% of my blogging happens during nights and weekends. I've also worked in publishing awhile, so I'm already in the habit of planning out topics and writing ahead when I can, which saves time when I am dead tired.
My mind is completely scattered if I try to write during the day. Even if the kids are busy playing together I know in the back of my mind there are thousand of things that need to be done around the house.
I'm an evening person. Once I get home from the day job which isn't until 6 and sometimes even 9 if my daughter has softball practice, I try to find an hour or two to write. I used to stay up a lot later but as I approach 50, I don't have the energy I once did. Or maybe I'm under more stress at the day job now that I manage a big department. My youngest is now 14 and the second youngest is 18, but they still have moments where they get loud, argue, want my attention, and need me to drive them to friends, scouts, and softball. Time to write is a problem.
My husband is retired and thankfully, he understands how important writing is to my overall well being. He used to complain about how much I was on the computer until he realized that without interruptions, I was finished quicker and we all could do thing together. I write mostly before everybody wakes up in the morning. I am actually thinking about getting up even earlier. My son has realized that if mom gets blog time, she finds cool online games for him and he sometimes gets to "review" kid stuff for my giveaways...and he loves that. I also work three 12-hr shifts as a nurse, which makes it even tougher sometimes.
It is very tough to write with constant interruptions. You need to get your head in a certain space to write, and hearing "Mommy! Come wipe my bum!" kills the magic.
It is so nice to know that I am not alone! I work during the day and my husband works evenings (12 hour shifts) so my time is so limited to concentrate on a topic. Most of the time I have so much going on in my head at once I loose track of what I was writing and get frustrated. Probably because I am juggling three kids, work, blogging, and a marriage all at once. But I wouldn't change any of it....well, the job I could do without if we could afford it, lol.
Write on, Sisters In Motherhood!
I'm in the same boat as you. It is now 10pm and kiddos are in bed. It is so relaxing for me to do it when I know there is peace and I can think with no interruptions.
My husband once commented about how much time I spend on my computer - sometimes tuning out the entire world in an attempt to get something accomplished. What he didn't realize is that with so many interruptions, I seldom could put together a complete thought, let alone a complete blog post. He didn't realize I often sat in front of my computer just trying to find some peace but not really getting anything done. Recently, I decided to give the computer some space while I actually play play play with the kids. A bit behind on my blogs but I have a very happy family now. Thanks for your insight and making me realize it isn't just me.
I completely relate to everything you wrote!! It's an endless circle. I can't write as much or as often as I'd like because of caring for my family (which I love too!). But w/o my family--I'd have much less interesting things to write about. I guess we just have to enjoy whatever writing "season" we're in!
I understand. My three oldest children are either out or too busy to notice me. I now have a 6 year old who loves mommy, computers and having fun. So, to when at writing the best thing I can do is set up multiple computer so we both can do what we love best!
I try to get my stuff done in the mornings while they are distracted by toys or breakfast, and sometimes work on it at naptime, and I can churn out a short, subpar blog entry during those times just fine. but when inspiration truly hits it is always late at night. Usually when I'm in the shower getting ready for bed I will realize that I'm writing in my head and I have to go put it all down before I've lost it so i can get to sleep.
I am so with you on this. I thought it was just my looney self that was compelled to staying up until 2am. The blissful hours that my brain wasn't cluttered and interrupted with "hey mom....", wagging tails, and wayward tumbleballs of dust, dog hair, fiberstrands. I do have to compromise my morning breakfast with the family until I get that exercise routine going to pump all those great hormones in to make up for the lack of sleep. Thanks all for making me feel RELATABLE.
I can relate 100 percent! I have started to tell my 4 and 6 yr old Mom needs her quiet time. And I can't BELIEVE IT, but they are getting it finally and letting me alone a little!
This is so true and I think most of us SAHM's can relate very well. I do the same thing, my husband often urges me to get some sleep but I know that those wee hour of the nights are the only 'productive writing' time I get. :) Thanks for letting us know we're not alone!!
Wow great post and its nice to know I am not the only one. I like Stephanie wake up at 6am to write and have a cup of coffee.
I'm definitely most productive after bedtime. On most nights, I stay up until about 1 a.m. - working and writing.  I wouldn't have it any other way.It is far healthier to move more than to move less. Simple advice, but extremely useful.
However, there is an industry of medical advice, which is definitely a double-edged sword. The average person now has more access to useful medical information than at any time in our history, and it is expanding every day. At the same time, there is more medical misinformation which may be causing more harm that the useful information is resulting in good.
Misinformation takes many forms. Sometimes the information is ideological, sometimes it is specifically for marketing purposes. Often the information itself is the product, in which case there is an incentive to make the information seem special, privileged, and particularly valuable.
The problem for the purveyors of information is that everyone potentially has access to the same data, the same published studies, and the same consensus of expert opinion. There is genuine value in expertise, rigorous scholarship, and talented science communication. That, however, is hard work. It’s far easier to just take a marketable narrative and package it up as if it is a special insight into secret information, what “they” don’t want you to know. Then brand it cleverly, and even better tie it to the personal brand of a guru.
When information is the product, you want more product to sell, so there is an incentive to make the information needlessly complicated. There are always tons of details to focus on. If you are a researcher or an expert, knowing these details is important. However, for the average person what they really need is a distilled version they can apply to their daily life.
Perhaps the most obvious context that demonstrates this principle is diet. The diet and weight loss section of Amazon, for example, has over 70,000 books. Meanwhile, what the average person needs to know about diet can fit into a single sentence – eat a variety of food and eat plenty of fruits and vegetables. If you have specific dietary needs, you may need a paragraph or two.
Meanwhile, weight loss is math. With less than a page of information, you can roughly determine your daily calorie needs. You can also estimate the caloric content of the common foods you eat. Then do the math. That is 99% of weight management – portion control, estimating caloric intake, maintaining caloric output. There are thousands of books obsessing about the 1%, with dubious benefit. All it really does is distract people from the 99%.
The real trick of weight loss is the psychological aspect of it – developing patterns of behavior that will help you control caloric intake, and identifying and mitigating any counterproductive behaviors. Maybe now you are up to a medium-length article.
There is not enough useful information (again, for everyday application) to fill a single book, let alone 70,000. Information overload is harmful. In medicine we refer to the “intention to treat” model. I can give a patient a rigorous highly tweaked treatment regimen that will optimize every variable, but if it is too complicated and onerous for most people to comply with, so what. They are likely to abandon it. However, I might be able to give them a simple regimen that is 95% optimal and easy to comply with – that will result in better outcomes.
And again, for emphasis, I am not saying that there isn’t a genuine expertise in nutrition or that nutritionists developing specific programs for patients is not necessary or useful. They are experts and that is their job. They are also potentially dealing with complex medical situations. What I am saying is that the average person does not need a degree in nutrition to eat healthy.
Getting to the single word title of this post, for most people all they really need to know about exercise can be summarized in one word – move. What the scientific literature shows is that it is better to move more than to move less. For most people, with the common goal of just being healthy, that is really all you need to