I’m still looking for a suitable blog hop, but I want to continue with more personal blog posts. Today, I’d like to give you some insight into how I organise my writing schedule.
In my earlier posts, I made it clear I’m a planner, and it’s no different for my writing schedule. I can’t leave it to the chance that I may fit things in, First, my weird brain will not allow it, and second I would get nothing done. Either that or I would just be flying by the seat of my pants and stressed all the time (another thing my brain dislikes).
I used to just keep a mental writing schedule, but after I read about book marketing, I began a planning journal. Like all writers, I have loads of unused notebooks lying around, so I made use of them. My mum likes arts and crafts, in particular gem art, and she made me a few notebooks which I use for my writing planning.
I start by breaking my writing schedule down into ninety-day or three-month slots. I think it’s a reasonable amount of time to set some SMART targets (I developed a habit of using these during my years working in marketing and communications. Targets should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and have a time constraint.) Anything could change over three months, so I keep it short so I can adapt my planning if necessary. I then break the three-month targets into monthly targets and plan my weekly and daily tasks to meet the month’s targets.
You may have noticed I like to use the rule of three. I set my top three tasks for each day and then each week, which will help me reach my monthly and ninety-day targets, and like any anally retentive planner, I like to tick them off once the tasks are complete.
As you can see from my planning records, it can get a little messy and sometimes I need to be flexible because things can change. Like in April, I had to include the competition at the last minute.
With two part-time jobs, I must spend four and a half hours of my weekdays doing my copywriting—the job that brings home the pennies. I then fit my fiction writing around that and the five am writer’s club helps me get the job done. I reserve those two hours for drafting and editing my novels, short stories and blog posts.
After I’ve finished the copywriting job, I try to squeeze in another couple of hours each day doing marketing, improving my writing craft, doing historical research, and critiquing other people’s writing.
If I can do some reading for pleasure, then I’ve had a great day. I should also try to squeeze in more physical activity, which has been a struggle since I started working from home, but also more important than before because I need to get out of my house. Staring at the same four walls and not speaking to people in person will eventually drive me crazy.
If you’re a writer, how do you make sure you get your work done? Or does anyone want to share their tips for being organised either in their work or personal life? You’re more than welcome to share in the comments.
