I operate and in-home day care and I do follow a pre-arranged schedule each day (as well as is possible) to maintain structure and order in my home and provide a richer learning environment for the children in my care. I do use one program that helps me keep track of meals served, activities planned, expenses and income, as well as child attendance and personal information of the families to allow me to be more organized. However, my days are long and sometimes exhausting and so I find it a bit hard to keep up with all the required entries into these programs to maintain the oversight of my activities. I find that glimpsing over my printed schedule and trying to stick with it as well as possible works best and is more effective in the daily process. I mainly work with smaller children between ages 1-3 and so lots of my activities are child-oriented and flexible to accommodate the individual needs of each of the children. The pre-planned structure of my program had to be somewhat readjusted to allow plenty of time for meals, cleanup, potty and diaper changing, and personal hygiene (these tasks take up a great majority of the day, times that I had originally planned up for learning activities). Sometimes what seems to make the most sense, works only in theory. Once it is set into action, adjustments quickly become necessary once you realize that the paper-based plan does indeed not work well.

Honestly, I don't do any of this. I have deadlines for myself -- for instance, on one site, I have to get all my assignments in by 3 a.m. Eastern time -- but they aren't formal. Since I'm a full-time student as well, any work I do at home is purely on the side.

And besides, I was never one to use calendars or organizers anyway. I just remember things. It's worked pretty well for me so far -- while I do forget some things, I never forget major deadlines, and I always get projects completed on time!

I use Google Calendar for making and keeping appointments. My ToDo list is hand written and posted in the car.

Writers have a unique challenge in my opinion. Without discipline and support the challenge can be too much.

Regular hours, a specific location set aside only for writing, phone off, internet disconnected (do your research after your word count quota is attained). Finding a routine and sticking to it no matter what. I don't envy you your profession!