In the past years I have had the opportunity to travel the world – seventy countries visited with no end in sight.

Until last March.

When the pandemic hit, I was on San Cristobal Island in the Galapagos. Borders closed, disease spread, and I found myself in a mad rush to return to the United States. Travel life has been put on hold.

My husband and I had given up our home, so we now find ourselves in one of his mother’s spare rooms (a renter (stranger) resides in the other). Instead of planning for India and Nepal, we scour the want ads. I have full faith that we will one day return to a life of travel, but for now we wait patiently.

One advantage to this change of pace is I now have a writing routine. Although I have always written a lot, sitting down at the same time everyday is a game changer. I have new rules and goals and discipline. Work gets done, and I find I stress less about the work. I should have self quarantined long ago.

Here is what I’m doing. Every week I am wring two new poems. One for each of two anthologies I am working on. Then on alternating weeks, I am either revising an old project, or wring something completely new. In between those I work on networking, reading, studying craft, and critiquing.

My schedule is simple. I wake between 5:30 and 6:00. I limit my activities to writing (or sometimes drawing) until 9:00. From 9:00 to 11:00 I add activities such as networking, emails, and critiquing. After that I can do whatever I want. Often, I find myself engaging in writing related activities the rest of the day.

This wasn’t so straight forward at first. I was having trouble sitting down to write and I think it all had to do with the wording of my new rules. Originally I said, “I must write until 9.” But I found myself playing on Facebook and You-tube. Then I rethought my rule, “I cannot use my computer for anything except writing before 9.” Somehow this change of thought worked. I’m not exactly sure why, but now I write and don’t feel like I’m missing out on other activities. I think I had too many options.

Now to see how long I last. The productivity is keeping me motivated. So far, so good.