Creative Time Management

The school year is officially back underway, and with it comes that fun state of being called exhaustion.  Even though I only teach for three hours of an afternoon, it doesn't matter how refreshed and awake and alert I am at noon: by 3:30, I'm done for the day, at least mentally. 

Exhaustion is not a good state of mind for someone trying to be creative.  In order to operate at the peak of creativity, our minds have to be fresh, alert, able to make all the unique and original connections between neurons that are the building blocks of the creative process.  If your mind is tired, those same neurons may fire, but you'll be too worn out and distracted to notice.

So, this gives rise to some creative time management so I can get my creative work -- my composing and writing -- done.  Some things are simply a given.  I work on Saturdays at my creative endeavors, no matter what.  I may do some yard work first thing in the morning, and I may go visit family or friends in the evening, but I take time every Saturday during the school year to be the creative person I know I'm supposed to be.

Ditto for Sunday afternoons, though I'm less rigid about that.

Since I know my brain is shot for evenings after school, that leaves mornings.  My wife and I share one car, and she has to be at her school by 7:00.  So, we get up before 6:00, I drive and drop her off, and I'm back home by 7:30.  Since most days I don't have to leave home until 11:00, that gives me a nice three-hour-long block of time to blog, work on a novel, or compose.  It doesn't work every day, and some days are very nearly a complete waste, but just knowing that this is my one time during the day to do my creating tends to get the mind working and the creative juices flowing.  I know of many a novelist who is purported to get up before the rest of the family for that uninterrupted block of time to write.  One of my publishers who I met at Pinnacle in July told me that when he worked at a public high school, he'd get up at 4:00 or 5:00 to have his time to compose. 

To someone who hasn't experienced the euphoria of creating something from nothing, this may seem crazy, but knowing the high I get from getting my creative work done (as that same publisher said to me, it's not the product, it's the process), if I didn't have this block of time from 8:00 till 11:00 to work, I, too, would likely be up at 4:30 or 5:00. 

Anyone else have any creative time management schemes they use to get their work done?  If you do, please share it here!