♦Welcome to another edition of the Open Book Blog Hop!♦
Topic #95
How Do You Schedule Your Work Week?
Welcome back to another edition of the Open Book Blog Hop! If you’re new to the series, the authors included are grateful for your reads and appreciate, even more so, when you share our writings with your friends. If you’re new to the series, welcome aboard. The authors engage and impress weekly. Be prepared to become a regular reader.
For those following the blog, you already know I work a regular job to support the writer life. New readers, you just found out. Either way, you can imagine that scheduling time to blog and work on my writing can be difficult. I’ve been doing this a few years now, and I’m still working out the kinks.
To get super organized and figure a better use of the time available to work on my blog, I bought myself a journal book. In it, I write my ideas for blog posts. Some of the posts are part of a series, and that helps make things a bit easier—until the ideas dry up. Having the journal, however, helps avoid that. For instance, I know that Fridays feature articles about my trilogy, and the last post of the month serves an environmental news round up. That leaves a few days to fill in with something else. I can choose from my topics (hover over the Blue Honor Blog link at the top, and you’ll see the various sections of the blog), or an idea may have bubbled up and I write on that.
Each month gets two pages, and I set them up like a calendar with the dates that the post should be released. As ideas come to me, I’ll write them on a post it note or directly into the journal, if I have an opening needing to be filled. The spaces between the dates and post titles, provides an area to flesh out more details. Usually, I have enough room left to create a notes section at the end of the schedule, where I can write directions and ideas that don’t fit under a specific post. This part of the work is always going. It takes virtually no time to do when it’s spread out over the months.
Once I have a month’s schedule complete, I can start working on ideas for the next. But, when do I actually write the posts that come out twice a week? I write them at the end of the previous month. The end of the month can be a very busy time for me. I’ll have art to complete to illustrate the trilogy Friday’s posts, stock art to find for all the posts, recordings to make for the vlog and Shagbottom, and the writing of each post, too. It’s time consuming! Due to my planning, it all comes together. Sometimes, I am still writing posts while the new month has arrived. Life can get in the way like that, such as when you’re not feeling well, or there are things around the house that demand your attention. That said, the intention is to have it written and ready to go within a week and a half. So, often, my start date for posts is around the 20th of each month—come what may. So far so good.
My regular readers know that I am currently carrying my first child. So what is going to happen to my schedules and plans then? Maternity leave is planned in advance. Let me tell you, I am a busy beaver getting ready for it. I’m literally writing every day to get the blog settled and ready for this big adjustment through December. Wish me luck! I’ve already had my second cold, and that put me a week behind. The goal is to be done by early July. The outlines of each month are done. The artwork is mostly completed. The taping videos happens on the day that I create the post to house them. On days that I work my regular job, I only work on one post in the evening, weekends, I am doing two a day.
Why so much? you might ask me. Because this is my first baby, and I’ve been reassured that it’s going to upend everything. Having the blog ready to go for a few months give me time to get acquainted with my baby and her schedule, and how my schedule is going to mix with hers. Either way, I am covered for a good while, and can use the time to try and work on future months and adapt if need be.
Writing requires that you are willing to adapt to your life. I’ve mentioned before that your life is the most important thing to do to feed your writing. Without living and doing, you’ll have nothing to say. So scheduling rigid times to do things without making room for that which feeds your art, is a death sentence. 30 minutes a day? Please. When I settle into wanting to write another book, I write when I want to and for as long as I can. You can’t cut yourself off, or cram your genius into an appointment. Don’t do that to yourself, unless it absolutely works for you.
Let’s hop on over and see how the other authors schedule work…
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She will sleep when you want to be awake and then keep you up all night. It’s a function of you lulling the fetus to sleep with your activity during the day. Here pretty soon, you’ll notice her being active at night when you’re trying to sleep. When they’re born, that’s the schedule they’re used to and it takes them a while to adapt to the way things really work.
And, if you’re nursing, be prepared for the growth spurt around Day 10. She’ll be hungry every 10 minutes for 24-48 hours. A bunch of my friends and I compared notes when ours were little and realized that nobody tells you about this. It came as a big surprise to every last one of us. So, I try to tell every expectant mother I know so they can be prepared for the frustration. My sweet little baby girl who slept two hours at a time turned into a demon monster who was starving … but it only lasted 24 hours for her and then she went back to being a sweet baby. It lasted 48 hours with my son. My husband took paternity leave because I was offered a promotion right before he was born and I had to go into to train with the gal I was replacing. So poor Brad thought he was doing something wrong when Kiernan hit the growth spurt at Day 9. I had to put training on hold to go spend a couple of days at home, because they literally want to eat every 10 minutes.
I was wondering about that. When I sleep, she doesn’t wake me up with her movements, yet. I do wake her, though, because it’s usually me flying out of bed to go to the bathroom, or let the dog out. Thank you for the day 10 warning! Noted.
Yes, despite out best-made plans, life gets in the way!
Congratulations, that’s wonderful news. I think you’ve got a good plan. Babies change our lives but in the most profound way.
Thank you! It’s going to be quite the change, but one I am fully looking forward to.