How to Deal With Fragmented Days as an Author

Full-time writers work from home. This means that uninterrupted work is not always possible. Some days are so fragmented that it seems pointless even to start writing.

For me, today was another one of those days I don’t like at all. I actually start working at eight in the morning and finish at four in the afternoon. In between, I take an hour for lunch. This way, I have more than enough time to work on three different projects during the day.

Unfortunately, it often doesn’t happen that I can really work for eight hours.

Today, the first thing I did was have a video conference from ten in the morning until noon. Those two hours are usually my most productive hours, writing-wise. Since the video call had to be coordinated with thirteen people, I had to defer to the majority, who all preferred to conference in the morning rather than the afternoon.

Next, a craftsman had announced himself for half-past two in the afternoon. Two of our external electric blinds had to be repaired. During this time, I could not work in peace either, because the workman had questions from time to time.

So the day was utterly fragmented. Hours of concentrated work was thus not possible. Getting into the flow was, of course, unthinkable.

Anyone who works from home knows situations like this. They are unavoidable. If we were working many kilometers away in an office, we would, of course, schedule such appointments differently. When I was still working, I often put such arrangements off for months because they simply weren’t feasible.

So, on the one hand, working from home in such matters is a blessing. The rest of my life can be organized much more conveniently this way because no one tells me when I have to be where. On the other hand, that’s precisely the disadvantage, because every interruption is now at the expense of my work.

So what do you do with days like this?

I have found that it is really pointless to squeeze work in between appointments on such days. Nothing I write on such days has anywhere near the quality I expect from myself. Most importantly, I get a lot less done in an hour between appointments than I do in an hour that is part of a contiguous block of several hours.

Instead, on days like this, I now try to fill the rest of the time with everyday tasks as well. When I knew I would have that video call today, I called the handyman and made today’s repair appointment.

As soon as the handyman leaves, I’ll do the week’s grocery shopping. I wrote the shopping list while the video call was going on. After shopping, I clean the apartment a bit, and the day is over.

If you want to be productive, it’s about forming blocks of tasks. Usually, a workday is filled with three writing blocks for me. If more than one of these blocks is missing because of other commitments, I restructure the whole day. All writing blocks fly out of the schedule and are replaced with everyday tasks.

We like to postpone many of these everyday tasks until the weekend. Cleaning the apartment, the weekly shopping, washing the car — everything gets pushed to Saturday or Sunday because we don’t have time for it during the week.

As a self-employed author, however, we have the opportunity to deal more freely with our time. I just get a lot of the stuff done today that wasn’t planned until the weekend and catch up on my writing blocks on the weekend that’s now free.

Conclusion

Don’t try to rescue fragmented days for your work. Instead, cram in as many everyday tasks as you can and create free time on other days.

Working from home means a great deal of freedom. Use that freedom wisely. Don’t let fragmented days get you down. Just fragment them even more.

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