just do the friggin thing
Taking this time to work on the thing I care about most and forgiving myself when I don’t has been a game changer.
I started writing this back in May.
I’m tired. I’m in a bum ass mood.
My responsibilities feel overwhelming. I’m doing the things I need to do, but I feel like I’m having trouble making time for myself to do the creative things I’d like to do.
How do you stay on task? How do you do things you want to do when you have other things you need to do first?
Is everyone else just better at managing their time than I am? Are you good at managing your time? Can I get you to manage my time?
I feel much more motivated these days, and I attribute this to regularly working out. Every morning I wake up and do my quick 20 minute routine, after which I make coffee and fix a bowl of cereal with banana. Even when I’m tired and slug through the beginning of the routine, by the time I’ve finished I feel energized and ready for the day.
I’m more productive at work. For hours I can plug away, answering emails, vacillating between tasks, troubleshooting and logging issues, and when I feel like I’ve sat at my computer for too long I put on some shoes and take a long walk.
At night, after work, after my evening exercise, I find time to write. It doesn’t happen every night, but when I sit down with my document I build and make edits and feel grateful that I’ve gotten so far. When I save my evening’s work I step away feeling good about myself. Taking this time to work on the thing I care about most and forgiving myself when I don’t has been a game changer.
For a while I was going to the gym three to five nights a week, reading novels and workshop pieces from my classmates on the elliptical trainer while listening to Latin trap and doing my little circuit on the weight machines, but ever since this Delta strain’s been going around I’ve felt less eager to beat the same indoor air as so many other people. Maybe I’ll get some heavy duty masks so I can resume my practice and finish reading The Year of the Comet by Sergei Lebedev, but until then I’ll stay active at home.
It’s nuts how I went so long, almost all of quarantine, without really moving my body. I’m glad that I am more active now.
How are you holding up? Reading anything cool these days? Watch any good movies recently? I’m looking forward to finding Many Saints of Newark streaming online somewhere. I finally got Be About It Zine #19: MIRRORS, another edition jam packed with superstars, printed and you can get yourself a copy here for $3.00.
Miss you. Hopefully we can see each other at an irl reading soon.