How Do I Find the Time To Write? Just Like This
Read how I fit a freelancing career, blogging, parenting and homemaking into each day
I used to swear I'd never work weekends.
And I got away with it for years.
My first job was stacking shelves in a supermarket. My friends and I wanted our own income while we suffered two years of "A" Level study at school. We all ended up in the local Gateway Foodmarkets store.
The expected requirement was to work two weekday evenings plus one Saturday shift. Every week of the year.
To this day, I am still trying to figure out how I managed to get away with three midweek evenings instead.
My first "proper" career was in quantity surveying. The money-and-measurement side of the construction industry. And, for me, not a weekend in sight.
Huzzah!
Following this, I moved to IT.
Weekdays, nine to five, were still the norm for the first few years of working as a software developer.
But when I moved into database administration on the support side, hoo boy, did I work me some weekends!
On call for a third of the year, divided into weekly slots. Ultimately, I gladly worked the New Year's Eve and Day shifts. That particular festival has no meaning to me.
And Sunday morning updates and rollouts were all part of the game.
In 2017, I left employment and set up as a freelance writer.
Good job I'd become used to working non-standard hours then. Some days, it feels like you can throw the clock out of the window.
Closely followed by the calendar.
Many of my readers are new to the world of writing and blogging.
And I've received tonnes of requests from people who get to hear that I somehow manage to fit all this writing into my day. A day already overcome with childcare duties, cooking, home maintenance and supporting the wider family.
Today, you will see a glimpse of my diary. You'll discover how I keep things running. Sometimes, it even runs smoothly!
If you've got time to read it, that is...
How It Is
Mrs M works shifts.
Her hours are regular but rotate with a fortnightly pattern.
As I'm the one who works from home, a good chunk of the family and household duties fall into my lap on a daily basis.
We have the twelve-year-old. She's incredibly busy with high school, dancing classes, shows and competitions, music lessons and orchestra. We have Mrs M's mother. She lives alone, a few minutes away across town, and needs a lot of support.
And there are only seven days in the week.
How I Do It
I still make every attempt to preserve Sundays.
Mrs M never works on a Sunday. Almost all of the Little 'Un's dance comps are Sunday events. The remainder we try to keep as "family days".
Of course, if work comes in, I usually end up doing something about it when I get a free moment.
This might be responding to messages and enquiries. It could be jotting down notes on any inspiration that crops up. Occasionally, it means satisfying an urgent request from a worried client whose deadlines have changed.
Mrs M's rota means she works one Saturday in two.
The result is that half my Saturdays offer some family time in addition to ferrying our daughter from one activity to the next. But the alternate Saturdays feel more like a regular weekday as far as my work is concerned.
Speaking of which, it's time to cut to the chase.
My Timetable
This is how my days usually run:
06:45 — Wake up, get up, ablutions, get Mrs M's lunch ready and see her off to work
07:00 — Work meta tasks of the day — backups, reviews, inspiration from overnight, messages
08:00 — Take the Little 'Un to school
08:30 — Return home from school run and write blog articles and newsletters for the day
12:00 — Final edits and then publish blogs and newsletters, eat lunch
12:30 — Client work, meetings, any reading or training courses I'm doing
14:30 — School pickup time
15:30 — The start of our evening — cooking, eating, daughter's activities, family matters
21:00 — Twelve-year-old on her way to bed, more work if needed, Mrs M and I relax
23:45 — Bedtime
There we have it.
The typical day for this working-from-home freelancer including family duties along the way.
Does it look similar to yours?
Any surprises?
I'd love to know what you think.
Who knows? You might spot a flaw in my approach and be able to help me improve it.
But for now, it works for me.
Don't forget to check out my other newsletter, The Dancing Stepdad, for insights into the challenging and rewarding world of step-parenting.
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