I credit my dad for planting the seed of knowledge that
you don’t put things off until tomorrow if they can be done today. Even though
I sometimes take this to an unhealthy extreme, I believe it's a good principle and can
be applied to many circumstances in life. I have also succumbed to procrastination
(more often than I wish to admit) and I’ve rarely found a situation where it has
added value to my life. I read a post yesterday from a fellow blogger that
triggered déjà vu. The post was titled The Attack of the To Do List, by Jodi
Milner. She talked about the challenges of getting things done amongst the immediate
demands of running a household and taking care of her family, namely, her
children.
It is true that when we aren’t
given the freedom to spend our time as we please, we value those bits and small
chunks of time when we’re able to accomplish something. On the other hand, it’s
so easy to justify allowing ourselves time to relax during our 15-minute recess,
instead of completing a to-do item. I’m not saying a person shouldn’t relax.
Sometimes “me time” is necessary to keep from going insane. However, continuously
putting things off until tomorrow only makes our tomorrow an even bigger
challenge. Let’s apply this philosophy to writing.
I am currently writing a YA fantasy
novel, which I enjoy very much. Nonetheless, if I don’t devote time to work on
it, it will never get done. I have a two-year-old and a nine-year-old. Because
I chose to homeschool, beginning this year, they’re home with me all day. At
first, my day was completely disorganized, and I felt as if I were running in a
circle of “to-do” debris all day long. My novel rarely received attention, and
when I did sit down to write, my mind couldn’t stop thinking about last night's
dirty dishes still in my sink. Finally, enough was enough! I knew something had
to change, so I sat down and wrote out a list of things I needed to accomplish during my day, and another list of what I wanted to accomplish. That’s when I realized
the problem: my day contained no routine at all. Besides my children’s strict
bedtime, my day was utter chaos! On
that faithful day, a routine (however, atypical) was created.
It took some time for the children
and me to adjust, but after a couple of weeks, things began to fall into place.
Their strict bedtime routine allowed me to get up early and devote some time to
writing. Most mornings, I write on my novel, and other mornings I write my next
blog post (like today), but I always try to get some writing done, even if only
for 10 or 15 minutes. Over time, it has become a routine, and one that starts
my day off with a surge of motivation that trickles to the next to-do item.
Tell me about your writing routine.
Are you a procrastinator, or do you have a schedule that helps you carve out
time for writing?
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