How to Stay Motivated to Write When Life Gets Busy (Even During the Holidays)
It’s almost November, which means the holiday season is about to be in full swing. And if you’re anything like me, you view this upcoming season with both excitement and dread. I love the holidays, but prepping for and participating in them takes a lot of my time and energy, especially now that I have a little one. And when I begin to consider where that extra time and energy will come from, I fear that one of the first things to go will be my writing time.
It's important to acknowledge as we head into this busy season that any struggles we have sticking to our writing routines isn’t because of a lack of discipline or prioritizing our writing. It’s simply a side effect of the increased demands on our time and energy during this time. But while it’s probably unrealistic to expect that I’ll be more productive or even equally productive in my writing life as I typically am over the next couple of months, with some proactive planning, it’s not impossible to still make some progress toward my goals despite the holiday craziness.
If you’re struggling to stay motivated to write during the holiday season, you’re not alone. Between family gatherings, work obligations, and festive chaos, it can feel impossible to make time for writing. In this post, we’ll explore practical, mindset-based tips to help you stay consistent and connected to your creativity when life gets busy.
Strategy 1: Redefining Writing Success for the Holiday Season
The easiest way to set ourselves up for failure going into this time of year is to expect the same productivity of ourselves as we expect during normal, more routine, times of year.
The best advice I can give you before the holiday season gets into high gear is to sit down and re-evaluate your goals. While you might be used to being able to write for an hour a day, perhaps for the coming couple of months, you’ll only have 30 minutes each day. That’s okay! You can still make solid progress in 30 minutes, it just won’t be the same level of progress you may be used to.
(Read More: The Power of Realistic Goals)
Setting smaller goals for yourself for this time of year will set yourself up for a better likelihood of meeting those goals, and meeting those goals creates momentum, which fuels motivation. If you attempt to stick to your normal routine and continuously fail to meet those goals due to a lack of time, you’re more likely to feel discouraged and give up entirely. But if instead you set smaller goals, each time you meet one will be a win and encourage you to keep going.
By looking at the reality of the approaching months and making adjustments to your plans now, you can avoid the frustration later on of trying, and likely failing, to meet goals that simply aren’t reasonable given the constraints on your time. Remind yourself that these changes are temporary, and when life returns to normal again, you’ll be able to shift back to the higher level of progress you might be used to. But also remind yourself that progress can still be made with small, consistent effort.
Strategy 2: Find Writing Inspiration in the Season
One of the biggest things I often remind my clients of—and myself as well—is that being a writer doesn’t always look like actively writing. As writers, we draw inspiration from our lived experiences in order to create our stories. Instead of viewing the events of the holidays as an interruption to your writing time, draw inspiration from them instead.
Family dynamics and holiday gatherings are often at the heart of our fiction. While you’re spending time with your loved ones this season, keep notes about what you observe. Does the look of utter joy and wonder on your kids’ faces Christmas morning bring tears to your eyes? Write down how it made you feel so you can revisit it later. Does your grandmother’s out-of-touch comments at Thanksgiving dinner cause you to debate whether you’ll bite your tongue to keep the peace or storm out of the gathering in a tizzy? Write it down!
All of these moments may not directly relate to the story you’re working on right now. But it’s always amazed me how incidents that seem benign in the moment will resurface later on and inspire a scene.
Strategy 3: Protect Your Writing Time Even When Life Gets Busy (As Best You Can)
I often talk about how important it is to treat our planned writing time as we would an appointment. If we want writing to be a priority in our lives, we have to treat it as such.
However, it’s also important to, again, be realistic and recognize that during busy times of life, such as the holiday season, we may simply not have as much time to dedicate to our writing, and that’s okay. It doesn’t mean we’re not real writers or that we don’t prioritize our writing. It simply means there is more vying for our time and attention than usual.
But after you’ve looked at your available time and emotional resources and decided on a realistic writing schedule for this season, I will encourage you to protect those writing sessions to the best of your ability. Of course things will come up. Your kid’s school might add an event that conflicts with planned writing time, or you might wake up one morning to write and simply have no energy due to all the extra things you’re taking on. Try your best to show up for the writing sessions you plan, but know when to offer yourself grace if you can’t.
Strategy 4: Remember This is Temporary
When all else fails, remind yourself this is a temporary interruption to your regular writing routine. Even when it feels like the chaos of the holiday season is all-consuming and will never end, talk yourself off the ledge by reminding yourself that it will. Soon enough, we’ll be settled into a new year and the holidays craziness will be behind us, and we’ll be able to settle back into some semblance of normal.
Your writing will still be there waiting for you, and no matter how much or how little progress you made during this season, you’ll still be a writer.
As we head into this busy time of year, remember that writing doesn’t need to be perfect to be worthwhile. Sometimes progress looks like simply keeping your story top of mind and making notes when you can. Sometimes we need to set more realistic, attainable goals based on our capacity in the moment, and that’s okay.
If you find yourself struggling to stay motivated or unsure how to keep your writing momentum through the busy weeks ahead, you don’t have to do it alone. This is exactly the kind of challenge I help writers navigate in my book coaching work — finding ways to stay connected to your creativity even when life feels full.
If you’d like personalized support to help you stay on track and find joy in your writing again this season, I’d love to help.
Explore my coaching services here →
You deserve to end the year feeling proud of how you’ve shown up for your writing. Small steps still count and add up to real progress, and they’ll carry you into the new year with confidence.
