Escape the Scroll: A Writer’s Guide to a Productive Day

How We Schedule Our Days

When I’m watching YouTube, videos will pop up about someone’s daily routine, whether they’re writers, students, or artists. I’ve watched a few of those videos, and it can be interesting to see how others get through their days. 

It can be hard for people with a full-time job to visualize being creative while working full-time, and many use having a job as an excuse not to create. Most of us have the fantasy of writing for a living; however, most of us will need to find other ways to bring in money for shelter, food, and life necessities. 

I wrote here about how you can write while working full time. Most writers, if they’re being honest, will admit that they have multiple streams of income, which may include vlogging, blogging, podcasting, working in bookstores (if you’re Ann Patchett you own a bookstore), or any other type of job. For 20 years, I was a full-time teacher, the executive editor of a literary journal, and a scholar who completed a PhD. I also wrote 13 books during that time. The time to write is there if we challenge ourselves to find it.

My Own Idea of a Productive Day

My daily routine will look different than others since I don’t have children. If you have children, you’ll have to juggle your time differently. Many people have both jobs and children, and they still find time to write. It’s a matter of prioritizing how we want to spend the hours allotted to us each day.

Here’s an example of my daily routine ten months a year, from August to May, which is the school year here in Nevada where I teach. This is a Monday – Friday routine.

5:30 am–Wake up and get ready for work. 

Ugh. I know, but school here starts at 7 am. I’m definitely not a morning person, and I’m so afraid of sleeping through my alarm that I get up earlier than I need to. I read, usually, before getting myself up and going. 

6:30 am – 1:50 pm – Work. 2:00 pm – Home. 

Having had long commutes in the past, I know how lucky I am to live so close to my job. Once I’m through my door, I greet my cats, get out of my work clothes, and put on my comfy clothes since that helps my mind to separate from being at work to being at home. 

2:30 pm – Dinner. 

Since I start so early in the morning, my meal times are a little odd. I’m not hungry at 6:30 am, so I eat my breakfast/lunch at 10:45 am. When I get home in the afternoon I’m hungry, so I’ll eat my main meal around 2:30 pm, and then I’ll have a snack later in the evening–about five pm-ish. It works for me–that’s all I can say. 

3 pm – 7 pm – Writing and other creative activities. 

My writing routine varies depending on where I am in the writing process. If I’m working on a first draft, I sit down, type my 500 words, and then I’m done with my writing for the day. If I’m working on a later draft, I might spend hours writing. 

After I finish my writing for that day, I do admin tasks like writing these posts, and once a month I have a newsletter for subscribers. I’ve been tinkering with my website to make it easier for readers to find posts of interest. 

If I have a book I’m actively marketing I’ll work on that. Marketing my books is not something I do all the time. I know other writers don’t agree with this philosophy, but I think it’s a good idea to drop out of sight occasionally. This way, when I come back, I feel “new” to people who may not have seen me for a while. Right now, while I’m writing my work-in-progress, I’m not marketing at all. But then when I come out with a push for a new book, I seem fresh instead of readers thinking, “Her again?”

I’m still here, wherever here is, writing for this blog because I enjoy it. To me, this is time well spent. This website is my main connection to other readers and writers. Usually, readers read my books first and then find my website. I’d bet that’s how it works for most authors. Some readers find a post of mine through a search engine and they become regular readers.  

No Social Media Or Doomscrolling

I hear about social media detox a lot, but that’s one daily habit I haven’t had to break. One of the reasons I have more time to write is because I’m not on social media. I have a Facebook author page where I post these blogs, which takes about two minutes once a week. I don’t doomscroll. I don’t watch the news. I have very few apps on my phone or my iPad, and most of them are for coffee places where I can get points and an occasional free drink. 

Social media was never my thing. First, despite everything I’ve read, I’ve never bought into the idea that social media is a good place to hawk books. If used well, it can be a great place to make connections, but making connections isn’t the same as selling.   

Second, the anger on social media is off the charts. It’s probably worse now, but it has always been bad. Since I don’t enjoy ranting with or at strangers, I stay away. 

Third, and most importantly for me, social media is a huge time suck. To be visible on social media, to have your posts show up regularly in the algorithm, you have to constantly feed the monster. I have a job and my writing, and I don’t want to spend my time coming up with cute quips to share throughout the day. 

If YouTube counts as social media (parasocial media is more accurate), then that’s my one foray into the online world. But my feed is curated to BookTube, slow living, and crafting creators. If I would start any new social media, it would be a YouTube channel because at least that would be authentic for me. I’ve considered creating a YouTube channel, but again, creating enough consistent content to curtsey to the Algorithm Queen isn’t something I’m sure I’d be able to sustain. We’ll see. I might try it and see how it goes.

During this 3 pm – 7 pm time slot, if I’m done with my writing for the day, I might write interesting tidbits into my commonplace book. I wrote about my experience with my first commonplace book here. The day after I finish reading a book I’ll add my page for that book into my book journal. I had gotten away from multimedia journaling, but I’ve picked it up again. I also keep a personal journal. Journaling is a bit of a thing for me. Journaling in various forms keeps me sane, fosters new learning, and prompts me to think more deeply. 

If I’m really deep in writing mode, as in the third draft or the editing stage, I might write late into the night even with work the next day. I’ve written until 10 pm sometimes when I was at a key moment in the writing process. 

7 pm – 9 pm. Reading. 

Every night, I make myself a pot of decaf black tea, get into my jammies, and read for about two hours. Thomas Jefferson said, “I cannot live without books.” I’m the same. I love reading widely–historical fiction, literary fiction, magical realism, poetry, the classics. I love reading about experiences close to my own, and I love reading about experiences far from my own.

When we read we feel less alone. There are those experiences that we have where we think we’re the only ones to have ever felt that way, and then we read a book and discover that this author, someone we’ve never met, has expressed that feeling perfectly. Also, reading fuels my writing in ways I cannot begin to explain. As Stephen King said, “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”

9 pm to 10 pm. YouTube, TV, or Film.

This is when I’ll watch a YouTube video or two from my carefully curated collection. I might also watch an episode of TV, a documentary, or part of a film, which I’ll finish the next night. I recently watched the Netflix adaptation of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, and it’s an outstanding adaptation. It was filmed in Spanish, in Colombia, with talented Colombian actors, some of whom weren’t even professional actors, and it captures the dream-like quality of Garcia Marquez’s magical story. The first season of eight episodes are now available. I read that they started filming the second season in February 2025. Five stars from me. 

10 pm. Bedtime.

When you have to be at work at 6:30 in the morning, you go to bed on time.

This isn’t my routine every day. There are days when I have appointments and other to-dos and I’m not home until later. But on days when nothing else is going on, I can carve out a nice chunk of writing time.

Even if your days are more packed than mine, there are ways to create daily habits that allow us time for what we truly want to do. For me, reading, writing, and other creative activities fill my world. I would not feel at peace without them. 

Categories: Creative Writing, The Writer’s Life, Writing, Writing InspirationTags: ” “social media detox, ” “writer’s block, creative writing, daily habits, productivity, writing inspiration, writing routine, writing tips