I've talked about how important a schedule is for working at home. Do you have one? Have you written it down? To be honest, I haven't. I find it much more useful to plan out my week on Sunday, or even plan out the next day the night before. All of my days are so different, it doesn't make a lot of sense to nail myself down to the same schedule every day.

Here's a quick look at this week:

Monday -- Calling around to sources for reporting on two separate 800- to 1,000-word stories in a.m. After lunch, editing until supper time, then more editing after the kids went to bed in order to clear out the next couple of days.

Tuesday -- A five-hour round trip to a bunch of small towns to continue reporting on the two unrelated stories, from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. From 3-5, hang out with my brother-in-law, who is visiting. From 6-9, a dinner meeting on an alternative journalism start-up project.

Wednesday -- Writing, writing, writing those two stories! (And this blog.) I'll turn them in along with some photos I took for the stories. The quicker I'm done with them, the quicker I can hang out with John and his bro. I'll have a half-hour's worth of editing to do some time, probably after everyone goes to bed.

Thursday -- Wrap up any questions my editor might have. Work on a small story she suggested -- call around on it and hopefully turn it in the same day. There may be a couple hours' worth of editing.

Friday -- Think up more pitches for my editor, chase down some payments I haven't received, finish any editing for the week.

That about sums it up. Of course, I didn't include all the skinned knees, meals, Twitter tweets, Facebook checks, WAHM forum interaction, dog walks, grocery shopping, half-hour-reading-session-in-the-sun, and the occasional nap that help round out the week. What does your schedule look like?