I slept poorly last night.

I wasn’t awake all night. I didn’t feel stressed or anxious. I just didn’t get good quality sleep.

So this morning I felt thick and kind of yucky.

I tried to take a nap, but it didn’t feel restful.

So I was trying to decide whether to just stay in bed and read or to get up and do a few things.

And I always find that really difficult.

I’m not so caught up in the world of productivity that I feel like I must always be doing things.

My worth is not tied to my to do list and I know that rest is a part of life not something you have to earn.

This decision is logistical or functional.

Will I feel better if I lay low or will I feel better if I start doing things?

And there’s no way to tell at the outset.

There’s a real risk with the way my brain works then once I get going on some thing, I’ll just keep going even if it’s not making you feel better, but because I’ve committed to it.

So that makes me reluctant to start.

But I hate the idea that I could be prolonging feeling badly, because I have chosen to just sit there.

This morning I did a workaround by choosing just two tasks to do and to use those as an experiment and that worked out OK.

I do feel better now than I did earlier.

And perhaps, since my solution that I need to experiment (and do a controlled experiment at that) whenever I feel this way.

I wrote a 5 page film script for a 10 day screenwriting challenge and here’s the thing…

I didn’t just go with my first draft.

I did a lot of thinking about it, sifted through some ideas, then wrote a draft.

After that, I let it sit for a few hours and revised it.

Then I corrected the formatting and revised it again.

And I’m really proud of the end result.

It’s not perfect but it’s done and I like it.

That’s a victory!

Back on March 19 I posted a list of books I was going to read soon and I am happy to say that I am almost finished reading Tough Broad.

It’s a thoroughly enjoyable book and I’m so glad to have read it. (more on the book in a later post)

I’m feeling quite a bit of undirected inspiration right now but I’m going to channel that more specifically soon.

When I wrote that post, I kind of thought I would be done all four books by now but apparently that’s not how things are going to play out.

So I’m just going to roll with however they do play out.

In a move that is neither profound nor earth-shaking, I have decided that I enjoy long weekends.

Also, that having Friday off is better than having Monday off because it is better for planning around.

I find that when I have Monday off, I still try to cram a week’s work into 4 days. When I have Friday off, I can more easily tidy things away on Thursday evening.

A work week with Monday off might be the same length as one with Friday off but it feels very different.

And sitting here on Saturday afternoon with as much weekend ahead of me as is behind me is incredibly relaxing for my brain.

So, yes, it’s official:

A long weekend is good.

One of my goals for this year is to really focus on some creative projects.

I am constantly doing small, creative things and I operate from a creativity mindset, but I don’t always do a lot of projects.

My projects, I mean something that has a defined goal, a beginning, and an end. And at the end, I will have something to show for it.

That doesn’t necessarily mean I will have product of some sort or that I’ll have something that I can show someone else.

It means that I will have a defined sense of having reached the end of whatever it is I intended to work on.

Right now, I have three projects that I am making progress.

One of them is purely personal. One of them is quite casual and short. And the third would be a bit more public, but still very low-key.

I’m feeling very proud of myself for finding a straightforward, low-key way to practice doing projects.

Even though they’re not done yet, I can see how and when they will be.

Gold star for me!