You’ve been going back and forth with the idea of writing a book. In fact, you may have your thoughts and ideas for your book stored on your hard drive, tucked away in a filing cabinet or floating around in the cyber cloud.

Wherever your half finished book ideas and thoughts are currently calling home, getting your finished book into the hands of readers is where it should be.

Granted everyone has thousands of to-do lists, emails, errands, responsibilities and the like, pulling for their attention. And I am sure you can find hundreds of other things you would rather do than sitting down and writing your book.

I challenge you to be honest with yourself. Are you simply not writing your book because you don’t have time or because internally you don’t know or possibly believe that you can complete your book? See, the thing about time is, everyone has the same 24 hours in a day. No more no less. People that are successful at achieving their goals and aspirations simply decided to spend their time doing what is important to them.

So if completing your book is important to you, you have to commit the time. Period. Imagine this, let’s say you got a call from Oprah’s staff. They said that they heard your book was coming out in two weeks and they would like to have you on the show so Oprah can interview you. All you have to do is bring yourself and two copies of your book. If you are the fearless writer that I know you are, some thing tells me that you would make it happen in the requested time frame. Even though it may require you to lock yourself in your office for a week straight writing until your fingertips were numb.

So I now ask you this question. “How the hell is Oprah (or any other form of media for that matter) going to call you and request to hear more about your book, if you still haven’t finished your book?!” Get the idea? Okay now that we’ve gotten the “I don’t have time” excuse out of the way, allow me to introduce you to some tools that may help bring your book into completion.

Have a talk with your family and friends.

Writing a good book is a big deal and it will take support from loved one. We all have various responsibilities and you may find that it is easier to manage your writing time when you get everyone on board.  See if a relative or friend can watch your kids for an hour while you write. Maybe your spouse can cook dinner two nights a week so you can concentrate on writing. See if you can disperse some of your responsibilities to a good friend or family member. If you have supportive family and friends, let them know that you are committed to achieving your book writing dreams and you would appreciate their support.

Schedule it.

Literally! Open you calendar and figure out exactly what days and times you can devote to writing your book. Could you possibly write during your lunch break 3 times a week? Maybe you can watch an hour less of TV each day and use the time for writing. You could even record your book into a tape recorder during your morning and evening commute to work, running errands or while at the gym. Set a consistent allotted time and stick to it.

Check out the website 750words.com.

It’s a cool free website that may help you get in the habit of writing 3 pages a day. It even comes with email reminders and a fun scorecard to keep you encourage and let you know you are progressing with your goal.

Find an accountability partner.

This can be your super disciplined friend or a publishing consultant who’s only job is to create milestones for you and your book project to ensure your book’s completion. Many people find this method very helpful because it is so easy to give up on our dreams, but often times when we involve another person, we complete it because we don’t want to let the other person down…even though it is your dream and not theirs! I know it sounds crazy but it is so true!

Prioritize and stick to a schedule. Happy writing!