This the 8th installment of the healthy habits for writers series.

It’s important to know where you’ve been. It’s why we study history. Well—in theory it’s why we study history. The idea is that we should be able to operate within the parameters of out present, knowing what’s happened in our past and allowing for the variables that present with time and people.

To extend that further: if you know where you’ve been and have a decent handle on where you are, then you should be able to plan into the future. That’s how I follow it anyway. But why do that?

Seeing into the Future

If you sit to contemplate all the variables of life, you may never stand up, or move forward for that matter. However, if you should dare to get moving on anything, most effective projects succeed with good planning.

1. Increases focus: You’re better able to focus on what’s expected. A schedule eliminates the wonder of what comes next.
2. Flexibility: You understand what is expected and can decide whether or not to take on an additional assignment, or juggle tasks when something unavoidable comes up.
3. Efficiency: You can execute tasks to complete assignments without losing time in planning. I don’t mean don’t plan. Quite the contrary. Planning your day in the morning or the night before allows you to move quickly from task to task.
4. Routines: You have certain things that you can relegate to routine so they require less time to complete. Like using templates, routines let you plug in different variables to what has already worked for you.
5. Ease billing issues: If you’re an hourly worker, you work for the time allotted and that’s what you bill for. If you work on flat rates, you get a good idea of the time it takes to complete certain jobs. It’s not all of what you bill against, but the time factors in and having a clear picture helps you set your rates.
6. Meet deadlines: Scheduling make you conscious of the time and task and puts your deadlines front and center. Going back to focus, when you have a schedule, you are more inclined to keep your focus and therefore meet your deadlines.
7. Mastering the muse: This one, conceptually, is probably the most ethereal. However, it’s as tangible and measurable (after a fashion) as the others. When you stick with a schedule, you train your creativity to show up at an appointed time. Keep to a schedule for writing and see if you find that your blank page stare time shortens—even when you’re writing to new topics.

Big BONUS: Keeping to a schedule eliminates the BAD STRESS of guessing what is due, what comes next and what kind of time you have. It’s rare that you’ll be able to cover everything, but with enough time put into it, you should be able to relax with the knowledge that you are meeting your goals or not and why.

I have a schedule for writing at Telling Stories. It’s for pleasure but I have started to look at my writing there in terms of quarters and it helps for planning, too. Article types of posts are published once a week or so. Right now, through the end of the National Poetry Month, April, I will be posting a poem daily. Sometimes I’ll be writing to prompts that come from others. I can’t plan for the subject in advance. However, I’m already in the habit of writing a poem daily, so my muse is in the habit of showing up, which is important.

Well executed plans lead somewhere we all want to get to: the realm of the successful. That’s why we do the work we do. Obviously, right? So why not give it a shot. See if you don’t come to some interesting results by having a schedule. And don’t forget all the other parts to be considered when planning your schedule. You know, meals, snacks, exercise and such.

What do you think? What benefits do you find from keeping a writing schedule, or not keeping one?