by Christopher Ryan
Post-holidays and amidst rising Covid numbers, ugly weather, the one year anniversary of Jan. 6, and other bleak news, it can be hard for independent creatives to get going and maintain productivity. Something as simple as a schedule might help.
As a recently retired teacher, a scheduled workday is still ingrained in my professional DNA, so, after much deliberation, I plan to start 2022 on a schedule that lays out smaller goals to be done by a certain time each day.
Instead if “write everything and create successful marketing plans and social media platforms that sell your work” as an endless goal, writing from 8-10 am seems much more achievable.
Taking a quick walk or stretch and grabbing a water might be enough to re-energize and refocus for a 10:15-noon social media training/creating/scheduling session.
After a sensible lunch and walking the dog or showering, more writing or proofreading/editing from 1-3 and then checking email and/or sending out work from 3-5 can end the day productively.
Will every aspect of this work well? I don’t know. Might it prove to be more productive than throwing my whole creative world onto my shoulders every day? I suspect it will. In either case, I believe it is worth a try. I’ll keep you posted.
What works for you as far as productivity? Let me know in the comments.
chrisryanwrites 
I guess Old Ben had a plan also! I’ll try your suggestion and let you know how it goes.
By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.
Benjamin Franklin
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This sounds like a very productive schedule to me. It’s more than a lot of people get done in a day. And it’s a good idea that you are doing large chunks in one time instead of switching rapidly from one task to another, as studies have shown that we have losses in productivity just from the act of switching. I’m still figuring things out by trial and error (more error than anything, I’d say!)
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Errors over here, too! But productivity is up, so I am heading in the right direction.
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