Tune In To Your Rhythms

Now for Writer Block's guest blogger! Alina Chase will be appearing with weekly tips and tricks from her WIP about time-management, motivation, and creativity for writers. 
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Seasons (Photo credit: ganzoman)

Tune In To Your Rhythms
by Alina Chase

        We all have daily, monthly and seasonal rhythms.  Working with them is one of the most painless ways to increase productivity.  Write when you write best, and do simpler writing-related tasks when you’re creativity naturally wanes.
        At first glance, this seems obvious, but it takes forethought and discipline to do.
If you write best at 5 p.m., then skip the trip to the mall after work on Wednesday, and arrange lunch instead of dinner with your friends on Friday. 
        Note how seasons affect you.  If you love to write fireside on dreary winter days, reserve a few mid-winter vacation days for writing.  If, however, you’re stressed or depressed during the holidays, plan to have a big chunk of your manuscript completed by November 15.  Then read, redline and research during the holidays.
        If allergies slow you down every Spring, plan for it.  Write like crazy until allergy season, then catch up on your reading during the weeks you’re not feeling well.
        If your “best” writing time is after 10 p.m., then on days you plan to write, don’t pack your schedule so full that you have no energy left to do it, and turn the television off at 9:00.  But it’s easy to mistake available time for productive time.  Are you writing after 10:00 because you’re at your creative best then or because that’s when the kids go to bed?  You might accomplish  more if you go to sleep at 10 and get up an hour before the family wakes up.