I'm in the midst of reading Stephen King's On Writing
Weirdly enough, King's book doesn't have much in it about writing. He writes about meeting his wife and getting married young, about working in a factory for years after college, about his reaction when he found out that the publishers were going to pay big bucks for Carrie. There's great stuff about his nasty drug habit in the 80s and some stabs at literary critics. I should write a full review when I finish.
The best bits of the King book are about how to organize your life, so that you can do something very hard and very painful, like writing a book. King writes for five hours or so every morning until noon. Then, he knocks off and does errands and things. He writes every day, including holidays.
I love reading about how people organize and discipline their lives. It's easy when the job does it for you. Most people will get their ass fired, if they don't punch the clock at 9:01 every morning. They have to punch out 132 widgets out of the sheet metal by 5:00 or they'll get their ass fired. Things are a lot looser around here. Which makes things tougher. Also, my first job is taking care of the kids, and it's hard to establish routines when there are school meetings, vacations, crises, sick days, and a million other unpredictable routine busters.
Routines and disclipline are good for the obvious reason. You get stuff accomplished. They are also good, because they may make you live longer.
I'm moving around the morning routine right now. How should I those hours when the kids are in school? What the priority? The jog, the blog, the writing project, the trip to the supermarket, lunch?
How do you order your day?
Apt. 11d 
I figure that if I put in a solid hour between 10 and 11 AM, it has been a productive day. Also, naps and exercise are important for maintaining energy and staying away from the fridge.
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“Also, my first job is taking care of the kids, and it’s hard to establish routines when there are school meetings . . . .”
I think this issue is a much bigger part of the “problem” than most people realize. Taking care of the kids, and organizing your schedule around theirs, because, after all, they’re the first priority doesn’t really leave all that much blocked time for anything else. And it’s the perfect example of the urgent taking priority of the important but not urgent (though I won’t say that kids are urgent but unimportant, much of what you have to do for them can feel like it, like finding their socks).
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More practically, I find that having a detailed to-do list helps me a lot. It helps to put everything down, even the little stuff, partially ’cause I seem to forget all that stuff these days, but also because I like marking it off.
(off to make my to-do list)
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I loved King’s book–I thought it wasn’t just a good guide to the writing life, but actually wise.
As for organizing my life, I find I’m quite bad at it, which is why I’m actually more productive on my own research and writing projects when school is in session, and I have to teach these classes at this time, etc. Right now, during our spring break, I’m finding my “to-do” list increasing much more quickly than I can take things off it, and that isn’t usually the case when my to-do list primarily consists of things I know I’m obliged to due at particularly times of the day, or have done (like grading tests) by a particular date.
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Although my daughter is already 5 (in other words, I SHOULD know how to schedule my life by now as a parent), I am still wrestling with doing music and creative pursuits in small chunks of time. I am much more used to having blocks of at least two hours where I can immerse myself. Turning the creative switch on for twenty minutes and then off for 10 while I change laundry loads and then on again – difficult to the point where I pass on a number of twenty minute slots altogether.
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I loved On Writing, too. And I don’t even care for his novels.
I quit making my kids my first job. Writing is my first job. The kids are second. That’s how I prioritize my day.
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I quit making my kids my first job.
You could teach school in Wisconsin.
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I try to organize in blocks of time, that way if things shift it’s not too bad. Right now (three preschoolers at home) I try to leave the computer turned off except for about 1/2 an hour in the morning and an hour or so during nap/quiet time. This means that blog posts get pre-written to some extent, I keep a list by the computer of things I want to post about and a file of “prompts” on those topics to get me started. I find the deadline of “I have to post on these three things during this hour” really helps keep me on task…
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When I first freelanced, I did it by keeping the routines of an office, even inside a studio apartment. That meant no cleaning, no chores, no errands during working hours unless it was during lunch. That also meant no work during the non-work hours, with very few exceptions.
Much later, after the first kid arrived, I got an external office. That helped keep the routines.
Since I had to support myself from the get-go, I wasn’t asking who will buy what I want to write but rather how can I write what people are buying (and paying enough for).
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Ha ha! I don’t think I’ll be heading up to Wisconsin anytime soon.
But I was serious…When I worked outside the home, I could only stay home when a kid was sick. I still had to go to my job every day, and run errands cook dinner, do everything else at other times. Writing in the margins of time means I don’t get writing done at all. You have to treat writing as a “real job” and make it your first priority.
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Get up. Make lunches. Get kids up. Make breakfast. Help wife get off to work. Take youngest to pre-school. Get back in time for 10 minutes hanging out with eldest before she buggers off till after 6. Deal with email. Prepare for teaching if needed/do some writing. Try to get some exercise. Have some lunch and watch 5 minutes of Torchwood while eating. Teach if its a teaching day/prepare for meetings if its a meeting day. Try to talk to students at some point if they’re willing. Say hi to former student who is in the next class in my lecture hall as I leave. Grade if necessary. Get home if no committee meeting. Deal with middle kid and noisy friends when they get home while trying to work (prep, writing, emailing). Make them eat something healthy rather than just candy which they bought on the way home. Good time for writing to the many students who correspond with me. Decide whether spouse or self get youngest from preschool. Prepare dinner. Make it if spouse picks up youngest, or pick up youngest myself and then make it. Eat dinner while children get up and walk around, talk a mile a minute, complain about what I’ve made — wonder what I am doing with my life. Get younger two to bed (one each if spouse is there, both if she’s not). Bug the eldest to have shower so that she doesn’t wait till I’m in bed. Talk to spouse if she’s not working/read detective story if she is, or help her. Shower at some point. Bed.
Brush and floss teeth as luxury several times a day. Once every couple of weeks go bowling with friend, and throw the ball very hard.
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That meant no cleaning, no chores, no errands during working hours unless it was during lunch.
I don’t even do that with an actual office.
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My lack of routine may be why I’m not internet famous. But, I did just learn that I’m about to get my first publication on an internet-only journal. I think I can still put that on a CV.
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There are three things I do every morning when I get to my job. I love that. It’s kind of grounding to have that routine when the rest of the day is a combination of trying to get to my list and dealing with whatever comes up.
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5:30: wake up/exercise
6:30: breakfast/get kids ready
7:45: kids on bus
8:10: leave for work
8:30 – 3:25: work, work, work (sneak on internet to post a blog comment) work, work, work. No lunch, no errands. Just work, work, work.
3:25: rush out of work to get home to meet the bus
3:47: Arrive home 2 minutes after the bus, apologize to children. Blame: traffic, elevator, ice on roads, slow tractor in lane.
4:00: Snack/talk to kids/homework
4:30: sneak on computer to do more work while kids play (or deliver kids to afterschol enrichment activities)
5:30: cook dinner/watch PBS news/listen to NPR. Intend to clean house: decide that a home cooked dinner is more important than a clean house.
6:30: family dinner (all four of us together, almost every night – this is the one requirement of our life now.)
7:00: normally – family time/homework. This month: protest time – either go down to capitol with signs or attend community organizing meetings
8:00: bedtime routine with kids
9:00: sneak onto computer for more work/blog reading
10:00 crash in bed/read
The only way I’ve been able to juggle work/family/everything else is to wake up at 5:30 to exercise and collect my thoughts before everyone else is up. This week has been a mess. Between daylight savings time and anti-Walker meetings every single night….I’m barely functioning!
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My other big rule is no mindless tasks (of whatever variety) during prime time (whenever you feel freshest and most energetic). The very best time of day for me is 9-11 AM and if I’ve got a lot of finicky, time-sensitive scheduling emails, phone calls, kid paperwork or some major household project to do, I try to do those then, rather than routine, mindless tasks (laundry, grocery shopping, etc.). Routine and mindless can wait for a bit.
Oops. It’s 10:40 right now! Better luck tomorrow.
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My problem is that my prime time starts at about 11:00 p.m. and I am currently forced to be out of the house at 7:45 a.m.
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My preschooler is in school 3 hours a day. I write one hour while she’s at school. Then when she comes home, she watches 1 hour of TV while my older two are still at school. I write then. Then all three are home from school. After I get them settled into something, I try to manage another 30 minutes of writing before making dinner. Then after bedtime, I do another 1-2 hours, depending on how tired I am. I’m not in bed before 11, and I’m up at 6 during the week. I say “no” to things on weekends, a lot, so I can write a good 4 hours on Saturday. If I’m not writing, I’m attending writing workshops that take half the day. I bring my laptop there, and work on my novel while I’m listening to the workshop. I usually manage 2-3 hours on Sunday.
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Harry, Kristen: is this what we’re doing?
Monday-Friday
5:30am: wake up, get the news and e-mail on internet
6:00am: takes oldest daughter to seminary (early morning church school)
Exercise, read more news, read daily paper, read scriptures.
7:00am: make breakfast for family if it’s a leave-late day; grab cold cereal if it’s a leave-early day
Ride bike to work, or get a ride with a friend if it’s raining.
8:00am-9:30am: arrive at work, begin lesson prep, meeting prep, student advising, teaching, blogging, research writing, etc.
5:00pm-5:30pm: leave for home (ride takes a half-hour)
6:00pm: eat dinner which Melissa has made, unless it’s yoga or book club or Girl Scouts night, in which case I arrive home early enough to make it.
8:00pm: read Harry Potter or Winnie-the-Pooh or something else to one of the younger kids, family scripture reading and prayers, conduct general guerrilla warfare until youngest are in bed (the older two are on their own)
8:30-9:00pm: watch something silly with Melissa, or watch a movie of my own, or read a book, or grade papers or tests, or something.
10:00pm-midnight: bedtime
Saturday and Sunday
Whatever.
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Trollope: every morning, three hours before his day job.
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