Routine & Revision
I’ve been thinking a lot about my daily schedule lately. I’m back in the miasma void of “freelance” work, and while that’s preferable to me (as long as there’s money coming in), it comes with its own set of challenges. After years of thinking of myself as lacking diligence, I’ve finally started to trust myself and my ability to build and maintain habits. Now, there are a few things in my days that are nigh-unimpeachable: I do my Japanese flashcards while I make coffee each morning; each night, I write a one-page journal entry by hand before I go to bed. But like any good story, there’s the issue of what to do in the middle.
A few different times in my life, I’ve built and revised a daily schedule to fit my needs, my available time, and my tendencies—and I think I’m going through another revision now. I thought I’d write a bit about how I’m thinking about it now, how it’s changed over time, and what things I want to prioritize and why.
The goal is absolutely not maximum productivity; in fact, in many ways it’s the opposite. There are things I want or need to do each day, but I highly value being able to explore, follow my interests, or focus on something more closely. By making a routine, I’m making it easier for me to settle into those times for exploration, play, or rest, since I know I’ve done what I need to do otherwise. Still, there are a few things I want to change in my schedule as it’s currently constructed, so let’s look at that, first.
The Morning Routine
The amount of time I’ve had available has fluctuated wildly in my adult life. I’ve spent several years as I am now, a freelancer waiting for someone to call and book me for anywhere from a full day to a week or more, and otherwise left to my own devices. I’ve also worked office jobs, asking me to punch in and out at certain times, and put little demands on my time outside those hours, hybrid roles, and everything in between. But generally the time I’ve found I have free is the morning, which is part of the reason setting up a good morning routine is so important.
I don’t always prioritize well without some time to plan before, but having a good morning routine takes the difficulty out of that. I like to try and take the most important things to me, the things I want to be sure I do, and put them in an order that makes it easiest to get them done. For me, that means starting my day meditating, then writing, then some kind of exercise. I like meditating first thing, because I feel like it’s when my mind is most clear; I can find the sort of deep focus I’m looking for best when I meditate early.
Next, I head to my computer and write. Not everyone likes to write every day (I do five days a week), but I find having a wordcount goal keeps me focused, and helped shift my desire to write and make art into an actual artistic practice. I’ve recently upped my daily wordcount goal from 100 words to 300 words, or a little more than a page a day (roughly 250 words, or so they say). This change came alongside switching my focus from writing short stories to working on a novel manuscript again, and despite this new goal being three times larger, I’m not finding it to be much more difficult to reach than before. I wonder what will happen when I turn my attention back to short stories after I’ve gotten a draft of this novel done.
I don’t really worry about editing too much as I go, though each day I usually go back and re-read the last three paragraphs I wrote, correcting small mistakes and getting back into the flow of the narrative, before adding my new words in for the day. The goal is primarily just to get new words on the page, building up the marble for me to chip away later. Right now, I’m trying to write this draft in as exploratory a manner as possible, so while it’s more or less a re-imagining of the novel manuscript I outlined and wrote years ago, I’m coming to this draft fresh; anything can happen on any given day.
Finally, I do some sort of exercise. While I’ve worked back from my (brief-but-intense!) gym rat days, I still like to keep in shape. I’ve made my own weekly regimen, sort of split between calisthenics and bodyweight fitness, and kettlebell exercises. The plan has workouts I alternate between five days a week. I pair this with either a run or a bike ride three days a week, and it feels pretty comprehensive to me. I’m not as strong or big as I was when I was fully committed to the gym, but I’m staying fit. And I always feel incredible coming home after a run or a bike ride, having done so much before when most people go to work.
There are other things that are deeply important to me, like studying Japanese, but once I’ve finished these three things, I feel a sense of accomplishment about the day.
The Middle
That’s all I consider part of my morning routine. From there, I do a few essentials, namely walk the dog, shower, and make coffee, before I get ready to work. I’ve become a serious to-do list user, and always keep a list of tasks I want to do each day, separate from what I consider my habits (though there is overlap). This might be work for a client, a personal project, or something else (like this blog post!). I might go more in-depth into my system for this later, but I generally plan on doing “focus work” on something for about 2.5 or 3 hours each morning, until I make my first meal of the day.
I eat and relax, usually watching an anime episode with my meal, and after, try and read for about 30 minutes or so, in either English or Japanese (depending on how I’m feeling that day). After I walk the dog again, I try and leave the afternoon more or less free for me to explore as I see fit. This could be some kind of personal project (lately, I’ve been rebuilding a digital music library) or just my hobbies like practicing guitar. I continue like this until I go to walk my dog again (three times a day!), usually around 5 or 6p.
Evening Routine
Right now, the biggest pillar for my evening is journaling, which I do around 9p each night. I’ve written about journaling before, but it’s become such a critical part of my night, helping me not only gain a birds-eye view of each day, but the broader patterns I’m moving towards. How am I feeling? What do I want to improve upon? Taking the time to write out by hand what I did each day, how I felt, and what I thought about allows me to put everything in a bit more context. I also like being able to write down what I’m striving towards; sort of putting my goals out into the world.
Beyond that, my evening routine is a bit more scattershot. I’ve been trying to read more at night before bed, which has been a good change. It’s a tough balance though—I want to pay attention to what I’m reading, while still sort of settle in to a more restful state.
Revision
While all this sounds like a lot written out, there’s still a number of things I’d like to move around. I still struggle with letting myself simply relax. I watch a good bit of anime, but haven’t played many video games lately, and even the hobbies I try to prioritize connected to play (chess, fighting games, go) I’ve been under-prioritizing. I’d like to better block off some true unwind time in my day, probably after my evening walk and before I go to make dinner. This doesn't mean putting a big block on my calendar that says "PLAY" or "RELAX," but it does mean being clearer with myself about what I've done in a day, and when it's time to call it and look forward to the next one.
Another thing I’ve struggled with is just making enough time for my interests. Previously, I’d tried to do almost everything, almost every day, when I think for me it would be better to split things up and focus longer. I’ve had sort of a minimum-viable strategy—where if I write my 300 words, or spend ~20 minutes practicing guitar, for example—I feel I’ve done what I need to for the day. But that doesn’t leave time to get immersed in something. There are days I want to focus on things for longer, even if it comes at the cost of another item. I’m trying to get better about utilizing the afternoon for this.
Like all things, it’s a work in progress. But it’s important to me to think about it, see what’s not working, and make adjustments. For example, for a while I fell out of the practice of actually sitting down to study Japanese, instead focusing on my Japanese classes and flashcards, but working that concentrated study back into my routines has helped me get back to improving my language ability rapidly. I also tend to go through boom-bust cycles with reading, especially as a literary critic with some expectations to read and write about books—maybe more consistency would help here. These sorts of insights into my process are part of what makes journaling so valuable to me.
As I work towards the examined life, it’s good to stop and examine it. Where is it I want to go, and how can I structure my day to get there? I’m a creature of habit, but just like the artistic practice is the art, the habit is the life you want in action. If it’s not moving in the direction you want, it’s up to you to do something about it.
