“How do you find so much time to read and write?”

I get that question frequently from others who see my output and can’t fathom how it happens. In the ideal world, my day would be consumed by those two activities alone.

However, time isn’t a luxury that can be carefully curated at this point in my life. Teaching full-time involves a busy workday, followed by extra work at home that never gets finished at school. This is compounded with a (very) young family who gets my full attention when I’m present.

Where does the time come from?

A few minutes in the morning while making my morning coffee… eating lunch by myself to read a few pages… shutting my classroom door after school to write a bit… waiting for everyone to sleep to write and read some more. If there’s any downtime, I fill it with more reading.

This is all time on the edges of everything else the day brings.

The common response to this time is to wonder what to do with it, decide on the next decision, or pull out a phone to check (whatever) online. This used to be my response as well until I made a commitment to use it accordingly.

When a bigger bubble of time comes my way, it’s first celebrated with the grandest of cheers and then I immediately take advantage of it. Having built the discipline to use whatever time is available, there is now stamina (and excitement) to use greater quantities of time as it comes.

Eventually, the hope is the edge time will generate enough to bleed into other times. This is the most common way it has been done for anybody pursuing a passion.

It starts on the edges and works its way in.