Revisiting my writing schedule

During my first year as a reporter, I got into schedules. Every week, my work schedule changed: some days I went in at 10 am, sometimes at 5 pm. Some weeks I worked weekends, on others I didn’t. It made getting into a routine impossible. So every week, I sat down and figured out when I’d do stuff like grocery shopping or laundry or, of course, writing.

I still make a schedule for myself, though now I only review it once a year or so–my work schedule hasn’t changed in the past almost-five years. Recently I’ve been taking a look at it again. I’ve been trying to do a lot of writing in the evenings, leaving Saturdays mostly open. Unfortunately it hasn’t worked out as well as I’d like.

So a couple weeks ago I worked out a new, weekend-focused schedule. I still get in at least an hour of writing most weekdays, but my evenings are mostly free for non-writing stuff. That means a lot more writing on Saturdays. I’m hoping that creating a big chunk of continuous time will help me be more productive, and that having some free time during the week will be more relaxing. Preliminary results are looking good.

Still, I’d love a magic button that would actually create more time instead of just shuffling things around.