Getting back on the train

I'm not one for excuses, but when I'm looking over this blog I want to know the type of things that tend to set me back. My last post was in May. May. That's not to say that I stopped working toward my goal. During that time I devoured information about the indie publishing market. I've read many, many nonfiction books on the topic. I also started listening to the Rocking Self Publishing Podcast, with Simon Whistler, and it has been absolutely fabulous.

My in-laws visited for about three weeks, so things were a wash during that period, but since then I've been trying to get back into a regular routine. I still waiver between wanting to stay up late at night, and getting up early. During the day, I'm energetic, and think it won't be any trouble to stay up late, after all I did it all through university. At nighttime, as soon as the kids are down, I may be able to make it for a half an hour or an hour or so before my eyelids start closing on their own. And I say to myself, "well, just get up early!" And yet when the alarm clock tolls the dawn of a new day (and I set it so that the new day starts before the actual dawn), I have become a zombie.

So I printed off a sheet for Monday through Sunday, when I would wake up, work on the novel, have leisure time, and sleep. I entered a period of optimization. I realized that I am not a robot. You would think that would be immediately apparent, butt it's not. I love to read. I'll often start a book at night when the kids are in bed, and because it is so good I will read until 2 o'clock in the morning and therefore be a zombie for several days. Yet when I was trying to maximize the amount of time I would spend writing, I essentially eliminated all leisure time. This does not work for me. I've also realized that I need more than the standard eight hours of sleep a night, and benefit from occasionally getting extended periods of sleep. Thus, I bring you my new schedule:

Day	Wake-up	Shower	Write	Leisure	Sleep
Monday	5 am	5-5:30 am	5:30-7 am	8-9 pm	9 pm / 8 hrs
Tuesday	5 am	5-5:30 am	5:30-7 am	n/a	8 pm / 9 hrs
Wednesday	5 am	5-5:30 am	5:30-7 am	8-9 pm	9 pm / 8 hrs
Thursday	5 am	5-5:30 am	5:30-7 am	8-9 pm	9 pm / 8 hrs
Friday	5 am	5-5:30 am	5:30-7 am	8-9:30 pm	9:30 pm / 8.5 hrs
Saturday	6 am	Later!	6-7:30 am	8-9 pm	9 pm / 9 hrs
Sunday	6 am	Later!	6-7:30 am	8-9 pm	9 pm / 8 hrs