avoid using abbreviations for time references. Abbreviations like “a.m.” and “p.m.” can sometimes be confusing to readers, especially those who are not familiar with these terms.

Instead of using abbreviations, it is better to write out the time references in full. For example, instead of writing “3 p.m.,” you can write “three o’clock in the afternoon.” This not only makes your writing clearer but also helps to avoid any confusion for your readers.

Additionally, when writing about specific times, it is best to use the 24-hour clock format to avoid any confusion. For example, instead of writing “6:30 p.m.,” you can write “18:30.”

Differentiating Between Time Zones

When writing about time in an essay, it is crucial to differentiate between different time zones to avoid confusion. Using the appropriate time zone is essential for clear communication and accuracy. Here are some best practices to keep in mind:

1. Specify the Time Zone: Always specify the time zone when mentioning a particular time to provide clarity for your readers. For example, if you mention an event happening at 3:00 PM, specify whether it is in Eastern Standard Time (EST), Central Standard Time (CST), Pacific Standard Time (PST), or any other time zone.

2. Convert Time Zones: If you need to convert a time from one time zone to another, make sure to do so accurately. Use reliable sources or online converters to ensure the correct conversion. Double-check your calculations to avoid errors.

3. Be Consistent: When mentioning time zones throughout your essay, be consistent in your usage. Stick to one format and style to maintain coherence and avoid confusion for your readers.

4. Consider Your Audience: Take into account the location of your audience when mentioning time zones. If you have an international audience, consider using Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) or Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) as a reference point to provide a universal frame of reference.

By following these guidelines, you can effectively differentiate between time zones in your essay and ensure clarity and accuracy in your writing.

Integrating Time Markers Naturally

When incorporating time markers in your essay, it is essential to do so seamlessly and naturally. This means that you should avoid simply listing dates or times without any context or relevance to your discussion. Instead, strive to integrate time markers in a way that adds depth and clarity to your writing.

One effective way to integrate time markers naturally is to use them to provide context or establish a timeline for your argument. For example, you might use time markers to show the progression of events or to highlight the significance of a particular moment in history.

Additionally, consider using transitional phrases to smoothly introduce time markers into your writing. Phrases like “In the past,” “Throughout history,” or “In recent years,” can help connect your ideas and make the passage of time feel organic and fluid.

Overall, the key to integrating time markers naturally is to use them strategically and thoughtfully to enhance the coherence and flow of your essay. By carefully weaving time markers into your writing, you can provide readers with a clear sense of the temporal context of your argument and strengthen the overall impact of your work.

Clarifying AM and PM Notations

When writing time in an essay, it is important to clarify whether the time is in the morning (AM) or the afternoon/evening (PM). This distinction is crucial for readers to accurately interpret the time reference.

Here are some best practices for using AM and PM notations:

• Use “AM” to indicate times from midnight to noon.
• Use “PM” to indicate times from noon to midnight.
• Always include a space between the time and the AM or PM notation (e.g., 9:00 AM).
• When indicating noon, use “12:00 PM” to avoid confusion with midnight.
• Avoid using “12:00 AM” to represent midnight; instead, use “12:00 PM”.

By following these guidelines, you can ensure clarity and precision when writing time references in your essays.

Providing Context for Relative Time Expressions

When writing about time in an essay, it is important to provide context for relative time expressions. This helps the reader understand the timeline of events and creates a clear and coherent narrative. One way to provide context is to use transition words and phrases that indicate the order of events, such as “before,” “after,” “during,” and “while.”

Another way to provide context is to use specific dates, years, or time frames to anchor the relative time expressions. For example, instead of saying “recently” or “a long time ago,” specify the time period to give the reader a more concrete understanding of when the events occurred.

By providing context for relative time expressions, you can enhance the clarity and coherence of your writing, making it easier for readers to follow the timeline of events and understand the progression of your ideas.

Checking for Time Accuracy in Quotes

When including quotes in your essay that mention specific times or dates, it is important to ensure that the information is accurate. Misquoting or misrepresenting the time frame can discredit your writing and undermine the credibility of your argument.

Before finalizing a quote that includes time-related details, it is crucial to double-check the accuracy of the information. This can be done by cross-referencing the quote with reliable sources, such as the original text or a reputable publication.

Additionally, it is recommended to verify the context in which the time is mentioned and ensure that it aligns with the overall narrative of your essay. Incorrectly attributing a time frame to a quote can distort the meaning and lead to misinterpretations.

By diligently checking for time accuracy in quotes, you can maintain the integrity of your writing and effectively support your arguments with credible evidence.

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Essay on Time Management

• Updated on  
• Aug 27, 2022

“Time isn’t the main thing, it’s the only thing”- Mile Davis.

Time management is a prestigious topic for budding subconscious minds. It is one of the most crucial skills that you must inculcate from early on. This skill has vital importance when you move into a professional setting. It is extremely important to manage time efficiently as not managing time can create many problems in your day-to-day life. It is also a common essay topic in the school curriculum and various academic and competitive exams like IELTS , TOEFL , SAT , UPSC , etc. This blog brings you samples of essays on time management with tips & tricks on how to write an essay.

Essay on Time Management in 200 words

Time stops for none and is equal for all. Everyone has the same 24 hours in a day but some people make better use of time than others. This is one of the most important reasons some people are experts in what they do. Therefore, time management plays a vital role in both personal as well as professional lives.

Time management is basically an effort made consciously to spend a certain amount of time performing a task efficiently. Furthermore, it is estimated that to have better results, one needs to do productive work. Thus, productivity is the key focus here. Moreover, maintaining a careful balance between professional life, social life, and any other hobbies or activities is a great example of efficient time management.

Time management is also crucial for students from an academic perspective as students require to cover many subjects. Thus, efficiently managing time is an important skill in everyone’s life.  Around the world, there are two views for time management – linear time view and multi-active time view. The linear time view is predominant in America, Germany and England, and it aims at completing one task at a time. Whereas a multi-active view aims at completing a number at once and is predominant in India and Spain. Nevertheless, time management is one of the important traits of a successful individual, students are advised to follow whichever is convenient for them.

Essay on Time Management in 300 Words

Time Management is a key skill for job opportunities as employers recruit candidates who have this efficient skill. Thus, it is advised to initiate inculcating this vital skill as soon as possible. In the academic setting, time management plays a vital role and helps in the accomplishment of tasks efficiently and effectively.

Time management is the process of planning and performing pre-scheduled activities with the aim of increasing productivity, effectiveness and efficiency. Different cultures hold different views on Time Management. However, a multi-active time view and a linear time view are the two predominant views. In a linear time view, the aim is set to complete one particular task at a time whereas, in a multi-active view, the focus is on completing a greater number of tasks at once. Emphasis is given on productivity and effectiveness, but students are free to choose their own view of time management.

Time management is crucial as it is helpful in setting a timeline for achieving a particular goal. Moreover, it also increases the efficiency of the tasks at hand. It becomes necessary for working professionals as they need to balance their personal and professional life. Thus, they do not have time to dwell on each and every detail in every task. In such cases, a multi-active view is one of the helpful methods. Time management works best when a goal or target is set. For instance, a student becomes far more effective at learning when they decide to assign 2 hours for learning a particular concept. This is effectively a method of benchmarking progress. So, every time the activity is performed, one can measure themselves and improve upon various aspects of their tasks.The clear conclusion is that time management is a crucial skill for students and working professionals. Thus, everyone must practise time management to improve productivity and efficiency of tasks.

Tips for Writing an Essay on Time Management

To write an impactful and scoring essay here are some tips on how to manage time and write a good essay:

• The initial step is to write an introduction or background information about the topic
• You are required to use the formal style of writing and avoid using slang language.
• To make an essay more impactful, write dates, quotations, and names to provide a better understanding
• You can use jargon wherever it is necessary as it sometimes makes an essay complicated
• To make an essay more creative you can also add information in bulleted points wherever possible
• Always remember to add a conclusion where you need to summarise crucial points
• Once you are done read through the lines and check spelling and grammar mistakes before submission

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Lastly, we hope this blog has helped you in structuring a terrific essay on time management. Planning to ace your IELTS or looking for cheap foreign universities for Indian students get expert tips from coaches at Leverage Live by Leverage Edu .

Sonal is a creative, enthusiastic writer and editor who has worked extensively for the Study Abroad domain. She splits her time between shooting fun insta reels and learning new tools for content marketing. If she is missing from her desk, you can find her with a group of people cracking silly jokes or petting neighbourhood dogs.

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Time: Thinking About Time—It’s Complicated

• First Online: 12 November 2024

Cite this chapter

• Lyndall Strazdins 2  

Ideas about time have preoccupied philosophers, scientists and writers. This chapter introduces time as a social concept. Time is like money in one way—it’s a thing people need and use for just about all aspects of daily life that enable good health. But, unlike money, food, water or shelter, they can’t see or touch it, it is not a tangible thing. Time is elusive, and personal but this also means it is easily overlooked even while daily lives are controlled by it. Essential ideas about time are summarised and linked, drawing from political economy, sociology and economic insights. Different facets of time are explained, beyond the assumption time is just hours and minutes. As well as connecting time and money through the historical process of industrialisation, the chapter explores new experiences of time through technology and the speeding up of daily activities, including recent framings of modernity as social acceleration.

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• Writing Tips

7 Top Tips on Writing the Time

7-minute read

• 25th July 2019

As anyone who has turned up for a midday meeting at midnight will tell you, clarity is vital when writing the time of day. But there are many ways to write the time, and the best approach isn’t always obvious. We have a few tips to help, though.

1. Words or Numerals?

You can write the time of day using either words or numerals. If you are using numerals, you would usually include both hours and minutes, although you can omit the minutes in less formal writing .

For instance, all the following would be acceptable:

She gets up at six in the morning every day.

She gets up at 6:00 in the morning every day.

She gets up at 6 o’clock in the morning every day.

As a rule, though, you would only write out the time as words when:

• It is part of a full sentence, particularly in descriptive or literary writing.
• Using a 12-hour clock (never with a 24-hour clock ).
• You’re referring to an approximate or round time (e.g., saying “ten thirty” is fine, but you would not usually write “twenty-four minutes after eight”).

In most other cases, numerals are the clearer option for writing the time, especially in scientific and technical writing, where precision is vital.

2. AM and PM

The abbreviations AM and PM can be used when writing the time as numerals. Each applies to a different time of day:

• AM is short for ante meridiem , meaning “before noon.”
• PM is short for post meridiem , meaning “after noon.”

As such, we use AM and PM to indicate the time of day when we are using a 12-hour clock. We can see how this works more clearly if we write out various times of day in both 12-hour and 24-hour formats:

You can see here that we need AM and PM with the twelve-hour clock for clarity. Without them, we wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between, e.g., midday and midnight. Likewise, though, you do not need to include AM or PM with a 24-hour time because it is already clear.

There are also several ways to write AM and PM, including:

• ALL CAPS, small caps , or lower case (e.g., 12 AM, 12 AM , or 12 am)
• With or without periods between the letters (e.g., 8 PM or 8 P.M.)
• With or without a space after the number (e.g., 1 AM or 1AM)

Consistency is key here, so make sure to apply one style throughout your document. You may also want to check your style guide if you have one, as some organizations will have their own rules for how to write AM and PM.

3. When to Use O’clock

You’ll have noticed we use “o’clock ” in one of the examples above. This term means “of the clock,” so we can use it to show that a number refers to a time.

However, you should only use “o’clock” with exact hours:

It is precisely 5 o’clock . ✔

I’m leaving at seven o’clock . ✔

It arrived at 7:34 o’clock . ✘

The gig starts at half past seven o’clock . ✘

We’ll save a discussion of when wine o’clock is for another blog post.

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4. Past, After, Till, and To

When writing the time as words, use “after,” “past,” and “to” for intervals between hours. You can combine these terms with either numbers or the words “half” and “quarter” depending on the time in question:

• Use after or past for intervals up to half an hour past the hour.
• Use to for any interval after the half hour up to the hour.
• Use half past to indicate 30 minutes past the hour.
• Use quarter past   or  quarter after for 15 minutes after the hour.
• Use quarter to for 15 minutes up to the hour.

For example, we would use the above accordingly in the following times:

7:05 → Five after seven

7:15 → Quarter past seven

7:30 → Half past seven

7:45 → Quarter to eight

7:55 → Five to eight

Keep in mind that using “after” for times is only standard in American English. In other English dialects, “past” is far more common.

5. Punctuating the Time

When writing the time as numerals, you can use either a colon or a period between the hour and the minutes. In some cases, such as in the military , you can even write out a 24-hour time without any punctuation.

For instance, the following are all acceptable ways of punctuating a time:

We need to leave by 6:45 pm at the latest. ✔

We need to leave by 6.45 pm at the latest. ✔

We need to leave by 1845 at the latest. ✔

The colon is the most common option here, but it is a matter of preference. Unless you’re in the military, in which case we suggest sticking to protocol.

6. Time Zones

For the contiguous states in the USA, we have four standard time zones:

• Pacific Time (PT) [UTC-08:00]
• Mountain Time (MT) [UTC-07:00]
• Central Time (CT) [UTC-06:00]
• Eastern Time (ET) [UTC-5:00]

We also have regional time zones for Alaska, Hawaii, and 5 US dependencies, plus daylight saving time in some places during the warmer months of the year. And people in other countries use different time zones entirely!

Basically, we’re saying geography can make time complicated.

This is why we sometimes include a time zone when writing the time. The initials UTC above, for instance, stand for Coordinated Universal Time . We can use this to compare times in different places. So, “UTC-8:00” means Pacific Time is 8 hours behind UTC. And since we know Pacific Time is 8 hours behind UTC and Eastern Time is 5 hours behind UTC, we can work out that ET is 3 hours ahead of PT.

In other words, by including a time zone when we write a time, we can help people in other places “translate” it into their own time zone.

This is important if you are writing for an international audience, since not everyone will be in the same time zone. You thus need to include a set of time zone initials so your reader can calculate the equivalent time where they are. For example, if we were writing a time for an international audience, we might say:

The live broadcast will begin at 9:00 pm UTC .

Someone in Bolivia could then look up the difference between UTC and BOT (Bolivia Time) and know the broadcast begins at 5:00 pm where they are.

7. Avoiding Redundancy when Writing the Time

In writing, redundancy means using a word unnecessarily. We mentioned above, for example, that you do not need to use AM or PM with 24-hour times because we already know whether a time is the morning or afternoon/evening when using a 24-hour clock.

Other cases of temporal redundancy you may want to avoid include:

• Using “in the morning,” “in the afternoon,” etc., alongside AM/PM.
• Combining “in the morning,” “in the afternoon,” etc., with a 24-hour time.
• Using “midday,” “noon,” or “midnight” alongside a time in numbers.

We’ll end this post with a few examples of redundancies so you know what to watch out for. Check out the table below, good luck writing the time, and let us know if you need any help proofreading your work.

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Essay On Time for Students and Children

500+ words essay on time.

Essay On Time – Time is very precious and we should not waste it in any way. Likewise, we can earn the money we spent but we cannot get back the time we have lost. So, this makes the time more valuable than money. Hence, we should utilize the time in the most possible way.

Importance of Time

This the most valuable and precious thing in the world. Also, we should use it for our good as well as for the good of others around us. This will help us and the society to progress towards a better tomorrow. Moreover, we should teach our children the importance and value of time. Also, wasting time will only lead you to cause an issue to you and the people around you.

Effective Utilization of Time

For effectively utilizing the time we must consider some points which will help us in our whole life. This utilization includes setting goals, prepare work lists, prioritize task, and take adequate sleep and various others.

For effectively utilizing time set long and short term goals these goals will help you in remaining productive. Moreover, they will prove as a driving force that will keep you motivated. Also, this will give the willingness to achieve something in life.

In the beginning, it will feel like a boring task but when you do it regularly then you will realize that that it only helps you to increase your productivity. Ultimately, this will force you to achieve more in life.

Prioritizing task is a very effective way of managing time. Also, because of it, you will know the importance of various task and jobs. Apart from that, if your club and perform a similar activity in a go then it also increases your productivity. Hence, it will help you to achieve more in life.

Being productive does not mean that you engage yourself in different tasks every time. Taking proper sleep and exercising is also part of being productive. Besides, proper exercise and sleep maintain a balance between body and mind which is very important for being productive and efficient.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Value of Time

Although most people do not understand how valuable time is until they lost it. Besides, there are people in the world who prioritize money over time because according to them, time is nothing. But, they do not realize the fact that it is time that has given them the opportunity to earn money. Apart from this, the time has given us prosperity and happiness and on the contrary, it has also given us sorrow and grief.

Power of Time

In previous time many kings proclaim themselves as the ruler of their age and all. But, they forget that they have limited time. Time is the only thing in the world that is limitless. Time can make you a king or a beggar in a movement of seconds.

In conclusion, we can say that time is the greatest gift of God. Moreover, there is a saying that “if you waste time, time will waste you.” Only this line is enough to justify how important and valuable time is.

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Sen. Elizabeth Warren: Here's the Plan to Fight Back

T o everyone who feels like their heart has been ripped out of their chest, I feel the same. To everyone who is afraid of what happens next, I share your fears. But what we do next is important, and I need you in this fight with me.

As we confront a second Donald Trump presidency , we have two tasks ahead. First, try to learn from what happened. And then, make a plan.

Many political experts and D.C. insiders are already blaming President Joe Biden’s economic agenda for Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss . This does not stand up to scrutiny. Even though the Biden economy produced strong economic growth while reining in inflation , incumbent parties across the globe have been tossed out by voters after the pandemic. American voters also showed support for Democratic economic policies, for example, approving ballot initiatives to raise the minimum wage in Alaska and to guarantee paid sick leave in Missouri.

But good economic policies do not erase painful underlying truths about our country. For my entire career, I’ve studied how the system is rigged against working-class families. On paper, the U.S. economy is the strongest in the world. But working families are struggling with big expenses like the cost of housing, health care, and childcare. Giant corporations get tax breaks and favorable rules while workers are gouged by higher prices. Billionaires pay paltry taxes on their wealth while families can’t afford to buy their first homes .

Americans do not want a country where political parties each field their own team of billionaires who then squabble over how to divvy up the spoils of government. Vice President Harris deserves credit for running an inspiring campaign under unprecedented circumstances. But if Democrats want to earn back the trust of working people and govern again, we need to convince voters we can—and will—unrig the economy.

What comes next? Trump won the election, but more than 67 million people voted for Democrats and they don’t expect us to roll over and play dead. We will have a peaceful transition of power, followed by a vigorous challenge from the party out of power, because that’s how democracy works. Here’s a path forward.

First, fight every fight in Congress.

We won’t always win, but we can slow or sometimes limit Trump’s destruction. With every fight, we can build political power to put more checks on his administration and build the foundation for future wins. Remember that during the first Trump term, mass mobilization—including some of the largest peaceful protests in world history—was the battery that charged the resistance. There is power in solidarity, and we can’t win if we don’t get in the fight.

During the Trump years, Congress stepped up its oversight of his unprecedented corruption and abuses of power. In the Senate, Democrats gave no quarter to radical Trump nominees; we asked tough questions and held the Senate floor for hours to slow down confirmation and expose Republican extremism. These tactics doomed some nominations entirely, laid the groundwork for other cabinet officials to later resign in disgrace , and brought scrutiny that somewhat constrained Trump’s efforts.

When all this work came together, we won some of the toughest fights. Remember Republicans’ attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act? Democrats did not have the votes to stop the repeal. Nevertheless, we fought on. Patients kept up a relentless rotation of meetings in Congress, activists in wheelchairs performed civil disobedience, and lawmakers used every tactic possible— late night speeches , forums highlighting patient stories , committee reports , and procedural tactics —to draw attention to the Republican repeal effort. This sustained resistance ultimately shifted the politics of health care repeal. The final vote was a squeaker, but Republicans lost and the ACA survived.

Democrats should also acknowledge that seeking a middle ground with a man who calls immigrants “ animals ” and says he will “protect” women “whether the women like it or not” is unlikely to land in a good place. Uniting against Trump’s legislative agenda is good politics because it is good policy. It was Democratic opposition to Trump’s tax bill that drove Trump’s approval ratings to what was then the lowest levels of his administration, forcing Republicans to scrap all mention of the law ahead of the 2018 midterm election and helping spark one of the largest blue waves in recent history.

Second, fight Trump in the courts.

Yes, extremist courts, including a Supreme Court stocked with MAGA loyalists, are poised to rubber-stamp Trump’s lawlessness. But litigation can slow Trump down, give us time to prepare and help the vulnerable, and deliver some victories.

Third, focus on what each of us can do.

I understand my assignment in the Senate, but we all have a part to play. During the first Trump administration, Democrats vigorously contested every special election and laid the groundwork to take back the House in the 2018 midterms , creating a powerful check on Trump and breaking the Republican trifecta. Whether it’s stepping up to run for office, supporting a neighbor’s campaign, or getting involved in an organization taking action, we all have to continue to make investments in our democracy—including in states that are passed over as “too red.” The political position we’re in is not permanent, and we have the power to make change if we fight for it.

Finally, Democrats currently in office must work with urgency.

While still in charge of the Senate and the White House, we must do all we can to safeguard our democracy. To resist Trump’s threats to abuse state power against what he calls “the enemy within,” Pentagon leaders should issue a directive now reiterating that the military’s oath is to the Constitution. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer must use every minute of the end-of-year legislative session to confirm federal judges and key regulators—none of whom can be removed by the next President.

To those feeling despair: I understand. But remember, every step toward progress in American history came after the darkness of defeat. Abolitionists, suffragettes, Dreamers, and marchers for civil rights and marriage equality all faced impossible odds, but they persisted. Now it is our turn to pull up our socks and get back in the fight.

Elizabeth Warren is a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts.

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9 Tips to Ace That Timed Essay

Exams are almost upon us, and a familiar sense of foreboding has settled over the campus. One exam element that can be particularly intimidating for some students is the timed essay: an exam question which demands a full essay on a topic that is typically revealed for the first time during the test. While these kinds of questions may seem scary, there are plenty of ways to make them easy for yourself. Read on for tips about how to prepare in advance of the exam and how to approach timed essays before, during, and after the writing process.

While Preparing for the Exam: Become familiar with the course content. If the professor hasn’t told you in advance what a timed essay prompt will be, it can be intimidating to think that you will have to write about a subject you’ve never seen before. However, this thinking process does not reflect the reality of the situation. In fact, even if your teacher hasn’t given you any hints about the essay question, you do know what it will be about: the concepts and ideas you’ve discussed in the course. Therefore, if you take the time to review your notes and ensure you understand everything that was discussed, it should be difficult for the essay question to catch you off guard. As soon as you read the question, relevant course concepts will start popping into your head, and you’ll just have to organize them into a coherent essay. Start planning if you can. Although the situation described above sometimes occurs, it’s also very common for professors to give their students a fairly detailed idea of what an essay question will involve in advance of the test day. (After all, professors want to mark high-quality essays written by well-prepared students!) This heads-up gives you a great chance to prepare for the exam. If you have the time, consider mapping out a possible essay in point form before the day of the exam arrives. Consider practicing writing under time pressure. You’ve probably written dozens of essays before--the only thing that sets a timed essay apart is that it’s timed. Students often struggle to complete the full essay within the time constraints, particularly if they have to write longhand when they’re accustomed to working on the computer. For this reason, it can be helpful to simulate the conditions of a timed exam before the actual day: pick a practice question, find some lined paper, set a stopwatch, and see how you do! Before You Start Writing: Read the question carefully. The most critical part of the essay-writing process actually happens before you write your first word. When you flip to the essay question, make sure you read it as carefully as you can, noting the difference between words such as ‘contrast’ and ‘analyze’ and highlighting any details which the professor specifically instructs you to include. It’s not uncommon for excellent essays to receive low marks because the student answered a question other than the one that was asked. Make a clear and specific plan. Some students react to the time pressure of essay exams by scribbling down their introduction as soon as they’ve read the question and figuring out their points as they go. While it might seem counter-intuitive, taking five or ten minutes before you start writing in order to draw up a plan will be an enormous time saver. Decide on your thesis, the topic of each paragraph, and the arguments which you intend to cover, then jot down some quick point-form notes. This process won’t take long, and, once you complete it, all that’s left will be to expand those notes into a well-organized essay. Without a clear plan, you run the risk of realizing partway through that you’ve drifted off topic or written yourself into a corner, and fixing these mistakes will consume a ton of extra time. Schedule a set time for each paragraph. On the topic of planning, it’s important to sketch out an idea of how long you want to spend on each section of your essay. (If you know the number of paragraphs you’ll need to write ahead of time, you can do this before the exam even starts!) Take note of the amount of time allotted for the exam and split it into reasonably-sized segments, leaving some time at the end for revision if possible. Without a schedule to follow, it’s easy to become too focused on a single paragraph and run out of time to finish the essay. While You’re Writing: Write clearly and double-space. This tip may seem basic, but it’s easy to forget and it can make a big difference. Both these measures won’t just make it easier for the marker to read your paper; they'll also help you write it. If you have time left at the end of the exam for review, having the ability to skim quickly through your work and write revisions in blank spaces will be incredibly helpful.

Keep yourself on schedule.  Remember the paragraph-based schedule we discussed above? It’ll be useless if you don’t do regular check-ins during the exam. Keep an eye on the clock to ensure you’re always on track. If you realize that you’re falling dangerously behind schedule, it might be necessary to cut some arguments or examples you planned to include. Although making these omissions can be painful, it’s better to leave out a few points from one section than to leave out an entire paragraph because you ran out of time. Don’t worry too much about editing and revision before you finish. When composing essays, many students stop and read over each paragraph once they finish it, making sure that it’s well-written and free of errors before advancing to the next one. This approach is entirely logical when there’s no time pressure involved, but it can actually work against you during an exam. Perfecting paragraphs is a time-consuming process, and, if you spend too much time editing before the essay is finished, you might have to rush through the last few sections or leave them out entirely. For this reason, it’s best to focus on producing a complete first draft before you worry about edits and revisions.

After You’ve Finished Writing: Re-read the question and ensure you’ve addressed all parts. The most important part of writing an essay exam is ensuring that you’re answering the question was posed. Even if you made sure you were interpreting everything correctly before you began, you may have forgotten to address a subquestion or integrate an example as you were writing. Before you submit, read the prompt again and make sure your completed essay matches up! Edit if you have time. If you have enough time left over, read your essay again and make corrections. When you’re working under time pressure, it’s easy to make grammar mistakes or produce hard-to-follow sentences; the final few minutes are your chance to clean up those errors. Unless if you finished way ahead of schedule, don’t worry about major revisions like reorganizing the structure of the essay--it’s better to hand in an essay with an imperfect structure than a paper that’s impossible to follow because you had to stop halfway through the revision process.

Remember to have the right perspective. Once you hand your exam to the professor, relax! It’s easy to work yourself up after an essay exam when you didn’t get the chance to read your work over or you feel like your arguments were weak. However, it’s important to keep in mind that your professor understands the circumstances under which the essay was written. They’re fully aware of the time pressure you were dealing with, and they will judge your work far differently than they would judge a typical essay with a deadline set weeks after the assignment date. If you did your best to write a complete, clear, and insightful essay within the time allotted, you should have nothing to worry about. Best of luck during the upcoming exam season!

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Essay on Time In Life

Students are often asked to write an essay on Time In Life in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Time In Life

What is time.

Time is something that never stops. It is always moving forward, second by second. We use time to plan our day, from waking up in the morning to going to bed at night. Time helps us organize our lives.

Time in Our Lives

In our lives, time is very important. When we are young, we have a lot of time to learn and play. As we grow older, we start to use our time for work or to help others. It is important to use our time wisely because once it is gone, we cannot get it back.

Using Time Well

To use time well, we should do things that are important and make us happy. This means spending time with family, learning new things, and having fun. It is also good to help others with our time. This way, we make our lives and the lives of others better.

250 Words Essay on Time In Life

Time is a strange and wonderful thing. It’s something we all experience, but we don’t always understand it. Time can seem to fly by when we’re having fun, but it can also drag on when we’re bored. It can be a source of great joy, or it can be a source of great pain. Time is complex and multifaceted, but it’s also one of the most important things in life.

Time and Change

Time is constantly changing. The world is always changing, and we are always changing with it. Our experiences, our relationships, and our perspectives are all constantly evolving. Time is the only thing that remains constant, and it’s the only thing that we can truly count on.

Time and Value

Time is valuable. It’s the one thing that we can never get back. That’s why it’s so important to use our time wisely. We should spend our time doing things that we love, with people we care about. We should spend our time making a difference in the world.

Time and Perspective

Time can give us perspective. When we look back on our lives, we can see how far we’ve come. We can see how our experiences have shaped us into the people we are today. Time can help us to appreciate the good things in life, and it can help us to learn from our mistakes.

Time is a precious gift. It’s something that we should cherish and use wisely. Time is the only thing that we can truly count on, so we should make the most of it.

500 Words Essay on Time In Life

The essence of time.

Time is a fundamental aspect of our existence, an invisible force that governs our lives. It flows relentlessly forward, shaping our experiences and dictating our actions. Understanding the significance of time allows us to make the most of our journey through life.

Time’s Fleeting Nature

Time is fleeting, slipping away like grains of sand through our fingers. We often overlook its importance until we are faced with its scarcity. Moments of joy and sorrow, success and failure, pass in an instant, leaving behind memories that fade with time. Recognizing the transient nature of time encourages us to cherish each moment, to savor the sweetness of life’s experiences before they vanish.

Time’s Power

Time possesses an immense power, capable of transforming us and the world around us. It can heal wounds, both physical and emotional, mending broken hearts and restoring shattered dreams. Time can also erode and destroy, leaving ruins in its wake. As we journey through time, we grow, learn, and evolve, becoming different individuals than we were in the past. Time’s passage reminds us that change is inevitable and that we must adapt and embrace life’s transformations.

Time’s Perception

Our perception of time is subjective, influenced by our emotions, experiences, and expectations. Time seems to stretch endlessly when we are bored or anxious, yet it flies by when we are engaged and fulfilled. Memories of the past can be distorted by our current perspective, altering our perception of time’s passage. Understanding the malleability of time allows us to appreciate the present moment more fully and to approach the future with a sense of anticipation and excitement.

Time’s Finality

Time is finite for each of us. The hourglass of our lives has a limited amount of sand, and we must make the most of it. While the prospect of mortality can be daunting, it can also be a catalyst for growth and purpose. Knowing that our time is有限 motivates us to pursue our dreams, connect with loved ones, and leave a meaningful legacy. Embracing the finality of time empowers us to live each day with intention and gratitude.

Time is a precious gift, an invisible thread that weaves together the tapestry of our existence. Its fleeting nature reminds us to cherish each moment, while its transformative power encourages us to embrace change and growth. Our perception of time is subjective, influenced by our emotions and experiences. Understanding the malleability of time allows us to appreciate the present moment more fully. The finality of time motivates us to live each day with intention and gratitude. Time is the ultimate teacher, reminding us that life is fleeting and that we must make the most of our journey.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

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• Essay on World Hunger

Apart from these, you can look at all the essays by clicking here .

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How to Write a Good Essay in a Short Amount of Time

Last Updated: September 17, 2024 Approved

This article was co-authored by Megan Callaghan, PhD . Megan Morgan is an Academic Advising and Writing expert based in Augusta, Georgia. She has over 7 years of university teaching experience and more than 15 years of professional editing experience. She works as an intern for the Law Library of Congress, and is also a Professional Writing Center Consultant at Augusta University. Her key academic interests involve reference and subject librarianship, government information, and information organization. She provides personalized writing instruction, workshops, and support for AU students, faculty, and staff. Previously, she worked as a Graduate Program Administrator at the University of Georgia’s School of Public and International Affairs. She was a Graduate Advisor for three degrees in the departments of Political Science and International Affairs at the University of Georgia College of Arts and Sciences. She earned her Master’s in Library and Information Science from Valdosta State University. She also received both a PhD and MA in English from The University of Georgia, and a BA in English and Creative Writing from the Mississippi University for Women. She wrote her PhD dissertation on narrative structure and social change in novels by 18th-century British women writers. wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. This article received 16 testimonials and 80% of readers who voted found it helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 902,706 times.

Sometimes, you need to be able to write a good essay in a short amount of time for a timed exam, such as the Advanced Placement exams in high school. At other times, you might find yourself in the uncomfortable situation of having to write an essay fast because you procrastinated or let it sneak up on you. Although an essay written at the last minute will almost never be as good as an essay you spent more time on, putting together a decent essay quickly is still feasible. With a little planning and a lot of hard work, you can write an essay that’s good (or good enough!) in just a short time.

Doing the Prep Work for Your Essay

• Be honest about your strengths and weaknesses when devising your plan. [1] X Research source For example, if you are a good researcher but not great at editing, spend less time on the research section in favor of spending more time on the revising section.
• Make sure to schedule breaks for yourself to refresh your brain and recharge yourself.
• An example of a plan for a one-day essay writing project might look like this:
• 8:00 – 9:30 – Consider an essay question and argument for the topic.
• 9:30 – 9:45 – Take a short break.
• 10:00 – 12:00 – Conduct research.
• 12:00 – 13:00 – Outline the essay.
• 13:00 – 14:00 – Take a lunch break.
• 14:00 – 19:00 – Write your essay.
• 19:00 – 20:00 – Take a dinner break.
• 20:00 – 22:30 – Revise and copy edit your essay.
• 22:30 – 23:00 – Print and prepare your essay submission. [2] X Research source

• Make sure you understand what the question is asking for! If you provide a summary when the essay prompt asked you to “analyze,” you’re unlikely to do very well.
• If you don’t have an essay topic, choose a subject that interests you and consider the essay question afterward. You are more likely to write a good essay on a topic that you’re interested in.

• If you don’t have much experience with your topic, it might be difficult to develop an argument. You can still consider your argument and then use your research to support or refute the claims you want to make.
• A good exercise to help you quickly figure out your essay question and argument is to write “I am studying (choose a topic) because I want to know (what do you want to know) in order to show (this is where your argument goes).”
• For example, “I am studying the medieval witch trials because I want to know how lawyers employed evidence in their cases in order to show that the trial process influenced modern medical techniques and legal practices.”
• Consider counter-arguments in order to strengthen your essay.

• Since you don’t have a lot of time to write, focus on one or two places where you can do research. For example, the library and internet offer many different options for sources. [4] X Research source
• Just make sure that you use reliable sources, such as peer-reviewed journals, government and university websites, and newspapers and magazines written by professionals. Don’t use personal blogs, obviously biased sources, or sources that don’t have professional credentials.
• You can draw upon information you know to speed up the research process. Simply find a (reliable!) source to support it and include it in your sources. [5] X Research source
• Doing preliminary research online can point you to sources in a library such as books and journal articles. It can also point you in the direction of web sources including newspaper article archives or other research on your topic.
• If you're reading books, "gut" the book to get through it quickly and move on to other sources. To "gut" a book, skim the introduction and conclusion to find the main arguments, and then pick a few details from the body of the book to use as evidence. [6] X Research source
• Take notes on your research sources. These will show that you’ve legitimately researched the topic while giving credit to the person who forwarded the idea. [7] X Research source This is especially important if you plan to use direct quotes and will also help you add footnotes and bibliographic information to your essay without having to look them up in the sources.

• Structure your outline as you will your essay, with an introduction, a body, and a conclusion.
• The more detail you put into your outline, the easier and more quickly you can write the essay. For example, instead of just writing a basic paragraph about the body, flesh it out into bullet points or sentences that presents argument and supporting evidence.

Writing an Untimed Essay

• Nothing will keep you from finishing an essay on time like goofing off online or ending up watching eight straight hours of Cartoon Network. Turn the TV off, switch your phone to silent, and exit out of Facebook and other social media/chat sites.
• Make sure you have all your material nearby when you start to write. Getting up to fetch a book or a piece of paper or a snack will eat into your precious time.

• The most important part of your introduction is your argument or thesis statement. This tells the reader the point your trying to make in the essay.
• Write a “hook” that will grab the reader’s attention to start, then introduce the argument with a few relevant facts woven into the narrative. End by stating how you will demonstrate your points. [9] X Research source
• An example of a hook could be, “People say Napoleon had a complex because of his size, but he was actually an average height for the time in which he lived.”
• It's sometimes helpful to write the introduction after you have written the body so you know how to introduce the topic and your arguments best.
• A good rule of thumb is to not have the introduction be more the 10% of your essay. Thus, for a five page essay, you shouldn’t write more than one paragraph.

• Pick two to three main points to help make your argument or thesis statement. Any fewer and you won’t have enough evidence for your argument and any more may make you not explore each point thoroughly enough.
• Keep your evidence to support the main points concise. Going off on explanatory tangents will cost you precious time.
• Support your main points with the evidence compiled during your research. Make sure to explain how the evidence supports your claims!
• If haven’t reached your word limit, pick a main point and conduct more research on it to expand on your point. [10] X Research source

• Avoid "fat" language when you write. Text that includes long prepositional phrases, passive verbs, and paragraphs that don't further your argument waste time that you could spend writing or revising your essay.

• Free-writing can also help you overcome writer’s block that results from not knowing how to say something. If you’re struggling with getting the wording of an idea just right, write it as well as you can and come back to it later.

• The essay conclusion should also be relatively short. Aim for the conclusion to be 5-10% of your essay’s total length.
• Aim to do more in your conclusion than just restate your thesis and the evidence you used. You could acknowledge the limitations of your argument, suggest a direction for future research, or expand the relevance of your topic to a wider field.
• Just as you drew in reader with good introduction, end your conclusion with a sentence that make a lasting impression on your reader.

• Re-read the entire essay. Make sure that you are still arguing the same thing at the end of the essay that you are at the beginning. If not, go back and adjust your thesis.
• Make sure that your paragraphs build on one another and don’t feel haphazard. You can use transitions and strong topic sentences to help you draw connections between your paragraphs.
• Spelling and grammar are the easiest mistakes to revise, but they cost you a lot of reader goodwill if you don’t fix them. [12] X Research source

Writing a Timed Essay

• Read the prompt carefully! If the question asks you to take a position, take one. If it asks you to evaluate the events that led to the downfall of Rome, don’t just give a summary of Roman history. [13] X Research source
• Jot down an idea map. You probably won’t have time to make a formal outline. However, having an idea of the main points that you want to touch on and how they relate will help you structure the essay. If you can’t figure out how to connect your main points, that’s a sign you need to think a little bit more before you start writing.
• Figure out your argument. Once you’ve noted down some main points, figure out what you want to say about them. Even timed essays need a unified argument or thesis.

• For example, you wouldn’t want to spend the same amount of time and effort on a 3-paragraph essay question worth 20% as you would a 2-page essay question worth 60%.
• If you see a question that you feel will be more difficult for you, it could be a good idea to tackle it first. This will get the hard stuff out of the way while you’re still fresh.

• If you notice that your introductory paragraph starts with something broad or hugely general, such as “Throughout the history of time, humans have been fascinated by science,” cut it.
• Don’t put anything in a timed essay that doesn’t support your point. If you are talking about the importance of religious belief in modern society, don’t dilute your point by also referencing socialism, Hollywood, and banana farming.

• Claim. This is the main argument of the paragraph. It is probably located in your topic sentence.
• Evidence. This is the supporting detail that proves your claim.
• Explanation. This connects the evidence back to your claim and explains why the evidence proves what you say it does.
• If anything in your paragraph doesn’t fit one of these three elements, it’s a good sign you don’t need it in the paragraph.

• Does the essay actually demonstrate and support what your thesis says is the main argument? It’s not uncommon for ideas to evolve as you write. If this has happened, tweak your thesis accordingly.
• Do the paragraphs flow smoothly from one to the next? Timed essays don’t have the same standards that regular essays do, but your reader should still be able to follow your argument in a logical progression without feeling yanked around or lost.
• Do you offer a conclusion that sums up your argument? Don’t leave the essay hanging without a conclusion. Even if it’s very brief, a conclusion will help your essay feel complete.

Community Q&A

• Transition words such as "furthermore", "indeed", and "in fact" can make your flow better. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• Don't fluff up your essay too much. A reader will want you to get to the point as quickly as possible. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• When starting a new paragraph, don't forget to indent. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

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• ↑ https://www.savethestudent.org/extra-guides/how-to-write-a-3000-word-essay-in-a-day.html
• ↑ https://www.slate.com/articles/technology/the_browser/2011/08/slowpoke.2.html
• ↑ https://amst522.wordpress.com/2010/09/13/how-to-gut-a-book-or-the-best-advise-my-grad-school-advisor-ever-gave-me/
• ↑ https://www.slate.com/articles/technology/the_browser/2011/08/slowpoke.html
• ↑ https://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/academic1/timed-essays-top-5-tips-for-writing-academic-essays-under-pressure/

About this article

If you need to write a good essay in a short amount of time, try to plan your argument and avoid distractions while you're writing. Before you start your essay, decide your thesis statement or the main argument you want to make. This will help you narrow down your research and write the essay quicker. Find a quiet place to work, turn your phone off, and avoid any other distractions. Make sure you schedule short breaks to avoid burn out. If you get stuck, write whatever you can, even if you think it’s really bad or doesn’t make sense. It will be much easier to edit once you’ve gotten the words on the page. Make sure you leave a few hours to revise and spellcheck your essay. For more tips from our Teaching co-author, including how to write a timed essay, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Guest Essay

Trump and Musk: The Bromance That Cannot Last

By David Nasaw

Mr. Nasaw is the author of biographies of William Randolph Hearst, Andrew Carnegie and Joseph P. Kennedy.

So sorry, Elon Musk, but the bromance is not going to last. I know the president-elect put you on the phone with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine the night after the election. And I know that in Donald Trump’s victory speech, after obligatory but abbreviated nods to his “beautiful wife,” his “amazing children” and his “feisty” vice president-elect, he celebrated your super-genius as only he could, in a disjointed, discombobulated, wildly overextended paean and declaration of love. “Oh, let me tell you, we have a new star,” he said. “A star is born, Elon.”

Yet therein lies your problem, Mr. Musk. There’s room for only one star, one genius in the Trump White House. As the president-elect has told us time and again, he is one smart fellow and a “very stable genius.” He is not going to share his victory and center stage with anyone. And why should he? What more would you have to offer, having spent in excess of $100 million to help secure his election?

Mr. Trump may be mercurial, but in this situation he is highly unlikely to break historical precedent. I predict that you will probably join the long list of genius businessmen donors who were casually discarded after they had served their purpose.

Andrew Carnegie — who was at the time, just like you, the richest man in the world — was a stalwart and generous contributor to the Republican presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt. Carnegie naturally assumed that he would, in return for his support and in recognition of his genius and one-on-one relationships with Europe’s elected leaders and crowned heads, be called upon as chief foreign policy adviser when Roosevelt assumed the presidency in 1901, after McKinley’s assassination. As such, he bombarded the White House with his recommendations for arbitration treaties between the major powers, which he believed would usher in a century of peace. His advice was dutifully acknowledged by Roosevelt — then ignored.

And William Randolph Hearst? Mr. Musk, you’ve got your millions of social media followers, but your outreach still pales in comparison with Hearst’s in his heyday: 28 big-city newspapers, a syndicated wire service, radio stations, newsreels and 13 magazines. Hearst’s contributions to Franklin Roosevelt’s 1932 presidential campaign were, like yours to Mr. Trump’s, extensive and varied. In addition to huge financial assistance, Hearst used his media empire to conduct virulent and near-daily assaults on the incumbent, Herbert Hoover.

The day after the election, Hearst’s wife, Millicent, sent a telegram to say that she “had seen Roosevelt last night. He said he was going to telephone you. You are getting all the credit for this victory from everybody I meet.” Hearst responded by forwarding his recommendations for cabinet appointments and an 11-point recovery plan, only to be ghosted by the president-elect: no letters, no telegrams, no phone calls. Almost two months later, Roosevelt finally issued an invitation to Hearst to visit him for private talks. The publisher declined, later producing a feature-length film, based on a novel, in which a guardian angel instructs a weak and unprepared president.

Then there’s Joseph Kennedy, a multimillionaire, who connected the candidate Roosevelt to Hearst, as well as to Hollywood’s most powerful tycoons and to Irish American voters. Identified by The New York Times as a key adviser, Kennedy fully expected to be rewarded with a cabinet post, preferably Treasury secretary. Instead, he wound up commiserating with Hearst over being ghosted by the president-elect. Only in June 1934, more than a year and a half after the election, did Roosevelt finally offer Kennedy a place in his administration — though not in his cabinet but as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Carnegie, Hearst and Kennedy refrained from making demands on their candidates during the campaign. But you let Mr. Trump know early what you expected, Mr. Musk. In a glitchy livestream conversation on X in August, you interrupted his rambling monologue three times to recommend he reduce inflation by creating a “government efficiency commission,” which you would head. Do you really believe he is going to give you that? This is not a man for whom loyalty is a strong suit. As president, he parted ways with his chief of staff, his deputy chief of staff, his press secretary, his national security adviser and his chief strategist. And that was just in his first year in office.

I’m not sure what you were thinking — or if you were thinking — when you clambered on that Madison Square Garden stage and claimed that as chief of the Department of Government Efficiency (a cringingly inappropriate shout-out to dogecoin, your favored cryptocurrency) you would cut at least $2 trillion of government spending. The results of such a gutting would, even conservative think-tank analysts predicted , be catastrophic. It is nearly impossible to imagine a majority of Republican lawmakers endorsing your plans to slash a third of all federal spending. To do so would be political suicide. Perhaps that’s part of the reason Howard Lutnick, a co-chairman of Mr. Trump’s transition team, recently explained that you were “not coming into the government” but would assist the new administration … by writing software.

No matter. Your $44 billion purchase of Twitter, which you weaponized as a Trump campaign megaphone, and the many millions more you spent getting out the vote for your candidate were worthy investments. Tesla stock, the source of your wealth, is soaring, and both Tesla and SpaceX, which have already received $15.4 billion in federal grants, will probably continue to be showered in government dollars.

Even more important, you and your companies will probably be left alone under Trump rule to do as you please. For the next few years nobody will pester you about where you deploy your Starlink internet satellites, and no allegations will be made about potential stock or crypto manipulations. No worries about doing business with Russia or flooding X with political misinformation. No irritating crash investigations of Tesla’s self-driving cars, either.

You and your Silicon Valley buddies can anticipate a profitable future in which the federal government acts as a silent, passive paymaster, doling out billions of dollars, then looking the other way as they are spent. The combination of a transactional president and an eccentric billionaire means you will get to be an official adviser or unofficial whisperer while being the recipient of government largess.

Whatever your future role in the Trump administration, Mr. Musk, you can bask in the glory of being publicly proclaimed a super-genius by none other than the president-elect of the United States. You can don that white tie and attend fancy dinners honoring the foreign leaders you both admire, grab some real photo-ops and manufacture more and, for as long as it lasts, enjoy another moment in the limelight, this time as the kingmaker who was adopted by the royal family.

As insurance against being prematurely discarded, you can, as you’ve already announced, continue to stay involved in politics with your well-funded political action committee poised to “weigh in heavily” in the midterms and thereafter. Perhaps even you see the writing on the wall.

David Nasaw is an emeritus professor of history at the CUNY Graduate Center and the author, most recently, of “The Last Million: Europe’s Displaced Persons From World War to Cold War.”

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

Follow the New York Times Opinion section on Facebook , Instagram , TikTok , WhatsApp , X and Threads .

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Finding the Time To Write

Strategies to help you find the time you need to be the writer you truly want to be.

W hether a writer is a seasoned pro, totally new to writing, or somewhere in between, finding the time to write is always an issue. Some writers   give up entirely on their dream and desire to write because even the idea of trying to find the time feels impossible and crushes them.

When I first started writing, I worked two jobs, went to school on top of having a lively social life, and had no car, which meant commuting took two to three hours a day. Essentially, I had the exact opposite of time; I had negative time. There was no finding time to write. I was often overbooked, exhausted, and demoralized when it came to writing because all the writers I knew had the privilege of time, encouragement, and space.

It took me years to finally come up with a way of making a schedule that I return to throughout my career. When I finally realized a writing practice didn’t have to consist of writing X number of words a day, it became so much easier to use other authors’ methods as jumping-off points for building my own schedule and practice.

Finding The Time To Write

Before I could carve out my schedule, I needed to figure some things out, like my best time to create, areas in my life I needed to reimagine, and, more importantly, what projects would fuel me instead of draining me.

Your best time

One of the first things you’ll need to figure out is your creative flow. For me, my best time to create fiction is first thing in the morning while my dream cobwebs are still fresh. Nonfiction happens better during the afternoon after I’ve woken up and done some other tasks. Poetry late at night. If I tried to write fiction at night, it would be slow work, with a lot of stops and pauses. Nonfiction early in the morning is OK, but I always save my afternoon brain for reworking it. And daytime poetry puts me in my head too much. Those creative times have changed over the years and always will for the rest of my career as I progress.

Everyone has their own patterns based on their daily lives, obligations, abilities, and routines. Creativity is a part of what makes you a writer or want to write. But it doesn’t just call you down to participate. You must pay attention to when your mind starts to play. My mind wanders and jumps a lot, but in the morning, my focus is stronger and can steer the wandering to be creative. While on a run, I can turn that stray thought about birds into a story idea that flies out of me.

Finding the perfect time to write takes, well, time and patience. Patience with yourself, mostly. To find your best times for creativity throughout the day, you’ll need to pay attention to how your brain reacts and behaves while you go through your day. Maybe creativity happens for you whenever you’re folding laundry, exercising, or on walks to school. Keep a little pocket notebook or a notecard with you and open yourself to curiously observing your thoughts and creativity throughout the day.

It took me a very long time to learn how to interpret and pay attention to my creative thinking. As I mentioned, it doesn’t just happen once, but you should check in on yourself and your space as you move through life and change.

To find time to write, make time to write

But if your creative time happens when you’re doing something else, how are you supposed to write or get any work done? At that point, you have the option of stacking or cutting time.

There are probably things you do throughout your daily life that are less necessary than you think. For me, it was hanging out in bars, surfing the web, and watching television. I would spend many nights and afternoons hanging out, drinking, shooting pool, or watching hours of TV, zoning out the whole time. And my mornings were spent sleeping in and recovering before starting my jobs.

Find which aspects of your routines you don’t really need to do and aren’t positively serving you and cut them out of your life. And for people who may be reading too deeply into this, I’m not talking about cutting responsibilities or obligations but time wasters that you don’t even like doing. Some people who want to write spend time watching TV, playing video games, or doomscrolling. It can also be simple things like spending an hour each morning going to get coffee when you could make it in your house.

But cutting time isn’t for everyone, which is where stacking comes in. Stacking time refers to stacking tasks together, so you’re doing multiple things simultaneously. Like a lot of the advice in this article, stacking may not be for you. When I worked two jobs and went to school, I rode the bus often. About two hours each day were spent sitting on a bus. It wasn’t something I could simply cut from my life. So, instead of staring out the window, I used the time to listen to writing podcasts and audiobooks to expose myself to craft. While I wasn’t actively writing, those recordings gave me insight into how to make a story actually work.

Examine your daily and weekly routines for the activities you can cut or stack. For people constantly on the move, dictation and craft audiobooks or podcasts are excellent stacking activities. For cutting, ask yourself how specific actions affect you and your creativity. A helpful way of finding time to cut and stack is to look at your current schedule or how you spend your time. Then ask yourself if you can do something else while performing it or if you really need to be performing it. Don’t forget cutting can also mean asking for support or delegating a task to someone else.

Let your passion guide you

Have you ever fallen into the hole where you think your project needs to be finished even if you’re not that into it anymore? It happens to all writers at some point in their careers but more so at the beginning because you’re searching for your voice and your stories. When I first started writing, I wrote a bunch of novels because I thought that was what people wanted. At the time, however, it wasn’t what I wanted or even knew how to write, so it made me feel terrible about my skills and exhausted me.

As soon as I stopped trying to write the form I thought I should, I started paying attention to the fact that I loved writing short stories and flash fiction. By giving myself over to what I wanted, I gained all this energy and passion for writing. The more I wrote what I wanted and experimented with craft in the short form, the more I grew comfortable stepping out and trying longer fiction.

But I didn’t just write any fiction; some of it was weird because it was what I wanted to write. Writing isn’t always fun, so choosing projects that give you life and energy instead of draining you helps so much. Learn to listen to your body and notice the signs when you start to lose energy or a project is draining you. If you can’t listen to your body, have someone else help by being your accountability partner.

While picking projects that energize you is important, remember that sometimes even the most exciting projects still feel like work. During those times, make sure you have go-to energy boosters. For me, it’s going for a walk, running outside, or meditating for a few minutes. Stepping away from the keyboard always helps me refill my creativity well and sometimes even works out story knots. Maybe you already know what things give you energy, like stopping to make a cup of matcha. If you don’t know what activities provide you with energy, do some self-exploration again and try different things.

Finding Time to Write & Scheduling

The word “schedule” is misleading. Not everyone works well with a schedule or can even create one. So, think of “schedule” in this usage as a reminder, whether it’s written down, an alert on your phone, or someone else reminding you. One of the most easily corrected mistakes writers who want to make a writing schedule make is not actually creating a schedule.

Even if it takes a whole day to do a writing schedule, it is more beneficial to have one than not. Start slowly if you’re new to writing and following a writing schedule. Just scatter a few minutes or hours throughout your week when you know you’ll have creative energy, space to stack tasks, and free time.

In finding time to write, not every day needs to be about writing or putting words down on a page. Don’t overload your schedule with simply writing but remember to include time for creative play, research, community building, practice, editing, submitting/querying, or learning. When I started making my writing schedule, I carved out three hours in two of my weekdays for writing while I stacked my other time with practice and play.

For writers used to schedules, revamping or reenergizing them can be as simple as using a new format to make your schedule or going through the steps above to find new time and tap into new energy. I tried out new planners every year until the last two years, when I used the same planner because I noticed it works well with how I view my life and career.

Never get down or punish yourself for missing a scheduled writing time. Instead, examine why you missed it. Look at the factors surrounding you and consider if maybe the time wasn’t right or if the circumstance wasn’t under your control. Try something different the next week and keep adapting your schedule until you find something that works for you and your life.

Making time to write is less about finding ways to write 2,000 words an hour or complete a novel in a week. It’s more about discovering what works for you, your life, and your creativity. Instead of trying to be a writer who does things the way someone else does, focus on your abilities and responsibilities. Someone working a full-time job with children will have a different writing schedule than an MFA student working on their thesis. Both of these writers are valid, and their schedules have to match their lives. The only way to do that is by examining your life, creativity, and energy.

Aigner Loren Wilson is a literary speculative fiction writer and editor. She is a senior fiction editor for Strange Horizons and her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Interzone Magazine , The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction , Lightspeed Magazine , Writer’s Digest , and many more publications. To check out her other writing visit her website aignerlwilson.com.

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