A method for writing to and erasing a non-volatile memory is described. The method includes determining the size of a command window for use in n write operations for the non-volatile memory, each write operation having the same time period. A long latency erase command is sliced by a factor of n to provide a plurality of erase slices, each erase slice having the same time period. The method further includes executing n commands to the non-volatile memory, each command composed of the combination of one of the n write operations and one of the erase slices. The total of the time period of one erase slice added to the time period of one write operation is less than or equal to the size of the command window.