I'm sorry, Stephen Colbert.

A new study has shown that people are the most creative at 10:04 at night. What a coincidence! It just so happens that everyone in the Daisy household, even the furry children, is in bed by then. That means that when the house is silent and the sandman is making his rounds, I can sneak away to the office for a little composition time. I would like to apologize to Stephen Colbert, because this will hinder me from watching his show when it first airs. Instead, I'll have to catch the re-airing of it at 12:30 or watch it the next day. But I assure Mr. Colbert that I WILL watch his show, even if I have to view it online at 4:33 p.m., the least creative time of the day. Who needs creativity when Stephen's throwing a dodgeball of truthiness at your head?

I just finished reading No Plot, No Problem's chapter on time management, which I find to be very helpful. The Mr. Baty recommends documenting your day (except for the time you're asleep) to assist in determining where you can find time to write. After you have your handy-dandy table of daily activities, he suggests categorizing your activities as: Required, Highly Desired, and Forgo-able. For instance, working, eating, and watching your children are all Required activities (though I might be able to argue with that last one--haha!). Highly Desired activities may include returning calls and e-mails, going out to dinner with friends, or exercising (once again, arguing with that last one!). Finally, the Forgo-able activities might be recreational reading, watching TV, or, in my case, spending hours on end at CNN.com. Add up how much time you spend on those Forgo-able activities, and put that time towards writing. Yes, you may have to TiVo How I Met Your Mother for a full month, but just think of the sense of accomplishment you'll feel when telling people you've just written your first novel. Remember, you're only giving up these activities for 30 days, not forever.

One interesting notion the author presents is the phenomenon known as the NaNoWriMo Temporal Vortex. He swears that even when adequate time (1-1/2 to 2 hours a day) is given to writing that a person will find himself or herself with even more free time, which is attributed to temporarily eliminating those Forgo-able activities. We'll see if that really happens.

By the way, don't feel obligated to reply to these posts if you have no interest whatsoever in NaNoWriMo. I realize I'm a little obsessed at the moment, but this mama is desperately in need of a brain recharge. This project is the mean that I have chosen to help me out with that.

In the morning... Tune in for tips for guaranteeing a 50K word finish before you type your first sentence.