Week of | Days I wrote | Words written | Time used | WPH |
Feb 23, 2015 | 5 | 3070 | 10:25 | 295 |
My numbers this week aren’t too bad considering I used a lot of time for mundane things. Managed to hire a new therapist for my son and got an eye exam (looks like I need my third pair of glasses in 9 months; hopefully things stabilize before I go blind or broke, oi!). I’m actually surprised that I got so much time in. I was off from my main job on Thursday but used the whole day preparing lectures and meeting with students for my second job, and I thought that would hit my word count hard. I did put in two insanely late nights, so that probably made up for it. I’ve noticed that the 10:30pm-12:30am window has the worst WPH, but the 12:30am-2:30am window is pretty good. Unfortunately the plan I implemented last week to stay up late a few days a week made me feel like a complete zombie.
My husband, bless his dear and patient soul, never laughs at me as I bounce my new scheduling plans off him each week (we have had this routine for many years; I have no idea how he keeps a straight face when I tell him that this week I’ll figure out a schedule that catapults my productivity, heh). This time he had some advice: whatever plan I choose, stick to it for a whole month, not just a few days or a week. I figured that if I stay up late my brain is so dead that I have to put in more time to hit the same word count (yay data collection!), so mornings it is. So *drum roll* SJ’s plan for the next MONTH is:
WEEKDAYS
4:30 am – 5:15 am: Wake up, shower, snack
5:15 am – 7:15 am: WRITE WRITE WRITE
7:15 am – 8:00 am: Breakfast with the kiddos, make lunches, get everyone out the door
8:00 am – 5:30 pm: MWF: Get to work, work, go home from work; TR: Write and/or do lecture prep
5:30 pm – 7:00 pm: Play with kids, have supper
7:00 pm – 8:00 pm: Kids bedtime routine
8:00 pm – 8:30 pm: Chores
8:30 pm: BED
Estimated writing time: MWF: 2 hrs per day; TR: 3-4 hrs per day.
Total for weekdays: 12 – 14 hours per week.
WEEKENDS
4:30 am – 5:15 am: Wake up, shower, snack
5:15 am – 7:00 am: WRITE WRITE WRITE
7:00 am – 9:00 am: Hot breakfast with the kiddos, make lunches, get everyone out the door
9:00 am – 12:00 pm: WRITE while kids are at morning activities or with hubby (may or may not be possible depending on domestic chores)
12:00 pm – 7:00 pm: Family time, chores, exercise, etc.
7:00 pm – 8:00 pm: Kids bedtime routine
8:00 pm – 8:30 pm: Chores
8:30 pm: BED
Estimated writing time: 4h45 per day.
Total for weekends: 4.75 – 9.5 hrs per week.
Total weekly time for writing: 16.75 – 23.5 hrs.
At my dismal average of ~300 words/hr, I should get in ~5000 – 7000 words per week. That seems mind blowing to me. We’ll see how it goes.
One notable impact is that this will essentially destroy my personal life, since staying up even until midnight will now through my schedule way off. But my social life is basically only seeing my friends once a month, so it should work. Also lacking is any exercise during weekdays. I really want to run for at least 30 minutes every day, but it never happens. If I could get by on 7 hours a night at get up at 3:30 I’d be set, ha! My husband says that I might be able to not feel like a zombie if I get a consistent amount each night (right now I’m on a binge sleep cycle, fluctuating between 4 hours and then several nights of 9 or more). We’ll see. When I went without setting clocks I needed 8.5 consistently. Sigh.
One note for this week: I’ve got 5 chapters in to my book and my spreadsheet calculates that, based on my average chapter length and a plan for 24 chapters, my book will likely be 80,000 words instead of 100,000, so I’ve changed my ticker on the side to 80,000.