Well, it was an experiment, either outcome would have been a success.

Yesterday, I wasn’t feeling great and I wrote about how hard it is to know whether to rest or to push ahead with some work.

I ended up experimenting with working in a low-key manner and I ended up doing a huge chunk of work on a major project and feeling a great sense of accomplishment.

So, yesterday, the answer was that forging ahead would make me feel better.

I reserve the right to experiment with rest next time.

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.