Writing and Routine

Once upon a time, I had a lot of time on my hands. Turns out having a lot of time on your hands isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be. Because you have a lot of time, you think “I can always do this later.” Only to think this thought again when later comes around.

Then, one day, I got Ginger, a dachshund who had suffered a back injury and needed physical therapy to get the use of her legs back. This meant going to the vet once a week for hydrotherapy as well as doing hydrotherapy at home. I also volunteer at our local Humane Society twice a week for however long I’m needed. I also decided that I was going to start a little business using my sculpting skills and my mom’s book making skills, which meant needing time each day to sculpt.

But, added all together, I found myself spending less and less time on my writing. There was no “later,” there was only now or definitely-not-happening-today, with not-happening-today always winning. So, finally fed up with accomplishing little to nothing on the writing end of things, I decided that it was time for a change. I’m a night owl, you see, always staying up into the wee hours (times when my brain wants absolutely nothing to do with writing) then sleeping in pretty darn late. This was where the real problem with my lack of writing lay, because I’m always at my most motivated to write and/or edit during the day, the time when I’m usually busy. So I made the decision to get up about an hour or two earlier than I normally do and focus on my writing. I’ve been doing this for three days, now.

It’s worked. It’s worked like crazy. Right now I’m editing a book, and I went from editing maybe half a chapter if lucky to editing a chapter and a half.

It may seem like a no-brainer that when it comes to things like writing – or sculpting, or making sure your dog does her exercises – that having a routine helps. It’s establishing those routines, however, that’s the tricky part, because life is busy, life is full of distractions, and life happens. But if you manage to find a routine, stick with it. If you don’t have a routine, then make whatever changes you need in order to have one. It continues to boggle my mind just how much I’m able to get done these days simply because I decided to get up earlier.