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?
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?
posted by Trula at
10:51 AM
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