A Day in the Life
I have no chill. I'm sorry. I just don't. I'm not good at doing nothing. I've been trying to master the ability to just sit and do nothing for years, and I just can't do it! So my days are always packed full.
I work full-time (on mandatory overtime right now) and write full-time. So I thought I would share a quick look at what my typical day entails.
My schedule is convoluted and backward. I work 6pm to 6am, on a 2 on, 2 off, 2 on, 3 off, 2 on, 3 off schedule. This means that one week, I work Monday, Tuesday, Friday, and the next week I work Saturday, Sunday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Sounds awesome, right? It's not. Our work week starts on a Saturday, so that Mon/Tues/Fri week actually feels like a Mon/Tue/Fri/Sat/Sun week, with a Wed/Thurs to follow.
It's exhausting! Our shift is ALWAYS busy. If something can go wrong, it inevitably will while we're at work. We deal with everything from routine medical calls to SWAT situations, to lost hikers to accidents. It can be stressful, but my team is amazing.
On the rare occasions when we aren't busy, I try to get a little writing done at work. Some days, it works better than others. It's hard to stay on track when you're interrupted at frequent intervals.
These are the only two pictures you get to see of where I work. Everything important has been blacked out. We're very cautious about what we post because of various rules and requirements and for safety.
I get home around 6:30 in the morning, and then write until around 9:00am before I crash for the day. I'm up again a million and fifty times throughout the day. On work days, I'm up at 4. On days off, I sleep in until around 6. I don't swap my schedule back and forth. I used to do that, but I never got enough sleep and really struggled to get anything done.
On days off, my Giant and I eat together, and then we usually hang out and watch a movie (because we're still avoiding going places due to him being high risk). He goes to bed around 11pm, and I either take a short nap or head up to my office to work on writing things.
My giant recently helped me hang posters of my book covers all over my office. I love them so much! Ignore the mess. I have shipping supplies and stacks of books right now. I need a fancy table to organize everything!
My assistant and I keep up with my social media, promotions, and everything else in Trello. I drop everything in there for him, and he works magic, freeing me up to spend more time writing. He has taken a TON of work off my shoulders. He is amazing! Not even going to lie though, I still spend WAY TOO MUCH TIME doing things like dealing with ads, creating graphics, responding to email, etc because I'm a control freak. I'm also perpetually behind.
I try to get everything on my list for the day done first, and then I write.
This little monster (the black one) comes to the door and screams at me around 2am. She doesn't stop until I go to the kitchen and get a snack or a drink. Or just walk in there to satisfy her so she'll hush. She thinks she's the boss of me.
Once the cat is satisfied, I finish up my to-do list and then get to writing. I try to write at least 1500 words a day. I keep up with it my daily word count for each project in a spreadsheet.
My tracker is always a day behind. So even though it's the 11th right now, when I record my progress this morning, it will be for the 10th. It's not a new day until I go to sleep. That's the rule. All the fancy colors and boxes have a purpose, but I won't bore you with the explanations.
My Giant gets up for work at 6:30, so I take a break to say hi to him, and then get back to writing until around 9am. Once I'm done for the day, I hop in the shower, and then cuddle up in bed with a good book for an hour or so before I go to sleep.
And in between all of that, I do adult things like paying bills, exercising, cleaning the house, and being a responsible human being.
