The 2018 Process part three a few notes on scheduling

Like most people, I have a family and a job and obligations. Unlike most people, I don't have a job that takes up too much of my time or energy. I sometimes hate to tell people that I work about 25 hours a week and I have worked about 25 hours a week for most of my life. I don't like telling people this because I get one or two responses. The first is—good for you. This can be condescending, but more often it has the patina of envy. The second response is the where do you get off working so little when the rest of us... why do you do so little?

I figured out, long ago, it doesn't matter how much you work, you are always trading your time for money. My time has always been more important to me. I may not have much, but what I have is mine, I don't owe anyone anything, and I have plenty of time.

I realize that not everyone has the amount of time that I have. But the time that we all have can almost always be better spent. If you consider how many hours get wasted each week staring into a screen, it's staggering. If you have social media accounts and a TV believe me, you have the time for creative endeavors. It's just a matter of making them a priority.

Once you're made the priority for creative endeavors, working your schedule is easy.

For me, I do the more taxing things like writing and rewriting in the day. During the day, I'm generally home alone because my wife works and my son is in school. This is when I'm undisturbed, clearheaded and energetic. I do this five days a week.

Late at night, after I get home from work, I'm not energetic. I'm still undisturbed, but I'm tired. This is when I'd rather drink and watch movies. For this part of the day, I choose those things that are easier to do with lower energy. Reading magazines and doing my potential market research and submitting stories do not really tax me. I can do these things at the end of the day.

Keeping in mind the ebb and flow of your weekly schedule overlaid with your energy levels, it's easy to fit in the tasks, even with demands of family and work and life. And in many ways, the busier I am, the more I'm able to do and the more I get done.

Even so, if I had two hours a day, one or one and a half in the morning and half hour to forty-five minutes at night, I consider myself lucky.

So, get you goals set. Set a time line complete with deadlines. And schedule the time for it. The practice becomes the process and the process becomes the product.