Life gets busy. Sometimes, it gets busy in an expected way: you've got an exam coming up, or your kids are going to be on summer break, or you work in a role where everything's hectic at year-end.

Sometimes, though, you might not see the disruption coming. Maybe you come down with Covid (or you need to care for someone who's unwell). Perhaps your partner's work schedule changes unexpectedly, meaning you're handling more of the household chores or childcare than usual. It could simply be a whole lot of different things: individually small and manageable, perhaps, but hugely time-consuming when they all come at once.

Some writers feel that they should push forward with their goal, whatever else is going on in life. And that can be a helpful attitude if it encourages you to keep going despite a busy few days ... but not if it leaves you exhausted, burnt out, and dropping the ball on everything else that's important to you.

Here are a few things you might want to ask when deciding whether or not to put your writing goals on hold for a while:

Is the disruption (likely) limited?

If the next 2 weeks are super busy and stressful, it might make a lot of sense to give yourself a breather by taking off any pressure to write.

If the next 6 months are going to be busy and disrupted, you might not want to set your writing goals aside for that long. Perhaps it would make sense to adjust a goal instead of giving up on it: for instance, you might aim to write for just 5 minutes a day rather than 15 minutes a day.

Would taking a break help you in the longer term?

When I took a break from the Aliventures blog and newsletter, it was mainly to get some space to focus on what I really needed to focus on (freelance deadlines, family) ... but it was also a chance to have some time organising ideas and plans for November and December's posts.

Perhaps a writing break will help you feel better and get the rest you need to come back to your writing in a couple of weeks, refreshed. Or maybe a break from a certain type of writing (e.g. publishing, sending out stories for competitions) will give you time and space for generating ideas, making plans, or roughing out drafts.

Do you have other goals that are a higher priority than writing?

Some writers, when talking about writing, would have you think that writing is (and should be!) the absolute highest priority. As William Faulkner put it:

The writer's only responsibility is to his art. [...] Everything goes by the board: honor, pride, decency, security, happiness, all, to get the book written. If a writer has to rob his mother, he will not hesitate; the "Ode on a Grecian Urn" is worth any number of old ladies. 

I feel that Faulkner is using a certain degree of hyperbole here, but I think we can agree the general sentiment is a bad one! We all have responsibilities beyond writing ... and often higher responsibilities. 

For me personally, my family and my health come before my writing. That doesn't mean my writing is unimportant to me or that I'm not committed to it ... but it does mean that writing may have to temporarily wait while I deal with the most important things.

It's always okay to take a break from writing, especially when life is unexpectedly busy. Aim to make a plan for getting into writing again (even if you may have to adjust that plan, I still think it's worth making it) ... and take some time off from writing, guilt-free.