Setting a Summer Writing Schedule
I’ve been writing on the edges of my children’s time for so long. I learned the hard way that when you have small children it’s very difficult to set and stick to a writing schedule that involves any time that they are awake. Once they got school-age it was easier to write during the day when they were gone if I wasn’t also working a day job somewhere. If I did have an outside job, I had to learn to be disciplined with my time when they went to bed, which was 8:30pm until they got to grade 4, then 9:30 to high school, then between 10 and 10:30pm during high school.
This is a milestone age year for my kids: Ibop turned 18 so is an adult, Sbop will be 13 and thus a teenager, and Tbop will be 10 and, in his words, finally a big kid! So since I will no longer have any small children in my house I think this year I can set a good working schedule for during the day. My summer schedule in prior years has been 10:30pm-1:30am, Mon-Fri sometimes later if I’m on a streak, and generally 5 hours on Sundays throughout the day and late night. However last year I got a grip on my insomnia and started sleeping during the night on a regular basis. I’m 35 now so I have to be careful with my health; not sleeping right definitely has a negative impact on my health and overall feeling of well-being. I can’t sacrifice my sleep for my writing anymore. So no more writing into all hours of the night for me!
Mercury Man is usually a big help but he was going to grad school for the past 2 summers so couldn’t help much. But this summer he is completely free! I am really excited about that because he can do way more childcare and housework activities now. My plan for my summer writing schedule so far is this:
Weekends when I’m not taking the kids to an activity of theirs or at some business event or conducting a workshop I will write 6:30am-12:30pm, break for lunch, then do some blogging writing from 1-3pm. Mon-Fri I’m gonna really try to write from 8:30am-6:30pm with a half-hour break for lunch and two 15 minute breaks thrown in there. Since we have a lot of activities and travel planned I have fun and flexibility with this plan built-in.
Do you have a writing schedule? How strict are you at sticking to it?
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
May 25th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
My little guy just turned three, so I generally try to write when he’s asleep. He usually takes a nap in the afternoon and is in bed by 7:30-8. But I’m not disciplined enough with my writing. I think my brain is so fried I really can’t focus or something. I’m not sure. He starts pre-school this fall. I’m hoping that for at least some of those half days I’ll get some wrting done.
May 26th, 2007 at 5:40 am
Yes! You certainly will if you focus. When my youngest was in pre-school he had 3 half days, 9-1130. That time went by so quick! but I started focusing and got a lot of writing done.
May 27th, 2007 at 9:28 am
What a great post, made me think. I have three little ones under five, plus 1/2 day nursery formy 4 year old, so finding time is tough, especially since I like to sleep. One idea: turn off the TV. It’s the biggest timewaster of them all. DH is very helpful though – will keep the little ones occupied while I blog for an hour or so.
May 27th, 2007 at 4:36 pm
That is so true black domestic goddess, television is a huge time waster. I have found I don’t miss it when I don’t watch it…but when I do, I tend to think I am missing out on great shows. But just like I can’t read every great book out there (yet, ha ha), I can’t watch every great tv show. I just don’t have the time. Just watching Oprah every weekday is 5 hours a week, plus Lost once a week is 6 hours a week, 24 hours a month I could have been writing or taking care of stuff for my biz. So I had to sharply cut down on the little tv I was watching. Oprah 2-3 times a week if I really really am interested in the topic.
Jun 13th, 2007 at 11:15 am
i have no children and no writing schedule. man…i really have NO excuse. LOL