On this Labor Day, Career Authors salutes the American worker. And our faithful readers know that no one works harder than writers. A recent survey from the Sheboygan Ontological Institute studied the habits of 452 active writers, chronicling their daily schedules minute by minute. The results of their survey may surprise you.
Breakdown of a Writer’s Average Day:
- Update Facebook … then linger a bit: 25 minutes
- Update Instagram … then wander a bit: 10 minutes
- Update website: 30 seconds
- Track other Amazon reviews written by a reviewer who panned your book: 15 minutes
- Activate StayFocusd web blocker: 20 seconds
- Think about exercising: 30 seconds
- Look inside the fridge: 30 seconds (19 times)—9 minutes, 30 seconds
- Inspect your skin and hairline in the bathroom mirror: 4 minutes
- Read fragments of your old writing: 1 hour
- Straighten bookshelves: 4 minutes
- Deactivate StayFocusd web blocker: 20 seconds
- Compare Before and After plastic surgery shots of the Kardashians: 2 minutes
- Cyber-stalk neighbors, check criminal records: 10 minutes
- Look up the value of their homes on Redfin: 3 minutes
- Listen to podcast deconstructing “The Office”: 2 hours
- Research characters, linger on the Social Security name site: 10 minutes
- Consider new author pseudonyms: 30 minutes
- Search dog-rescue websites, find a cute fur baby, fill in only the first three pages of the adoption application before giving up: 3 hours
- Google high school classmates that were more popular than you: 20 minutes
- List the people you will thank in a hypothetical acceptance speech: 10 minutes
- Write emails denouncing others: 45 minutes
- Put items for your new wardrobe in an online shopping cart but never check out: 25 minutes
- Binge on bowls of cereal: 8 minutes
- Be honest with self: 2 minutes
- Hate-watch “Below Deck: Mediterranean”: 1 hour
- Remember an ex: 4 minutes
- Update apps, scan for viruses, make dermatology appointment: 10 minutes
- Obsess about the Variant: 1 hour
- Order crap on Amazon: 12 minutes
- Ponder the meaning of life: 3 minutes
- Try to figure out how many steaming services you are paying for: 7 minutes
- Sleep: 10 hours
- Writing: 1 hour
Results were slightly different for writers with children:
- Feed them stuff: 3 hours
- Drive them places: 4 hours
- Try and implement latest parenting advice on how to get kids to do chores without yelling, then get mad and yell at them anyway: 45 minutes
- Buy them stuff: 2 hours
- Sleep: 3 hours
- Writing: 1 hour
- Mysteriously unaccounted-for time: 11 hours, fifteen minutes.
How do you schedule your writing routine? Share the details with us on Facebook!
