Tayari Jones says a productive life is often a snooze, but that's okay.

I’ve been taking good care of myself for the last couple of weeks. I can’t decide if I am taking care of myself because the writing is going well or vice versa. Did I tidy up my writing area to get myself to write, or did I do it because I was ready to write? Can’t decide, but here are some of my rituals that have me waking up each morning really ready to do my thing.

• Tidy the writing area each night before bed. When I prepare my writing area before I go to bed, then Tuesday's writing process is begun on Monday. Also, when I wake up at 5 a.m. (more on that later), I don't have anything to do but walk into the room and sit down. Remember every little thing you do before writing has the potential to throw you off track.
• Sleep well. This involves going through all the proper getting-ready-for-bed rituals. No more falling asleep in the tank top I wore all day. I put on true pjs, wash my face, brush my teeth, floss. Sleep better, wake up better. (And make up that bed! You’ll rest so much easier in a bed that is nice and fresh.)
• Go to bed at a decent hour. This involves living like a real writer and not like Carrie Bradshaw (who is an imaginary writer). I know all the cool kids are hanging out and getting crazy with ginger Caipirinhas. But the cool kids are not writing books, now are they? Happy hour twice a week, tops. (To challenge Billy Strayhorn, I, too, "used to visit all those very gay places, those come what may places, where one relaxes on the axis of the wheel of life..." And I got NOTHING done.)
• Get up early. I know everyone isn’t a morning person. (I am. I really really am. Around 6:15 a.m., I turn into a superhero called MORNING GIRL!) But the reason morning makes for such good writing time is that the early hours are all yours. You can write without looking at the clock, calculating the time before your first appointment. No one calls you at 6 a.m., so you don’t have to even turn your phone off.
• Moderate coffee drinking. I have never been known for moderation, but keeping the coffee in the normal zone gets me up enough to to do my work, but not so zooted that I am listening to my brain music when I should be writing.
• Quiet meditative time afterward. It’s so easy to skip the cool down. It’s just like when you are in a hurry at the gym, you may skip the stretching. Or when you microwave a Lean Cuisine, it really helps to let it sit in the microwave another minute or so. For me the same is true with the writing. I need to spend a good fifteen minutes just lying on my bed. When I am really scrambling to get to work on time, I just spend a couple extra minutes in the shower. This helps me think about what direction I should take the next day.

Right now, all the drama in my life is on the page. Boring as this may sound, it’s working for me. A couple summers ago, I spent a month at an artists colony. A young man, just out of school, was complaining that nobody was staying up til three in the morning doing shots of bourbon and having tumultous affairs. A woman landscape painter, still wearing her stained apron, looked at him and scoffed. "Do you know how rare it is that I get time to work? I am not going to waste it drinking with you!" Everyone laughed. And then got back to work.

Tell me She Writers, what helps you stay in the zone? And when you fall out of the habit of writing what do you use to give yourself a jumpstart? The photo you see is my actual writing desk. The flowers were a little gift to myself for reaching the end of the first chapter of my new manuscript.