When Do You Write Best?
Examining Your Current Schedule to Find Your Right Time to Write
Are you a morning person? A night owl? Somewhere in between? There is a long-standing conversation in the writing community about the best time to write and be creative. Thankfully, it's becoming more widely accepted that every person is complex and their situation unique, so there is no single best time for all writers. Phrased another way: There is no magic bullet for creation that works for every writer in every situation.
Some like to suggest following the routines and practices of your favorite famous authors—and though you can consider their methods when trying to find a creation schedule that works for you, focus on taking inspiration from them rather than trying to adapt to them entirely. Those authors may share the routines that revolutionized their writing, but the routine alone lacks the context of that author’s situation. Does your situation exactly match that of the writer whose routine you are examining? More often than not, the answer is no.
So how do you find your ideal creation schedule? Consider when, where, and how you are most productive currently, and build a routine around that knowledge, starting with these five steps.
- Write down all your responsibilities, commitments, and tasks required by the people depending on you.
- Sketch out your weekly and daily routines as they currently stand.
- Identify when you have the most physical energy and when you have the most creative energy. Do those times align with each other? If you find a time at which they overlap, that may point to an ideal writing window.
- See where you can tweak your current routines to accommodate writing during your highest creative energy periods during the day.
- Sketch out a few new sample routines to test over the coming weeks.
Don’t make changes all at once; instead, try James Clear’s 1 percent rule to make small shifts that have a lasting impact. Clear, the author of Atomic Habits, explains on his website that the rule is an example of compounding: If you get 1 percent better every day for a year, you won’t just be 365 percent better; you’ll be thirty-seven times better. Clear’s rule works because it's easier to make small changes to habits and routines; large, drastic changes can be so mentally jarring and demand so much energy that they are unsustainable.
Pro Tip: Read more about Clear’s 1 percent rule and the math behind it at https://jamesclear.com/continuous-improvement.
With writing, a 1 percent shift can look like writing while waiting for coffee to brew, writing on your phone while waiting in the school pickup line, or writing for ten minutes before bed. With small adjustments, you'll see compounding and consistent progress toward finding your ideal creation schedule.
Remember: It's human nature to resist change, so any adjustments you make may not feel right at first. Stick with any routine experiment for at least one week before trying out another one. Finally, give each experiment your complete effort; even if the adjustment is a challenge, making your life easier and getting your stories completed and out to the world is worth the work.
Audrey Hughey
