CGM blog: Hunker down days – the best time to write

05 Jun CGM blog: Hunker down days – the best time to write

When is the best time to write? It’s a question I’m asked fairly frequently.

Having written several books, edited live event websites, been through the daily grind of being a jobbing broadcast and print journalist and now managing a media consultancy, I think I know a bit about writing.

It’s subjective but, for me, morning is usually the best time of day to write.

You’re fresh (hopefully after a good night’s sleep – advance apologies to parents of babies and young children). Your head isn’t full of the daily grind of emails, calls and other routine matters so you’re likely to be in a more creative mood – an essential ingredient to writing quality content.

Forcing yourself to write at the end of a busy day when you’re tired and your head is full of the stuff and nonsense of work and life or trying to limp through a writing project while dealing with 1,001 other things once the working day has started, is difficult and that lack of energy is likely to creep onto the page.

Often there’s no choice, but we can try to shape the working day to meet the best writing times.

Ambience is key. I fail miserably when the weather is hot (rare I know in the UK) especially when the sunlight is angling into the office. If you can work outside, great, but the option is to hunker down on wet or cold miserable days and really get stuck into a writing project. You’ll then have more time to do lighter outgoing things when the weather is nice.

Sometimes darkness can help. If you are (or have to be) an evening writer – using soft lighting to set the mood can bring calm and consideration to your writing.

Another trick I have developed down the years is to use the end of the day and evening work to clear lots of minor irritations that don’t require too much thought – or, depending on the project, to get a basic structure down for the document I am writing then add the valuable information with a fresh mind the following morning.

And that is what I am about to do now.

The sun has risen. I’ve completed this blog by 7.25am and I’m about to tackle a project shaped yesterday afternoon with a fresh mind and clear thoughts. Let the writing day begin…

Chris Green is managing director of all round communications company Chris Green Media and an award-winning author and broadcaster.