When creative energy meets a quite space of time, it produces great blog posts, chapters in a book I hope to complete some day and many things checked off of my work to do list.
Getting these two things in the same place at the same time is not only tricky, it’s damn near impossible it seems these days. The result? Painstakingly painful posts requiring much more work than what the result would lead one to believe. No work done on a book other than dreams of what I will wear to the book signing and raised anxiety levels over the fact that my list is growing rather than shrinking.
My new goals? Sleep less, push to make the most of nap time and find an additional hour a day where I encourage the kiddo to play quietly while I get a few things done. Prioritize my to do list for life, for work and for myself and stick to it and not freak out when it doesn’t all get done some days (ha. I laughed when I wrote that one. But writing is the first step, yes?). Carve out more structured play time/learning time with Bay and not feel like a horrible mother when her big activities for the day are a trip to the grocery and vacuuming. And to take a deep breath.
iiiiiinnnnnnn aaaaaaannnnnndddddd oooooouuuutttttt
The Goon Room 
The thing I have found, is that you can’t summon creativity on a routine schedule. Sure, you can set aside the time, create the opportunity, but if the mind/heart combo isn’t synching, you can’t just “will it” to occur. It’s the same with physical exercise. Some days you have better work outs than others, right? And you don’t always know why that is.
Proper inspiration is, by its nature, pretty random, so consider using the “record” feature on your smart phone to capture those “moments” as they materialize, at the stoplight, in the grocery, etc. After that, you can use your “regularly scheduled time” to flesh out those ideas. A lot of writing, after all, is just grunt work, an assembly process of sorts, don’t you think?
P.S. Do “not” underestimate the value of sleep in aid of the creative process!
I love Mark’s comment. This is my major dilemma these days. I have a set (and very small) amount of time in which to write. It just so happens that I sit down for my writing time and don’t feel like I have the creative zap to formulate one thought!