Evaluate and Create 2010

          As I stated last week, I like routines. I need routines. Without routines, I flit from project to project, not finishing any of them. Routines make my life less complicated, more ready for spontaneity. I will re-establish my routines! I dub 2010, for me at least, the Year of the Routines.

          The past few weeks, when I’ve actually had time to contemplate such things, I’ve been reviewing my life. I’ve considered and evaluated those seasons of my life when I felt good about my writing routines and/or productivity. I’ve compared them to other times in my life and have discovered some commonalities in those fruitful and fulfilled times, commonalities that are missing from the unproductive years.

          I felt most successful and productive in two places. In Phoenix I joined a writer’s group and met Kitty and Shonna. During my time in Phoenix, even in the midst of actively homeschooling my three children, I wrote! A lot! In between planning and executing lessons, cooking and cleaning and laundry, I daydreamed about my characters. In those rare spare moments I grabbed time and spent it writing. I always had something to share with the critique group and I often struggled to capture all the ideas flowing past my consciousness. (Many of the files in my Ideas folder are from this time.)

          Living in Korea was a similar experience. I had a dream schedule teaching English as a foreign language classes throughout each day. My first class, kindergarten, started at 10 am. After that, I was free until afternoon, when I taught several elementary through high school classes, finishing around 6 pm. A couple nights each week, I had an evening class of adults. Saturdays and Sundays were mostly free, with periodic classes where I was expected to attend and assist. I soon fell into a routine of writing every morning before my first class and in the evenings before bed.

          I’ve been evaluating those two times of my life in an effort to understand what made them so productive. I’ve discerned several things, which I hope to re-incorporate into my life. I seem to thrive when I live in densely populated areas, when I engage in moderate activity, when I have limited demands on my time that force me to chose and guard my writing times and when I have other interests and activities besides writing that fill my days.

          While the place I live now is not nearly as populated as Phoenix or Korea, I can take my computer to the coffee shop a couple times each week. That will satisfy that desire/need to be among people and, for those days at least, confine writing to those hours at the coffee shop. I can incorporate exercise, in the form of short walks and visits to Curves, into my morning routine. I can designate certain hours for writing and only allow myself to write during those times. I can rediscover other creative outlets such as sewing and scrapbooking and baking that I have allowed to slip out of my life. I can do all these things and endeavor to recreate the environment where my creativity can thrive. I can and I will. Starting today.

          What about you? When have you been most productive, most satisfied with your progress? What elements during that time made it so? What can you do to incorporate them into your life now and increase your productivity and well-being?