Day 379: Reordering my schedule
Recently, I’ve been going to bed late and getting up late. A part of me wonders if this is really healthy, but the rebel part of me thinks that I should just stick with a schedule that works for me and lets me get my work done.
The big problem I have is that I’m following the adage to eat my “frogs” first thing after I wake up. My frogs are my chores, exercise, my daily Bible reading, and my Japanese language study. All four are things that are important to me, but I have a tendency not to do them if I don’t do them before I start my writing work.
But if I do those four things before work, they take a lot of time, and then when I start writing work, my brain is a little tired. That’s not very efficient or productive for my writing.
So I was wondering how I could reorder things so that I can start writing work with a fresher mental state, but still get my frogs done each day.
I’ve been listening to the audiobook of Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones, and while I haven’t finished yet, the book suggests making a habit easy. My exercise has been easier to get myself to do since I switched to walking, because it’s much easier to go out for a walk than to do any other exercise. So I thought maybe I can push my exercise off to later in the afternoon rather than right after I get up.
Chores will usually nag at me if I don’t do them before writing, so I will probably still have to do them first thing.
My daily Bible reading is also important for me to do before work. I usually do it RIGHT before work, so I can go into writing in a calm spiritual state.
As for my Japanese learning, I’ve been much more consistent with it lately and enjoying it a lot more because I inadvertently did what Atomic Habits suggests, which is make it easier. That being the case, maybe I can put that off to later in the afternoon also, such as after I exercise?
I guess I’ll try this and see if I still get my exercise and Japanese learning done, even though I won’t be doing them first thing. If I start to slack off on them, then I’ll have to go back to doing them before writing work, to make sure they get done.
Today I’m still going through the synopsis for my side novel and taking notes on the timeline. I’m a little worried I put too many events in the side novel and it’ll take longer than I wanted it, but I probably could just add some time to the main novels to accommodate the altered timeline. I’m really glad I’m doing this now and didn’t put it off until later. If I had, I might have realized too late I had a problem with the timelines. I still might have timeline problems when I start writing the main novels and get into more detail about the passage of time, but I’ll at least be around the right ballpark in terms of when different things happen.
It helps that when I started working on book 3, I downloaded a calendar for the year that the book takes place, 1811. I picked a random day to start and then started tracking what happens on each day, and what day of the week it is. It’s what made me realize something significant happens on Easter Sunday, which turned out really well for the book.
***
Good grief I have a lot of timeline issues in this book! They’re actually only issues in relation to the timeline of the main series. Parallel storylines are so hard to keep track of!
I’m about 2/3 of the way through the side novel synopsis, but I managed to fix the timeline issues I came across. But then I found a logic error, and decided to stop for the day here. I didn’t get as much done today as I wanted, but I also want to try to get to bed a bit early and hopefully wake up a little earlier tomorrow. I’m going to try my adjusted schedule tomorrow and see if I can start writing earlier with more mental energy.
Outlining: time spent: 4 hours, 19 minutes
Blocking: time spent: 0
Editing: Time spent: 0
Writing: Time spent: 0
Writing: Total number of words: n/a
Writing: Overall writing speed: n/a
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 1 hour, 9 minutes
My takeaway for today: Hopefully reordering my schedule will enable me to work with a fresher mental state, but still be able to tackle all my “frogs” each day.
The big problem I have is that I’m following the adage to eat my “frogs” first thing after I wake up. My frogs are my chores, exercise, my daily Bible reading, and my Japanese language study. All four are things that are important to me, but I have a tendency not to do them if I don’t do them before I start my writing work.
But if I do those four things before work, they take a lot of time, and then when I start writing work, my brain is a little tired. That’s not very efficient or productive for my writing.
So I was wondering how I could reorder things so that I can start writing work with a fresher mental state, but still get my frogs done each day.
I’ve been listening to the audiobook of Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones, and while I haven’t finished yet, the book suggests making a habit easy. My exercise has been easier to get myself to do since I switched to walking, because it’s much easier to go out for a walk than to do any other exercise. So I thought maybe I can push my exercise off to later in the afternoon rather than right after I get up.
Chores will usually nag at me if I don’t do them before writing, so I will probably still have to do them first thing.
My daily Bible reading is also important for me to do before work. I usually do it RIGHT before work, so I can go into writing in a calm spiritual state.
As for my Japanese learning, I’ve been much more consistent with it lately and enjoying it a lot more because I inadvertently did what Atomic Habits suggests, which is make it easier. That being the case, maybe I can put that off to later in the afternoon also, such as after I exercise?
I guess I’ll try this and see if I still get my exercise and Japanese learning done, even though I won’t be doing them first thing. If I start to slack off on them, then I’ll have to go back to doing them before writing work, to make sure they get done.
Today I’m still going through the synopsis for my side novel and taking notes on the timeline. I’m a little worried I put too many events in the side novel and it’ll take longer than I wanted it, but I probably could just add some time to the main novels to accommodate the altered timeline. I’m really glad I’m doing this now and didn’t put it off until later. If I had, I might have realized too late I had a problem with the timelines. I still might have timeline problems when I start writing the main novels and get into more detail about the passage of time, but I’ll at least be around the right ballpark in terms of when different things happen.
It helps that when I started working on book 3, I downloaded a calendar for the year that the book takes place, 1811. I picked a random day to start and then started tracking what happens on each day, and what day of the week it is. It’s what made me realize something significant happens on Easter Sunday, which turned out really well for the book.
***
Good grief I have a lot of timeline issues in this book! They’re actually only issues in relation to the timeline of the main series. Parallel storylines are so hard to keep track of!
I’m about 2/3 of the way through the side novel synopsis, but I managed to fix the timeline issues I came across. But then I found a logic error, and decided to stop for the day here. I didn’t get as much done today as I wanted, but I also want to try to get to bed a bit early and hopefully wake up a little earlier tomorrow. I’m going to try my adjusted schedule tomorrow and see if I can start writing earlier with more mental energy.
Outlining: time spent: 4 hours, 19 minutes
Blocking: time spent: 0
Editing: Time spent: 0
Writing: Time spent: 0
Writing: Total number of words: n/a
Writing: Overall writing speed: n/a
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 1 hour, 9 minutes
My takeaway for today: Hopefully reordering my schedule will enable me to work with a fresher mental state, but still be able to tackle all my “frogs” each day.
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