After six months of working a crazy schedule in a retail environmentl, I am just finishing the third week of a new job. What makes this so significant for me is that I've been able to return to a regular writing routine. This includes writing for this blog on a regular basis. Even this week, working evening hours, I've made it a point to use my morning time as I would my "evening time" and get exercise, chores, and writing accomplished every day. A Place to Call Their Own is progressing nicely, and I'll have two blog posts this week. (FYI: I'm hoping to post the next section of A Place to Call Their Own on iWriteIt.com next week.)
The other routine I've made sure to keep up this week is my reading. I have read at least a few minutes each night, both in my fiction as well as my non-fiction topics. This commitment to reading has helped me relax at night and get to bed at a decent hour. This, of course, so I can be up by seven the next day to start again.
The reason I'm sharing this with you this week is so that you understand my commitment to making the best out of an undesirable situation. I knew going into this new job that I would have the possibility of working later hours. And knowing that, I also have commitments to not let my work schedule get in the way of my writing schedule.
Another catalyst for my situation is the fact that we're sharing a car. I have to get up and take Thomas to work. I used to be able to get up, run a quick errand, and go back to bed. The older I get, once I'm up, I seem to be up for the day (although a nap about one or two in the afternoon is always good!).
The other catalyst that has made this week so productive is the fact that I prefer to write and create in the morning rather than the evening. These mornings I set my fifteen minute timer just to make sure I do my fifteen minutes a day. After the timer goes off, I tend to linger as much as I can (the timer went off at the beginning of this paragraph! I have a wedding shower gift to wrap today!). When I'm working more of a standard shift, and I don't' get up in the morning early enough to write, I'm usually done mentally as soon as that timer goes off.
Whatever the routines you've set for yourself, I hope they are working. Constantly revise your routines to make them fit work for you and your family, whether or not things like your career or your children's schedules are getting in your way. When you have solid routines in place and goals that you're reaching for, it's so much easier to get back in the saddle when your schedule gets disrupted.
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