F is for "First Things First"

I don't know about you but so many times what I "want" to do gets shoved aside for things I "have" to do.  Somedays, writing (what I want to do), takes a backseat to just about everything else and sometimes writing doesn't even make it in the car. (Insert big sigh here.)

The question is, how do we make what we want to do a priority?  I don't know about you, but sometimes it's hard to justify sitting at the puter when there are dishes/laundry that needs doing, kids that need our attention and what seems like 900 other things demanding our time.

I once read, well, more than once really, but the idea was to get up a half hour early and do your writing then.  Or, stay up a bit later after everyone else has gone to bed.  But what if you are just too tired to do either one?

Then, there's the "make an appointment with yourself that you can't break.  Ha!  Isn't that just the time when the baby wakes up or the cat hocks up a hairball in the  middle of your desk? 

And, then there's the other stuff we need to do that relates to writing such as blogging, tweeting, editing, market research, submitting and such.

So, what do we do?  We run plots through our heads while doing the dishes.  While running errands we rehearse dialogue and when we get it right, we pull over for a moment and make a note.  (I plotted a whole story in the car one day. Thankfully I had pen and paper with me.)  We jot down a scene here and a scene there and sooner or later, we have a whole story.  Then, we can put it all together. And, while shopping or doing things out on the town, we watch people.  We watch how they carry themselves, their body language and expresssions and make a note about that so we can create realistic characters.

I don't know the answer for everyone else so here's where y'all come in.  What are some tips, tricks, helpful hints to get the writing done when there are 900 other things that need to be done?