Last updated on November 26, 2023
After the attempt to use a writing log to maintain my productivity failed, I’ve been feeling defeated. It’s hard to bounce back once I’m off track and this summer has been particularly frustrating after I had tried to reestablish a writing routine.
If I managed to write an hour or two daily, I’d have a blog post each day. If I managed to write for a few more hours, I’d make progress on the two book manuscripts I wanted to complete this summer. If… if… if….
Pandemic parenting and homeschooling had to continue into the summer. That means I spend my days shuttling between our daughters as they try to complete their assignments. They aren’t at grade level, unfortunately. Susan and I want to have the girls as ready as possible for the next school year. We did our best not to fall behind during the pandemic.
It was my belief the girls would have “summer school” in the mornings and I’d spend three or four hours working no writing projects throughout the summer months. In an ideal, normal world, the girls would do an hour or two of summer bridge activities and then have free play time from lunch onward. There’s no work on weekends, either.
Instead, I am spending all day helping the girls review materials from the previous years. After dinner, I’m grading their papers and trying to determine what gaps remain. By the time my teaching tasks end, I’m exhausted.
On weekends, we’re upgrading the house. Painting. Assembling doors. Handing shelves. I’m tired by the end of those days, too.
Losing hours to necessary exercise doesn’t help. I am not able to dictate or type while exercising because I have to raise my heart rate to 110 beats per minute or higher for a reduction in my blood glucose readings.
I’m typing this blog post at 1:12 a.m. on a Sunday-Monday night. This isn’t healthy, but I have insomnia so it probably doesn’t matter.
To return to a writing schedule, I’d have to consider letting the girls take a break from school. The last time we tried that, though, they forgot some basic skills. The girls don’t retain knowledge or skills without constant use and review.
I have maintained my freelance writing schedule. It helps that there’s a paycheck involved.
Here we are, approaching the middle of June, and I need to get a routine reestablished or my mental health will decline. I’m already in a downward spiral, feeling miserable about the lack of productivity. I only have a freelance gig and the blog right now, but if I don’t keep writing I’ll never have anything more as a writer. This week I want to produce a few thousand words and get back on track. Without some measurable progress, it gets more and more difficult to resume writing.
It’s ironic that I’m trying to teach time management skills to the girls while struggling to keep my own schedule. If the girls return to school in August, I must force myself to write and work on projects during the day.
Cranking out 500 to 1000 words daily used to be easy for me. Now, I have a difficult time finding an uninterrupted hour in the day. At least this post is more than 500 words.