Raise your hand if you’d love some uninterrupted writing time—a chance to focus fully on your work without the demands of everyday life. You’re not alone.

Maybe you’ve thought about applying to a writing residency or dreamed about one of the many writing retreats offered each year.

Unfortunately, for many, these opportunities are nothing but daydreams. The cost of travel is prohibitive for many writers, and taking two or three weeks (or more) off from work can be nearly impossible, especially if you’re writing on the side of a full-time job.

But no matter whether you’re a full-time, part-time or any-moment-of-spare-time writer, you can take time away to write, right now.

How? Create a do-it-yourself writing retreat.

Why you should take a DIY writing retreat

Making your own time and space to write is a shortcut to many of the benefits of attending a writing residency or retreat. Although a DIY writing retreat doesn’t have the prestige factor of places like Jentel and Hedgebrook, you’ll still find immense value in setting aside a few whole days to write.

Here are five reasons you should take yourself on a writing retreat:

1. You want time to write

Maybe the day-to-day hustle is getting in the way: you just can’t drop everything and write.

It’s hard to separate out time for your writing! A writing retreat gives you at least a few hours of quiet, peaceful writing time. It can help you build your writing stamina and even jump-start a daily writing plan, which you can take back to your regular life.

2. You need structure

If you schedule your writing retreat ahead of time, down to the hour, you won’t have time to think about what you “should” be doing. You’ll be doing it.

3. You don’t know what to write

Just finished a project and not sure what to try next? A writing retreat will force you to pick a direction — any direction — and just write.

Try using prompts or test out a totally new genre or style. If you’ve just finished the first draft of a mystery novel, try writing a children’s picture book. Focused on blogging? Write the first few chapters of that memoir you’ve been thinking about.

4. You’ve had a project sitting on the back burner for far too long

Going on a writing retreat will force you to set goals and work towards them. It gives you the headspace to take a good hard look at your project and finally get down to brass tacks. You have to make progress, because that project is all you’re going to focus on for the length of your retreat.

5. You’ve always wanted to feel like a real writer

Want to know who goes on writing retreats? Writers!

How to create a DIY writing retreat

Taking yourself on a writing retreat doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be as simple as kicking your family out of the house for an afternoon and writing at the kitchen table. But to truly get into the retreat mindset, you’re going to need a few things:

• A change of scenery: Try to go somewhere new, even if it’s just your garage. Giving yourself a break from your usual routine will put you in the right frame of mind to explore
• A goal: Don’t just say “I’m going to write.” You need a specific, measurable goal. Do you want to just get words on the page? Give yourself a page or word count to hit. Do you want to finish a project? Break it down and aim to finish next step—a chapter, scene or article
• A plan: Don’t pretend you will write for four hours straight, everyone needs a snack! Write out a schedule for yourself, including coffee breaks and time to relax

Plan ahead to avoid distractions

The hardest thing for many people is disconnecting. If you know you’ll be distracted by email, leave your phone in the car and turn off your computer’s Wi-Fi.

If you’re worried you’ll want to run errands, head to a new town. Don’t go somewhere where you’ll run into neighbors; instead of the local coffee shop, try a coffee shop in a different neighborhood or the library at your local community college.

Once you’ve found a writing hideout, write your goal on a piece of paper and tape it above your writing space or in your notebook. If you’re in a coffee shop or another noisy place, put on headphones or retreat to a quieter corner.

Remember to take breaks

After you’ve spent about an hour writing, give yourself a short break outside your writing space. Don’t think about how much you’ve done or how far you are toward your goal. Instead, enjoy the chance to dedicate time to writing. After your break, head back to your writing space for another hour or so. If you’re feeling good, feel free to write more! If not, try freewriting for a few minutes to loosen up.

If you have more time—a whole day or weekend—take time off in the afternoon to go on an adventure. Take a run or a hike, or visit a museum. Taking a break can inspire new ideas, not to mention renewed enthusiasm for writing.

Celebrate your retreat, however long it is

If two or three hours is all that you can take, great! Open a fresh page in your notebook or computer and spend a few minutes reflecting on what you accomplished.

Did you like your retreat? Did you feel stumped? What could you do next time to make it easier for you to write: go some place quieter (or noisier), bring a pen and notebook instead of a computer, write with a buddy? Jot down a few notes on your experience and make a quick plan for your next retreat.

Remember, you don’t need a lot of time or money to write. You just need a few hours and a plan.

This system isn’t an accident; they use tools to track their pitches, ideas and contacts — tools that help them land better freelance writing jobs and make more money. For many of them, the tool of choice is a spreadsheet.

This spreadsheet is different than one you might use to track your daily word count or work toward other writing goals, but you can use these tools in tandem to boost your productivity as a writer.

Want to create your own spreadsheet to track your writing pitches, acceptances and contacts? Here’s how to make this system work for you.

How to create a spreadsheet to track your pitches

Whether you track your work using Excel or Google Spreadsheets, the process is the same. Alyssa Martino, an MFA student at the University of New Hampshire whose work has appeared in several travel publications and Narrative.ly, uses a spreadsheet that includes both pitches and finished pieces that she’s submitted.

You’ll want columns for Title, Date, Publication and Result, and Martino also recommends including columns for the editor’s name and email address. “It’s a good reminder to seek out a particular editor to pitch, rather than just a general address,” she points out. This strategy also makes it easier to follow up with the editor if you haven’t heard back after a few weeks.

Make your spreadsheet work for you

Successful writers have learned how to tweak their spreadsheets to make them more useful and efficient, and to better support their work.

Martino uses color coding to show pieces that have been accepted, rejected, and are waiting for a response. “If you’re submitting multiple pieces to multiple publications, it’s easy to forget and mistakenly submit twice or miss a crucial follow-up,” she explains. Editors are busy people, and you want to present yourself and your work professionally.

Color-coding is not only a helpful reminder about which pieces need a follow-up — it’s also a fun way to keep you motivated to submit work, check in with editors and celebrate your success. As Alyssa says, “it’s secretly exciting to highlight a new due date or acceptance in a bright, bold color.”

If you do multiple types of writing — for example, short fiction as well as nonfiction blog posts — you may want to track them on separate tabs of your spreadsheet. Or you may find it easier to look at all your writing accomplishments in one place. The point is, do what works best for your writing practice, business and goals.

Alyssa Martino’s tracking spreadsheet

Pitch better, faster

Use your spreadsheet as a motivational tool. Craig Robert Brown, a contributor to The Sound and a humor/fiction writer, says that his spreadsheet helped him get over a fear of submitting. “I grew addicted to filling in the cells with information about my work being sent out into the world,” he writes.

His spreadsheet also helped Brown to resubmit his work when it was rejected. “Yes, I got rejected a lot,” he says, “and I think those [rejections] in addition to my desire to fill that spreadsheet really motivated [me] to get over myself” and keep sending out work to new journals and magazines.

Martino tracks rejections in her spreadsheet as well, and always follows up with editors. “When I receive a rejection, I often reach out to the editor afterwards, asking, ‘Is there anything I can do to make your reconsider? A different angle or focus?’ I try to make it clear that I’m willing to make revisions to fit the style and needs of the publication,” she explains.

In the best case, that No turns into a Yes with a few tweaks to the original piece. Even if she doesn’t get a yes, Martino often receives valuable feedback that can help her make the pitch more attractive to other editors.

Whether she hears feedback or not, Martino uses her spreadsheet to reframe those rejected pitches for new publications, similar to C. Hope Clark’s recommended “keep 13 pitches in play” strategy.

Make using your pitch spreadsheet a habit

For a spreadsheet to be effective, both writers agree that you need to update it frequently. As soon as a rejection comes in, record it; don’t archive or delete the email until you put it into your spreadsheet.

Use a column for “Notes” to write down any responses you get from editors, and use this feedback to improve your next pitch. As soon as you send out a new pitch, record all the relevant details and highlight it in your chosen “waiting for response” color.

Alyssa recommends starting a new spreadsheet every few weeks or months, so that you don’t have to continuously scroll through all of your pitches to get to the most current ones. You might also try recording new pitches at the top of the spreadsheet, instead of at the bottom, or you might enjoy seeing all of your work in one place. Experiment to find what works best for you.

When your spreadsheet becomes a habit, it becomes something more: affirmation that you are progressing towards your writing goals. A spreadsheet is proof positive that you are a working writer. As Craig puts it, “it shows I’m taking this seriously, that I’m putting in this effort outside of the writing and editing.”

Want a free pitch spreadsheet template to get you started?

If you don’t already have a system of your own, or you hate the idea of making your own spreadsheet, download my spreadsheet to try for yourself. I’ve polished it up with bright colors and easy instructions, so that even the most spreadsheet-averse among you will be unable to resist.

Try it for three weeks and see if you get addicted to filling in those cells. Pretty soon, you’ll feel motivated to submit your work regularly, follow up on unanswered pitches and watch your acceptance and publications stack up. Happy writing!

Do you track your writing pitches and submissions with a spreadsheet? Or do you prefer a different system?