Helpful Habit: When do you write?

A Hodgepodge of writing? With a busy, homeschooling household there really are no long, quiet stretches of writing time. I have to carve them out. Or snatch them now and then. I have to make the time because it is something I enjoy. I do find it ironic that a post answering my friend’s question When do you write? was the hardest for me to find the time to write. But the basic answer is this: similar to my online time, I write in spurts.

In the shower.

While I’m driving.

Late at night.

At the crack of dawn.

During afternoon quiet time.

On a family walk.

In batches on a Saturday morning.

I store all my lists in Evernote. And yes, my Skype is updating 🙂

Storing Ideas for Later: I have my most inspirational ideas in the shower and while driving. I promise. Because of that, I keep my phone handy. When I can get to it, I dump those ideas into my Evernote blog note – when I am safely to that piano lesson or drama troupe meeting. I can type in writing ideas right into Evernote. Hodgepodgedad shared a review of Evernote – how often we use it and how much we depend on it for grocery shopping and even the allergy-safe list for the Chickfila drive thru.

I have various notepads close by – on my bedside table, the end table beside the couch. No end table is complete without some favorite devotionals, books and a finger puppet hammerhead shark.

Quality writing time: is usually early in the morning, after quiet time and before children are awake. Sometimes half an hour is all I need. Same for late at night after children are tucked in. Though I’m more a morning person and do my best writing then. Occasionally, if everyone is truly occupied and settled into Afternoon Quiet Time, I can do a little writing then. I drafted this post during afternoon quiet time, added photos another evening and then edited one early morning. Early morning, afternoon quiet time and late evening are also good times for polishing and editing posts for the current week. Just a fresh eye and less than 10 minutes.

Batch writing: for the other sites I contribute to, I usually designate a Saturday morning to a batch writing session. Once again, I am up before everyone else and get a bit more time since everyone is usually sleeping in. Plus, Daddy is home and after breakfast I can get in a little more writing time. I settle down in our comfortable music room chair and I pull those ideas I had from my Evernote and build blog posts. I am within ear shot and can help younger children as needed.

Organizing photos for posts: It is one of my joys to photograph the regular parts of our days, the curriculum we are currently enjoying, the recipe we just made. So, as I pull those in to iPhoto, I put photos in the folder created for The Curriculum Choice, Habits for a Happy Home, $5 Dinners and Heart of the Matter. So, on those Saturday morning batch writing sessions, all I have to do is click and upload. No time wasted scrolling through to find photos.

Balancing: My husband and I enjoy our times together working on our sites. But we do make a point of some tech free time. And we are blessed with weekly date nights. Yes, Nana teaches pastels and gives us the gift of a date night.

Writing with children: Occasionally, the older three children share a blog post here. That is always some fun writing time together. And, often, it counts for learning time too!

I really enjoy writing, editing and photographing.

How about you? How do you keep track of ideas? Find the time for writing?