Far from routine

Posted on May 28, 2008 by avatar

I realized today as I cooked eggs at 9:50AM, that I am still forming my routine.

As writers, we often have a free-form approach to our lives. If a person can’t do an interview until 8:30 and he insists on speaking with you at the local pub, so be it.

We adjust our lives to fit our assignments. But what happens when we land projects that require a little more ‘regular’ facetime?

An example might be a non-fiction book that has to be researched during the daylight. Or a photo-essay that requires early morning and late afternoon light. Or the myriad other tidbits that dictate our movements by their restrictions.

This makes the planned schedule of 7:30 into the shower; 7:55 boil the eggs and water for tea; 8:05 dine and slurp; and 8:15 into the writing chair, a bit of a challenge.

Today I did busy work for two hours before I realized the time. I wrote a Bowl of Cheese entry, followed up on a bunch of article queries, and connected with my Twitter compatriots long before the egg boiling commenced.

Part of the time shift today has to do with some more research for the scooter article, a Dr.’s appointment in the afternoon and an early AM meeting tomorrow.

Essentially, writers need to be flexible and we also need to know how to evaluate the beneficial opportunities from the time-wasters. That’s one of the major challenges I’ve had to face and solve during this sabbatical. But it’s coming along well and I think I’ve got a fairly good balance going.

Please share in the comments how you’ve balanced your ‘real’ work with your futzing around activity and how you got to a place that’s productive and positive in your writing world.

Keep reading!

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One Response to Far from routine

  1. Mari Adkins says:
    May 28, 2008 at 1:35 pm

    Good piece – and good question. What I’ve had to do is come up with a “working schedule”, especially since I work here in my dining room at home. Having said that, today I’m two hours behind because I had some issues with my computer this morning – for the record, it won. :eye roll:

    The hard part is separating the futzing from the working, as you mentioned above. What I do when, say, I’m on GoogleMaps looking up a location and/or catching the satellite view to jog my memory and catch myself oohing and aahing over places with nothing to do what I’m working on, I close GoogleMaps and get back to work. Actually, I at that point, I shut down absolutely everything I don’t need at that give time so I can focus better on what I’m supposed to be doing.

    I keep a running list nearby of what needs to be done at a given time – and I have Outlook scheduled to send me certain reminders during the day. Both help. As does scheduling in breaks. I forget sometimes that just because I’m working at home on a set schedule, this doesn’t mean I’m not entitled to breaks like anyone else who works in an office*.

    Also, staying away from the telephone except for necessary and emergency calls goes a long way too. Although I found people have to be trained when you work at home not to take advantage and call all the time – this is one place where caller id comes in very handy!

    And now, I think I’m going to go make a proper cup of tea. Just because I can and because that sounds really yummy right now.

    * my husband informed me the other day that I do not suffer from Cubical Trappitism. He informed me that the apartment doesn’t count as a cubical. LOL

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