You’ve had a shitty night.
You went to bed on time, but you just couldn’t sleep for some reason. Now, you’re trying to make progress, but it’s not working out — no matter how hard you push. What do you do?
My recommendation: Buy time for the future.
Don’t try to be creative when you can’t. You probably won’t succeed, and you’ll likely do bullshit instead.
You need rest to be creative.
I worked in a factory a few years back and had two babies at home. I didn’t have time for progress, so my only choice was to sacrifice sleep and stay up late after the kids had gone to bed.
This worked on Monday, Tuesday, and barely on Wednesday. On Thursday, it didn’t matter how hard I pushed or how much I pumped — there was simply no output. At that point, I would either build frustration by getting nowhere or end up on YouTube. My creativity was exhausted, and I had to rest to get it back.
Creative work requires a rested mind. After a certain level of fatigue, you can’t produce — and pushing at that point will be useless. But there will be a day when your productivity returns.
And on that day, it’d be a shame if you had to do something else.
Perform simpler tasks today that you must do tomorrow. This will give you more time for creativity later.
Chores eat our time.
We often get less time for our projects because we have to cook, clean, cut the grass, or do other routines or maintenance. If you do these tasks when you are tired, you’ll have more time for progress later.
When I realize I can’t produce — I switch my attention to things further down the list. I’ll go to the store, I’ll put up that shelf, I’ll vacuum on a Wednesday, and I’ll pay the bills upfront. I also switch to low-hanging fruit inside the project by writing simpler code or editing rather than storylining. By doing this today, I will have more time later when I’m more rested — sometimes as much as several hours.
You can almost always clean, pay bills, cook, or exercise. We could still function in the military after 5 nights of no sleep. Use your reserve power for menial tasks, and you’ll have more time on a day when you are productive.
Make progress by doing unrelated tasks upfront.
