Finding Time to Write: How to Balance Multiple Creative Projects

Practical strategies for writers to find time for daily content creation while working on longer book projects.

“How do you find the time for daily articles/newsletter content AND the time to actually write your books?”

A reader asked me that question on social media a few days ago. It’s a common struggle many content creators face—finding time to produce consistent content while working on longer, more substantial projects.

Here’s the approach I used to write 6+ books (including a USA Today best-seller), maintain my newsletter, and still find time for client work.

Finding Your Prime Writing Time

Balancing multiple creative projects requires time-blocking, prioritization, and content repurposing. Writers like Bryan Collins use 90-minute deep work sessions, content libraries, and tools like Bose noise-canceling headphones and Alpha-GPC to maintain momentum. Studies suggest writers who work during consistent daily windows produce up to 3x more output than those without structured routines.

I feel tense and stressed when I want to be in two places or do things simultaneously, like bending a stick until it snaps. So I pick one project to work on first thing.

For a few years, that project was a book. When I had a full-time job as a copywriter for a Fintech, I got up around five or six to work on them. I gave up gaming on my Xbox late at night. I still missed gaming, but I enjoyed writing more than levelling up in Call of Duty.

I quit my job, and now I work full-time at my business. I canned the 5 am starts because I was sick of looking at bags under my eyes! I start to work around nine when the kids are at school and the house is quiet.

I get more done if I take some Alpha-GPC and hit the gym for 45 minutes. Then, I stick on Bose noise-canceling headphones and listen to ambient music via the Flow State on Substack.

I work on one project for 90 minutes until the buzzer sounds. I can knock out a few newsletters, articles, or video scripts during a deep work session. I take a 30-minute break between deep work sessions like this. If I can do this two or three times a day, I’m happy. (I still need to set aside some time for admin).

If you’re struggling to find time to write or create content, rework your priorities. I’d wager anyone can find a few juicy distractions. They usually look like social media notifications, mainstream media headlines, and Netflix.

Balancing Multiple Creative Projects

Writing a book doesn’t pay the bills, at least not directly. Every author I’ve met or interviewed earns money from other projects like courses, coaching and consulting. Or they’ve a massive back catalog of books.

I’m not writing a book now, but I still need to find time for client work, my YouTube channel, and other projects. Enter the concept of a content library.

I’ve spent years writing online and have a big library of content, many flops, and few hits. I review my content library once a week. I see if I can take a few shorter articles and rework them into something longer. Or I pick an older piece of content and rework it.

I sometimes write about a topic for a few days and then rework all my emails or newsletters into a YouTube script.

Reworking a newsletter as a series of posts for LinkedIn and Substack only takes about 30 minutes. AI can help with content repurposing, too. I even custom-coded a Claude project for my workflow.

I don’t worry much about trying to be original with every piece of content. I know from data at least 60% of my readers or followers missed my content or posts the first time. So it’s OK to talk about the same topics in different ways.

If you treat your content like Lego blocks, you can take them apart and rebuild them into many different forms.

The Compound Effect of Daily Writing

Do you need to take Alpha GPC, buy noise-canceling headphones, or kill a hobby you love?

No, but every successful creator I’ve met or interviewed puts off short-term gains for long-term success.

Start with 300 words a day, EVERY DAY. Like a snowball rolling downhill, starting with 300 words creates momentum. That’ll turn into 2100+ words a week. That’s 10000+ words a month and 50,000+ words in six months. Get that far, and you have a draft for an entire book.

The 300-word method changed my writing career. According to research from the University of California, small daily habits are far more effective than sporadic bursts of productivity. So, if you’re struggling to find time to create, start small and eliminate distractions.

It’ll work for other projects like offer creation, writing online and client delivery. The key is consistency and treating your creative work as a priority, not something you’ll get to “when you have time.”

Remember that creative work compounds over time. What seems insignificant today—a short article, a newsletter entry, a few pages of your manuscript—builds into an impressive body of work when done consistently.

---

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you find time to write a book while also producing daily content?

The most effective approach is to dedicate your peak mental hours—often early morning or when your environment is quiet—exclusively to your highest-priority project. Writer Bryan Collins wrote 6+ books, including a USA Today bestseller, by waking at 5 a.m. before a full-time job. Once that project was complete, he shifted his prime writing window to later in the day.

What is a content library and how does it help writers manage multiple projects?

A content library is an organized archive of previously written articles, newsletters, emails, and scripts that a writer can revisit and repurpose. By reviewing this library weekly, writers can transform shorter pieces into long-form content or adapt a single newsletter into LinkedIn posts, Substack entries, or YouTube scripts. This approach significantly reduces the time needed to produce new material from scratch.

What are deep work sessions and how long should they be for writers?

Deep work sessions are focused, distraction-free blocks of time dedicated to a single creative task. For writers, 90-minute sessions are widely recommended because they align with the brain’s natural ultradian rhythm cycles. Productivity writer Bryan Collins uses 90-minute sessions separated by 30-minute breaks, allowing him to complete newsletters, articles, or video scripts in a single sitting.

How can AI tools help writers balance content creation and book writing?

AI tools can assist with content repurposing by reformatting existing material into new formats, such as turning a newsletter series into a blog post or converting written content into a video script outline. This saves writers significant time on secondary content production, freeing their best mental energy for original long-form work like books. Even basic repurposing tasks like adapting a newsletter for LinkedIn can take as little as 30 minutes with AI assistance.

How do successful authors earn money while writing books that don’t immediately pay the bills?

Most successful authors supplement book income with adjacent revenue streams such as online courses, coaching, consulting, or a large back catalog of titles generating passive royalties. Writers like Bryan Collins maintain client work and YouTube channels alongside book projects to ensure consistent cash flow. Diversifying income sources allows authors to continue long-term creative projects without financial pressure forcing them to abandon them.