The Ideal Schedule

One of the blogs that I follow is written by Tobias Buckell.  He made a post late last week titled Work Ethic, where he laid out what his work schedule looks like on a typical day (he also refers to another author, Jeff VanderMeer, who had written about the same topic in his post called Surfacing…and work ethic).

I thought this was a cool topic to blog on, so here is my version.  Since I am not a full-time writer yet, my weekday schedule ends up being something like this:

5:30am – Wake, shower, eat, skim RSS feeds or listen to audio-casts
7:00am – Head into my day job
5:00pm – Come home, dinner, spend some time with my family, evening chores
8:00pm – Put the daughter down for bed
8:03pm – Get the daughter a drink of water, or field some random last-minute question for her
8:04pm – Tuck the daughter into bed
8:05pm – Start conversation with my wife about something grown-up, like the bills
8:06pm – Daughter again
8:07pm – Finish conversation with my wife about something grown-up, like the bills
9:00pm – Write
10:30/11:00pm – Head to bed

Somewhere in there I find time to read at least a couple of books a month, as well as several magazines (usually in several 5-10 minute blocks throughout the day).  My weekends end up being a little less filled with my day job, and a little more filled with other chores, so the available time to write ends up being a wash there.

I really don’t mind the schedule too much, although I’d much prefer more time to write, work some exercise in there, and work in time for a nap in the early afternoon (typically the lowest energy point of my day).  Were I writing full time, I think my ideal schedule would go something like this:

5:30am – Wake, exercise, shower, eat, skim RSS feeds or listen to audio-casts
7:30am – Daily chores, see wife and daughter off to school/work
8:30am – Serious reading into blogs, books, magazines (anything that I can cull for ideas), or getting started on the writing early
10:30am – Write
12:30pm – Lunch and nap
3:30pm – Write
5:00pm – From here on the schedule would probably be the same.

So far I’ve found that I can get a respectable amount written done in 2 hours, provided I’m alert and not stuck in a rut.  With the above “ideal schedule”, I’d be writing 4-5 hours a day at least, and doing research for another two.  Plus I’d get a nap, and some exercise.

Sigh.

Oh well.  Something to strive for.

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