It's 11 PM on a Tuesday. You've finally finished answering clients' emails and checked the meeting schedule for tomorrow, and you find yourself staring at that blank document titled, “My Book, Chapter 1.”
Your cursor is blinking. Mocking you.
Sound all too familiar?
To busy entrepreneurs, the gap between wanting to write a book and actually writing seems more like a canyon. Believe it or not, studies show that a whopping 81% of people want to write a book, but only 3% of business leaders ever finish theirs. And the biggest reason? Not lack of ideas, but lack of time.
If you're a CEO, entrepreneur, coach, or consultant, you may wonder how on earth anybody builds a business while writing a book. Well, here it is: successful business authors don't find time; they design it.
The Time-Starved Author’s Reality
If your day is filled with back-to-back client meetings, team management demands, market crises, family commitments, and growth initiatives, then traditional writing advice falls flat. The standard advice to “write every day for four hours” sounds great…unless you're running a company.
Two barriers block business books from success. Each steers readers to close your book in order to attend to emails, meetings, or competitors' content. Knowing these pitfalls will help you avoid them and keep your readers hooked.
- The “Perfect Moment” Myth
There is no perfect time to write a book.If you wait until "things calm down," you will never start. Countless business leaders think that when schedules ease or the workload lightens, there will be clarity and time to focus on the book. However, the truth is that there will always be pressing demands, unexpected fires to put out, and new projects on the horizon. Waiting for the perfect time usually means waiting forever.
- The “Lone Wolf” Syndrome
One of the biggest pitfalls I find business leaders falling into when they become authors is what I term the "Lone Wolf" syndrome. But, it will be overly burdensome to do everything yourself when writing, and this eventually leads down the path of burnout.
Most seem to think that they should handle every aspect of the writing themselves, although this runs completely contrary to the way they usually run their companies. Opening up to the concept of collaboration will make the journey with the book much easier and assure you that the final product is representative of the quality of your thoughts.
After learning the common myths that hold business leaders back from writing books, let's take practical steps. Moving past these misconceptions means embracing strategies for the effective management of your time and making steady progress toward book completion.
Time-Saving Steps to Book Completion
Before you write your first page, understand the systems that successful business authors use to complete their books while running businesses. The following tips are what separates published CEOs from those still “planning to write”.
- Time Architecture
Today's business leaders can't write like traditional authors. As mentioned, it is not possible to write for hours on end when your schedule is already jam-packed. That is why you need to make writing part of your current routine. That old saying, “if there’s a will, there’s a way” rings true, especially when it comes to finally getting your dreams down on paper.
So, dig out a time to write, and get to it! "Flexible" writing time becomes no writing time. Treat your book like a key business initiative. Schedule it. Protect it. Honor it. Your calendar reflects your priorities.
Successful authors write now with conditions they have. The best authors think in sprints-15 minutes here, 30 minutes there. Small progress beats waiting for big blocks of time that might never come. Consider dictating chapters while on your daily workout. Or, what about composing sections while flying between client meetings? If you want to make it happen, then your book is going to have to fit around your life. Not vice versa.
Besides, more hours invested does not always equate to better results. Some people will always think that the more hours you work on something, the better your product should be, but quality will always outweigh quantity. Clarity of idea and the power of each sentence are way more important than achieving some sort of word count. In embracing shorter, focused writing periods, the demands of leadership can be balanced with progress on your book.
- Professional Support System
You wouldn’t run a business by yourself, so why would you try to write a book on your own? Solo writing drains precious time. Fortunately, you can reach out for the support of their own team or even hire expert help.
Smart business leaders know when to leverage expertise. Your company's done based on delegation, your book should be, too. So in much the same way one builds a stellar business team, consider building a professional book team.
The best authors make effective use of their existing teams judiciously, including using :
- Executive assistants for research
- Content teams for first drafts
- Industry data from operations staff
- Client success from for sales teams
This can be a great way to help you save time and stay motivated. But, internal teams have their own priorities and deadlines. That's why successful business authors also know when to bring in specialized help.
You can hire a ghostwriter in book development to partner with you in the creation of your book, just as you hire a Chief Financial Officer to handle the finances. They take those scattered ideas and organize them into structured chapters that save months of trial and error. What if you could complete your book in 90 days with expert support, compared to flailing alone for a year?
This collaborative approach will not only produce better books, but it often propels you forward from concept to completion.
- Technology Maximization
New technology tools can convert fragmented minutes into productive sessions. Here's how:
- Voice-to-Text Apps: Whether it is an idea or a full passage, you can simply say it out loud while commuting, between meetings, or during any breaks. You can record your thoughts without finding a full workspace setup.
- Cloud storage: OneDrive, Google Drive allow you to access your manuscript at any moment and literally anywhere. Seamlessly transition between devices, so that at any time, at no place in the world, you are away from your work.
- Management software: Programs like Trello, Asana, and Notion are perfect for handling the process of writing a book. You can break down your manuscript into smaller tasks, create deadlines, and keep up with the progress without losing any structure or accountability you may use in managing business goals.
These tools give flexibility for strategic working and offer the efficiency of business projects towards the completion of a book.
- Energy Management
Money is not the rarest commodity; energy is. Research has shown that successful entrepreneurs on average have only 2.5 hours of deep focus time available each day. For that reason, you need to maximize the time you have at hand.
Successful writers use tried-and-true productivity techniques, including the Pomodoro Technique, 90-minute Focus Blocks, and Task Batching to match writing tasks with their natural rhythms.
Aim to complete complicated tasks during high-concentration hours. More challenging writing cycle responsibilities, such as outlining and drafting, are best tackled with the help of professional book writing experts when your mind is functioning at its peak performance.
Likewise, save the simpler tasks during low-energy hours. Proofreading and editing, for example, are less straining on the brain and can be best done during more sluggish times.
Remember that the best writing happens when your energy matches your task. If you get your best writing done at 6 am, then set that alarm before daybreak!
The best way to figure out what your energy patterns are is to track times of day when you are most focused and have the most energy. As a week goes by with you noticing your patterns of productivity, you will learn what times of day you can do the bulk of writing with effectiveness and sustainability. With this sort of schedule in hand, you'll find getting momentum is far easier, and the writing will start to become less of a burden than an achievable part of your daily routine.
- Accountability Framework
At the end of the day, you have to hold yourself responsible for completing the writing. The simplest way to do this is to share your progress publicly. The more you talk about the developments being made, the more likely you are to actually get the work done.
You can do this by sharing weekly progress reports with colleagues, friends, and family. Consider blogging about the writing process or mentioning your writing accomplishments in your company’s newsletter. Consider declaring your book deadline as if it's a product launch date. Inform your board, your team, your clients. The bonus to this is that public commitment will lead to early reader interest and pre-launch buzz. Get talking, because public commitments truly drive private progress.
With these tips in place, you are ready to save time while writing your book. Take it a step further by setting up an action plan for yourself. Here is an example.
Action Plan
You can turn these insights into action with the following recommended system:
Weekly Planning
- Pencil in three 30-minute writing blocks
- Align the energy highs for those blocks
- Guard those times like client meetings
Daily Execution
- One big writing task every single day
- Use commuting time to plan
- Jot down ideas between meetings
Team Integration
- Assign research topics
- Schedule content reviews
- Establish deadlines
Follow Through
- Weekly word count targets
- Monthly chapter completion goals
- Quarterly finish metrics
Conclusion
Now, open your calendar. If you only focus on the back-to-back meetings, client calls and team check-ins, you might see impossible barriers to writing. But successful business authors see something different. They see 25-minute Pomodoro sessions between calls. They spot dictation opportunities during commutes. They find chapter reviews in team meetings. And you can, too!
Writing a book while running a business is less about finding fabled "free time" and making full use of the time available. Business leaders like yourself come across treasured insights each day that can make industries shift, careers skyrocket, and opportunities appear. Yet, far too many keep their expertise stuck in their heads, throttled by this myth that one needs endless quiet hours to write.
Your knowledge deserves better than waiting for the perfect time that never comes. The thousands of successful business authors have proved that books get written in the margins of busy lives. They have proved that with the right systems, support, and strategy, your book can go from idea into reality without sacrificing the growth of your company.
That's where Authors on Mission steps in. We are known for turning busy executives into published authors. Our system takes scattered minutes and converts them into complete chapters. We provide the structure, accountability, and expertise that turns "someday" into "done."
Want to write a book without putting your business on hold? Let's build a custom writing strategy that fits your schedule. Schedule your consultation today at this link - https://www.authorsonmission.com/call
