I'm in the midst of reading Stephen King's On Writing, which was an impulse buy a few months ago. I bought it at the same time that I bought Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, but guess what? I like the Stephen King better. 

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?