How to Find Your Own Writing Schedule
Spoiler: It doesn’t have to be every morning at 5 AM.
The internet is full of advice telling you to write every day. Stephen King says it, Tom Kuegler says it, and lots of other successful writers say it. I am not going to argue their point. If you can sit down to write every day, you ought to do it, whether you want to or not.
But I am going to argue against anyone who says that writing every day is the only way to become a writer. It’s a good way, for sure, but it’s simply not feasible for everyone.
Writing every day, preferrably at the same time, works well for people with a regular daily schedule and set routines. If that’s you, great! You may stop reading now and go write, I believe in you.
But if you’re anything like me, you might not have that luxury. I, for one, have the most all-over-the-place lifestyle you can possibly imagine. No one day of the week is the same as another, every week is different, and most days, I am in lots of different places.
This is what my current week looks like, for example:
Monday
8 AM — 11 AM: Extended Morning Routine
11 AM — 1 PM: Housekeeping & Lunch Break
1 PM— 3 PM: Commute
3 PM— 4 PM: Snack Break
4 PM — 9 PM: Classes (Teaching Dance)
9 PM — 11 PM: CommuteTuesday
4 AM — 5 AM: Basic Morning Routine
5 AM — 5:30 AM: Commute
5:30 PM — 2:30 PM: Shift at Starbucks
2:30 PM — 3 PM: Commute
3 PM — 5 PM: Self-Care, Grocery Shopping
5 PM — 6 PM: Make Dinner
6 PM — 9 PM: Dinner & Quality Time w. BoyfriendWednesday
8 AM — 12 PM: Extended Morning Routine
12 PM — 1 PM: Admin Work
1 PM — 2 PM: Lunch Break
2 PM — 4 PM: Commute
4 PM — 6 PM: Choreography
6 PM — 8 PM: Classes
8 PM — 10 PM: CommuteThursday
4 AM — 5 AM: Basic Morning Routine
5 AM — 5:30 AM: Commute
5:30 PM — 2:30 PM: Shift at Starbucks
2:30 PM — 3 PM: Commute
3 PM — 5 PM: Nap Time
5 PM — 6 PM: Dinner Break
6 PM — 7 PM: Commute
7 PM — 9 PM: Classes
9 PM — 10 PM: CommuteFriday
5 AM — 6 AM: Basic Morning Routine
6 AM — 7 AM: Commute
7 AM — 4 PM: Shift at Starbucks
4 PM — 6 PM: Dinner Break on the Go
6 PM — 7 PM: Commute
7 PM — 9 PM: Classes
9 PM — 10 PM: CommuteSaturday
6:30 AM — 7 :30 AM: Basic Morning Routine
7:30 AM — 10 AM: Commute
10 AM — 2 PM: Classes
2 PM — 4 PM: Rehearsals
4 PM — 6 PM: Commute
6 PM — 10 PM: Friend’s Birthday PartySunday
Day Off
As you can see, the only time I am in the same place (home) every day is between 11 PM and 5 AM, and that is definitely not my prime creative time. I refuse to sacrifice my sleep during these core nighttime hours, so I had to come up with a different solution.
Make Your Routines Flexible
Instead of having one single morning routine I follow strictly every day, I have a basic one and an extended one.
The habits that are vital to my mental and physical health, e.g. yoga, hydrating, and eating breakfast, are part of my basic routine which I fall back on whenever I have only one hour or less. The extended morning routine includes one to two hours of writing time plus some me-time I usually spend reading or walking outdooors.
Take Your Time
While both of these routines have a set order, they are flexible in that the time slots I allow for each activity can be longer or shorter, depending on how much time I have available on any given day. The two flexible routines ensure a basic level of continuity and give me a minimum of two to four hours of writing time during a typical week.
Of course, if you’re serious about your writing, this really is a bare minimum, but two hours of writing are still better than none. If your life is even crazier than mine and that’s truly all you can manage, so be it. Don’t let the fact that you can’t write for one to two hours every day stop you from pursuing your passion.
If you want do do more than that, though, you can, and I suggest you use the following tactic alongside the flexible routines I suggested above:
Schedule Writing Appointments
If you look back at my sample schedule, you might be able to find a time window or two where I could add some more writing, like during my 2-hour dinner break on Friday. Why not use one of those hours to write?
The good thing about working at Starbucks is that I’m already at a coffee shop where I’ll even get my latte for free , so I might as well sit down and write after my shift.
And, of course, I have a day off on Sunday. I will certainly use a lot of that time catching up on sleep and quality time with my boyfriend, but that still leaves plenty of time for another writing session. And there we go: We almost doubled my weekly writing time!
Block Your Calendar
The key to this tactic is to plan your writing sessions at the beginning of the week and block them in your calendar like you would any other appointment. If you don’t do this, you will end up forgetting that you wanted to write at a certain time, or you might let another appointment slip in and steal your writing slot.
Find What Works for You
Let me be honest here: If I had a choice, I would totally choose a regular schedule with set daily writing slots over a messy, irregular schedule like my own. But it is what it is, and we have to be realistic here. Some of us work in shifts, others might have several kids, travel a lot for work, have several jobs, a time-intensive hobby, or all of the above.
Don’t let any of these circumstances keep you from being a writer. Writing is supposed to be a low-barrier creative outlet for everyone, not an elitist hobby for the lucky few who can afford to do nothing but write for hours every day.
If you want to be a writer, be one. How much time you have doesn’t matter as long as you set your mind to it. And you don’t have to sacrifice your sleep for the craft, either.
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