Schedules aren't Just for Toddlers Anymore

If babies and toddlers are indeed creatures of habit (which, according to every pediatrician, parenting book, mom blog, and that weird lady at the park that one time, they totally are), then count me in as a fit-throwing, Ninja Turtle-loving three year old.

I am a creature of habit.

I wish my desk looked this nice.

Which is useful since I telecommute.

Sure, there’s a lot of freedom with working outside of an office, but I still follow a schedule that changes a few times throughout the year depending on my classes.

Right now I have a few weeks before class starts up again, so my morning schedule is fairly simple:

• Wake up and shower.
• Drag protesting kids out of my own bed (don't you have your own?) and get them downstairs and fed.
• Tell them for the last god damn time to put their clothes on or they can't watch Ninja Turtles when they get home.
• Drop kids off at daycare. Try to act like I enjoy listening to the same song for the millionth time.
• Come back home, eat breakfast while listening to an audiobook or podcast, and guzzle coffee.

Five days a week I start my day off the same way. I have the same thing for breakfast, the same thing for lunch, and eat the same snacks at the same time of day.

OK I sound really boring.

But there’s a good reason behind it, I swear. All of these little things that go into my routine get me ready for a day of work filled with writing, editing, and pacing my living room when I hit a roadblock.

If I rolled out of bed and plopped down in front of the computer still in my PJs, guess how much work I’d get done? Well, my Twitter feed might look busy, but that’s about it.

The same goes with writing. You know, my own fiction writing, not work writing.

When I was just a ball of hormones and energy and cigarettes I could write whenever, wherever. Now, I like a bit of habit before settling into some productive writing time. (Right now, it’s in the afternoon after I take a lunch break.)

Struggling to commit enough time to writing is a burden that most writers carry, and that’s one of the reasons that I find routine and habit so incredibly important.

I mean sure, those visions of the innately perfect writer who puts pen to paper and produces brilliant works of art any time the fancy strikes is nice and all, but for the most part writing takes an enormous amount of dedication and hard work.

Do you have any pre-writing habits or rituals that get you into the mindset to write?