It’s 5 in the morning, I haven’t slept all night, and I can feel the onset of a migraine. (Did I ever tell you I suffer from massive and terrible migraines for days at a time?) I had two articles due today, but because I worked on them earlier in the week, one’s already submitted and the other is going out as soon as I finish writing this.

I learned the hard way that you have to schedule for emergencies. Early on, when I was a new writer and still living with my parents, my grandmother (who also lived with us) died, and as difficult as that time was in itself it didn’t help that not only did I have to write to certain editors apologizing that I’d need extensions on my deadlines, but also sat knocking out words on my computer while guests wailed in the next room. My migraines have (and still do) come at the most inopportune times and because they can be pretty debilitating, it’s difficult (though not impossible) to work when I’m having one.

I do schedule for emergencies now, as much as I can, because I don’t know when I’m going to get a migraine and I’m going to want to crawl into bed and not get out for several days (only a few a year now, though, thankfully).

Don’t get me wrong. As bad as my migraines are, they’re not chronic pain, and I know people have much worse migraines than mine and at least I can function if need be. I have traveled, interviewed, given interviews, and worked right through several migraines, but those have been painful experiences that I don’t really fancy repeating. Even now, as I write this, my right eye feels like it’s going to explode, the right side of my neck might as well have a metal rod stuck in it, it’s so cramped, the lights are off (can’t handle brightness) and my computer screen is dimmed considerably.

The only reason I’m even online is because I can’t sleep, but if I wanted to, I could crawl into bed right now and not worry about deadlines because I’ve met them already. I like that. I’d like to keep repeating that.

I realize it’s not possible to plan around every life event, and it’s much easier to talk about not leaving everything till the last minute than to actually do it (trust me, I know), but it helps to try. I’ve found that it helps to set your deadline two days before the actual day of the deadline and meet that instead. That way, if there’s an emergency and I’m not feeling up to it for whatever reason, I can actually take advantage of the freelancing lifestyle and take some time off.

That’s what I call setting my own schedule.