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.
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
5 Responses to Setting a Summer Writing Schedule
Leave a Reply
- I'm Trula and this is my mommy blog. Being the mother to these children has been one of the most beautiful things to happen to me. Trula Kids, formerly Mama Specific Productions, is part of the MSPmedia network ©2002-2011 All Rights Reserved
Subscribe in a reader
Mama Books
Children’s Books
Positive Emergence Zine
Check out my zine, I'm on a mission to infuse positivity into the world! Topics include choosing happiness, depression management, overcoming trauma, letting go of the past, and more.
More MSPmedia Blogs
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.
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.
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.
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.
i have no children and no writing schedule. man…i really have NO excuse. LOL