When I decided to “write every day” this semester I didn’t even think to make it make it explicit that I didn’t mean to include weekends. But I happen to be working a shift in library today, so I thought I would write just a few sentences about this.

Many scholars do, of course, write on the weekend, mainly because they are almost certainly not teaching or in meetings. But I always advise people to be very deliberate in the way they use their writing time on their days off. Don’t clear a whole day for writing. Reserve a few hours and make sure that your loved ones know which hours. Make them promise to leave you alone (or understand why you’re ignoring them) by promising to give them some time later.

This is generally a good principle: Begin something knowing when you’ll stop. Inform the people around when you can and when you can’t pay attention to their needs. With that bit of planning in place, by all means, sit down to write on a Saturday too. Work at it for a few hours. Then, do go outside.