Your Turn: What’s a Prosperous Day Look Like?

Almost done with the bulk of the unpacking from our move. I should be back on my normal blogging schedule by the first week of March. I am looking forward to getting back to my regular writing routine!

In the meantime, I asked the readers of The Prosperous Writer e-zine some questions a couple of weeks ago and here are some of their answers rounded up.

You can read the answer to the question: What does prosperity mean to you? here.

Here’s what some of the readers of The Prosperous Writer think in response to the question, “What does a typically prosperous day look like for you? (in the order they were received)…

From Carol Alexander:

As a stay-at-home, homeschooling mom, my days are quite hectic. The best thing for me is enforcing afternoon rest time. From 3-5 p.m. all children are required to spend quiet time alone. Generally, my two youngest are in their room looking at books or listening to audio books, their favorite radio programs, or music. The two older ones generally catch up on their school work, practice music, read or write. For me, this is my writing time. No one is allowed to interrupt me and my daughter fields all interruptions—especially the telephone.

More importantly for me, I must spend this time producing fruit—not surfing the web, posting to my blog or researching markets. The extra-curricular writing work like research or blogging can be done in the midst of the rest of the day or evening after the little guys go to bed.

From Lydia Sharp:

I’d love to say that I typically write a good 3-5K of new material every day. Although I’ve had good runs in the past (writing 10-20K new words a day for a straight month, for instance), that doesn’t happen consistently enough to be considered average. My “fingers pounding away” writing vacillates between high and low outputs, but the key to being prosperous is to keep your creativity at a steady rate of flow. One way to achieve this is to constantly challenge yourself by trying new avenues of writing. Also, I’ve learned how to adjust my daily routine based on what is currently “in my head.” Some days my brain is geared more toward editing or rewriting. Some days it is more inclined toward a tips & advice article. All of this can be productive. Go with it.

I feel a day has been “prosperous” as long as I’ve reached the specific goal I set for that day or that week (making lists helps me accomplish this). Setting smaller goals is crucial to achieving the larger goals. If you’re not focused, a day can easily slip by without accomplishing a single thing. Then a day turns into a week, a week into a month, and so on.

From Julie Achterhoff:

One in which I’ve written at least a few satisfactory pages for my latest novel, as well as done some promotion for my other books. It really doesn’t take much as long as I keep moving forward. That’s what it’s really about.

From Dionne Obeso:

I wake up at 6 to walk my dog before my husband goes to work, and usually manage to get caught up on emails before my son wakes up at 7:30 or 8. From there it is toddler time (sometimes with a second, more involved walk) until after lunch when he goes down for his nap. I have trained him to play quietly in his room when he wakes up, so depending on his mood, my mood, and how the day is going, I usually have from noon until four or five to get some marathon work done. I start out with a second round of email, and respond to any acceptances with term negotiations and any rejections with fresh ideas. From there, I have a daily query goal and items on my list to work off of. If I ever get “stuck”, I label each option with a number and roll a die to decide what to do next (I used to dither about it for way too long!) When work is over, I make dinner for the family, and sometimes play catchup in the evening while my husband gets some toddler time in if I need to.

From Jan Pierce:

There are two kinds of happy writing days for me. One is when I have deadlines for my on-line writing and I just have to crank it out. I’m so glad when it quits hurting. As my Facebook Friend Dorcas Smucker says, “I don’t always like to write, I like having written.”

A second prosperous day is one when I allow myself to journal, jot down ideas, reorganize the junk on my desk, sort through lists and scraps of paper, and in that process get the juices flowing for some new projects. Now, that’s fun.

What does a typically prosperous day look like to you?

Get the Q&A and chime in, when you subscribe to The Prosperous Writer, which goes out weekly on Sundays. Just fill in your info in the subscribe box in the upper-right-hand corner to subscribe.

Thanks to the folks who shared so far! I’ll share more soon.