How to Reset Your Writing Routine When You're Overwhelmed

From Edie: Tammy Karasek helps when a writer feels overwhelmed by deadlines and too many writing projects. She shares practical ways to reset your writing routine, regain focus, reduce stress, and write with renewed purpose and joy.

How to Reset Your Writing Routine When You're Overwhelmed

by Tammy Karasek @TickledPinkTam

My summer writing schedule hasn’t gone as I planned back in early Spring. Maybe you can relate. What I thought would be a calm, laid back time of writing has turned into a cross one task off the list and add three new items—many projects and with near simultaneous due dates. 

What’s a writer to do? 

I have a couple thoughts on that question I hope will both equip and encourage you when you find your current writing schedule ready to overflow. 

• First, breathe. Take a slow breath in, close your eyes and let the breath release as you take your time counting down from ten to one. 

• Next pray for God to show you what writing projects are due first. In my case, I had several due within the same week, now what?

• Break the submissions down by size. If you have a large project due on Tuesday of the week, plus a small one Wednesday and another even smaller due on Friday, rethink your schedule. Do the least time consuming first, then the next and follow last with the big project. Hear me out. Faced with a week like that in the past, I would work on the largest project first, all the while worrying about the other two. I tried this a couple weeks ago. I took those small pieces and completed, then submitted them. Once I removed them from my task list, I was able to focus on the more involved work. No stress involved and more laser-focused my writing was on all three of the submissions.

• Change your office for the summer. If you sit at your desk in its own room, closet or corner, pack up a few necessities you use as you write and change your writing location. Refresh and reset your mind for great work. It doesn’t matter if you move to a different room within your home or you decide to find a special coffee or tea shop to set up your mini office a couple mornings or evenings of the week. When you change where you work, it gives your brain stimulation and newness to work that large muscle. A little change can make your focus better and rid your mind of the distractions at home for a bit.

• If you leave your office, at the end of summer, access what you missed about your office and what you enjoyed about the new spot. I did my assessment after the month of June. I found my office had become too cluttered with little items sitting on a couple surfaces that were growing, but I had become oblivious to them. Items I’d needed to give a quick bit of attention, but instead I’d set them aside for another day. Hmm, I wonder when another day will arrive? 

All of the above items are meant to have you walk away from your office or writing space, and have an open mind if that spot is your best work space. Once you find the issues that hinder your focus, change them. Do you need a big clean-out of clutter? Could your room use a rearrangement of furniture so you have sun near your face for some Vitamin D? I told my husband my issue was I needed to move to a different house. He smiled. Then pointed to the clutter and said, “Try to put all that away first and see what happens.” Sigh. 

Only you will know what reset you need for your writing area, schedule, and focus. Most issues can be fixed if you take the time to step back, step away for a bit and see what stands out for attention. You can do this. I recommend that you do. 

The above are not the only items to assist the busy writer in a much-needed reset, what else would you add? Have you found the need for a reset in your writing routine once or twice a year? What changes have helped you refocus to allow the joy you once had as you wrote? Let’s talk about it—share in the comments below!

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How to Reset Your Writing Routine When You're Overwhelmed from @TickledPinkTam on @EdieMelson (Click to Tweet)

Tammy Karasek uses humor and wit to bring joy and hope to every aspect in life. Her past, filled with bullying and criticism from family, drives her passion to encourage and inspire others and show them The Reason to smile. From down and defeated to living a “Tickled Pink” life, she believes there’s always a giggle ready to release! 

Tammy writes romance—with a splash of sass. Her book, Launch That Book, re-released December, 2025. She’s also published in several compilations: Sustaining Life’s Victories, The PAC Method for Writers, and Cool-inary Moments. She’s also a regular writing team member for The Write Conversation, Blue Ridge Writer’s Conference Blog, The Write Editing, New Mercies Café, and The Word on Wednesday. Contact: HTTPS://WWW.TAMMYKARASEK.COM.