I think a LOT about how we structure our days as creative people who have to be self-motivated. It pays to be efficient, and a lot of that efficiency comes from being able to slip into a work routine without a lot of hassle so you can get more done.
However, we also need to work around the realities of real life, which means that making a work schedule requires balancing the way you work best with your particular situation, especially if you have a Day Job.
My work schedule has changed a lot (as has my work situation) since I started keeping this blog almost four years ago (!!!!!!). I’ve worked from home grading standardized test essays, held a full-time office job, spent three months without a Day Job at all, and finally come back to teach in Japan. Each of these stages required adjusting to changing realities so I could make progress on my creative work.
Along the way, though, I’ve been trying to ask myself a really, really important question: If I had complete control over how I spent my time, what would my ideal creative work schedule look like?
Let’s find out…
My Ideal, Day-Job Free Creative Work Schedule
If I had complete control over my time and didn’t have a Day Job, my ideal creative work schedule would look a little something like this:
7:30 – Wake up
7:30~8:30 – Read
8:30-9:30 – Shower, eat breakfast, get ready
9:30 – Walk or ride a bike to a workspace that isn’t where I live
10:00 – Make the day’s plan in my Daily Schedule
10:10~1:00 – Write
1:00~3:00 – Eat lunch, take a walk, read, relax, run an errand, etc.
3:00~7:30 – Work on other projects, including blogging, promotion, submitting, editing, correspondence, studying, research, meetings, etc.
7:30 – Come home, eat dinner
After Dinner: Clean up unfinished To-Do items, read, relax, go out and do something social, etc.
There’s a lot to unpack here, so I’ll go line by line…
7:30 – Wake up
Pretty self-explanatory. Unless I’m super tired I try to wake up between 7:30 and 8:00 when I don’t have work, but moving closer to the 7:30 side would help get me moving earlier and ensure that I get more done throughout the day.
7:30~8:30 – Read
When I was a kid I used to read a lot first thing in the morning on weekends and in summer, since my bed was right under a window and got a lot of light. During my three-month period of not working before I came to Japan I started reading in the mornings again, both so I could get through more books and because it gave me an incentive to wake up and get ideas flowing as I started the day. You bet I’d do this every morning in my ideal world.
8:30-9:30 – Shower, eat breakfast, get ready
Simple enough. You stick to the same routine long enough and you get good at it ;-)
9:30 – Walk or ride a bike to a workspace that isn’t where I live
This one requires a bit of explanation: I’ve grown to understand how important it is to separate work and home life, or in this case, to separate your creative work so that it feels more like work. Leaving my personal space and moving to a separate location at a set time every morning not only gives me more motivation to get up and moving, it puts me in a work-related mindset: you’re at work now, so it’s time to get work done and not goof off on your phone all morning.
John Updike used to do his writing in a small office he rented; author and social critic James Howard Kunstler did (or maybe still does) the same thing. Both workspaces were near where they lived, and Kunstler took pleasure in not having to drive to his as a way of reducing the environmental impact. Since I’ve recently become a big proponent of daily life activities that also provide exercise, being able to move to a separate office every day would kill a lot of birds with one stone, especially if getting there didn’t take too much time.
There are a lot of opportunities for shared workspaces, especially in cities, but being able to rent a private space where I could store my stuff would be ideal—remember, this is a dream scenario!
10:00 – Make the day’s plan in my Daily Schedule
Again, self-explanatory—every good workday needs a plan!
10:10~1:00 – Write
I find I do my best work in the mornings when I have an uninterrupted block of at least two hours where I can turn my phone off and disconnect. Leaving my mornings free for legit, for-serious writing (as opposed to blogging, emailing, or editing other people’s writing) would ensure that I’m getting my best work done while I’m at my most focused and clearheaded.
1:00~3:00 – Eat lunch, take a walk, read, relax, run an errand, etc.
Midday breaks are important to me, especially after a writing session, and ESPECIALLY if I’ve been cooped up inside for long periods of time during a pandemic. I like to mix up these breaks depending on the day, whether I have an errand to run, whether it’s raining, whether I’m really interested in the book I’m reading, etc.
3:00~7:30 – Work on other projects, including blogging, promotion, submitting, editing, correspondence, studying, research, meetings, etc.
Also pretty self-explanatory. Separating actual writing from the other stuff that goes along with writing by literally doing them at different times of the day prevents the other stuff from mixing with the creation process—and prevents me from getting burned out by answering too many emails, doing too much editing, etc.
I also like doing other creative work tasks in the afternoon because they send a clear message to my ever-anxious self: Writing comes first, and everything else comes second.
7:30 – Come home, eat dinner
Again, leaving my outside office space and coming back home sends a clear signal that work is over and it’s time to relax, unwind, and enjoy things that aren’t work.
After Dinner: Clean up unfinished To-Do items, read, relax, go out and do something social, etc.
Finally, a few stray To-Do list items (especially non-work-related ones) might make their way into this after-dinner time, but ideally this would be a block for disconnecting, reading, and enjoying time with friends and family.
Why is Knowing Your Ideal Work Schedule Important?
Because it gives you something to work toward.
Planning the specifics of how I’d most like to structure my worktime helps clarify where my priorities lie—as I hope it can for you, too. Thinking about these things has shown me some of my values when it comes to getting work done:
- Moving from where I live to a separate workspace so I can focus better.
- Separating actual writing from other, non-writing tasks
- Taking a break in the middle of the day
- Scheduling down time, and time to see friends and family during the week
Just knowing these things can help me make decisions about my current creative work schedule (where I still have a Day Job) so I can work better and more efficiently. As always, these small decisions matter, and can help guide us as we progress down our creative paths.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll spend the rest of the day working at the library ;-)