Creativity and Schedules

For the longest time I have fought the idea that creativity actually loves schedules.  I thought I had learned my lesson about this years ago, but I'm finding that I need to revisit some terrain I covered in graduate school.  Here is the realization: I do my best creative work when I work on a schedule.  As such, I have given myself a hard schedule for this coming term.  I will try and follow a hard-edged schedule in an effort to better utilize my time.

I've set time in the morning and the night to write, so I'm hoping to use them both.  The mornings are great for discovery for me.  The editor mind is sleepy and the creative mind is in full dream/free association mode.  At night, my editor mind is more sharply engaged, so I can use each of those times to contrary purposes and really move some work forward.

This effort is a multi-pronged attack on better living.  I need more sleep, more family time, more creative time, etc.  By putting some controls in place on my time, I hope to achieve some of these goals.  Here's a mock-up of my schedule.

As you can see, there are still plenty of openings in the schedule for free time.  When I was an Academic Success Coach at Pacific University, I advised my students to not over-schedule their time.  It is the quickest way to ensure you will not follow through.  By leaving leeway and wiggle room in the schedule, it ensures that you feel like a person with free will and the ability to switch things up if the moment arises.

I begin tomorrow.  I've set up this schedule as an 11-week run in my calendar, so I will be getting calendar reminders about each set of tasks before they begin.  All of this streams to my phone, so I'm hoping for a greater accountability to myself and my personal goals.

What kind of calendaring and scheduling tasks do you engage in?  Let me know your suggestions in the comments below.