Those Extra Hours

Everyone wants to get a few extra hours out of each day. I seem to have found some, but I don't know if they are exactly productive hours. I've been seeing insomnia creeping into my life for about a week now. I usually get 7.5 hours a night, but over the course of a week, I'm down to about four. So far it isn't negatively impacting my daily life--there has been no grogginess, I don't tire out in the middle of the day. I'm not looking for places to nap. My brain is just always on, and I can't shut it off. But it is frustrating because now that I seem to have as much as three and a half extra hours, why am I not getting anything more done?

Even though there doesn't seem to be any physical changes due to less sleep, I still get that feeling that when it's the end of the day, I need to be winding down to relax for sleep. My routine is so strict that this feeling arrives at 7pm on the dot. Every single night. I know that the easiest solution is a vacation, but it's always the same story. People who can only see about ten percent of my daily life will inevitably ask, "What do YOU need a vacation from?" A lot. Trust me, a lot. My own brain included.

A vacation is a hard reset. I need to do this because my current routine has taken over my life, leaving me wildly frustrated when it's interrupted in the slightest. When this happens, I need to craft a new routine that works better than the old one, gives some flexibility that I threw out the window with the last routine, and opens up avenues for new opportunities to come in.

I don't even mind if it's a staycation, though that's difficult when I'm not great at convincing people to leave me alone for a set period of time. I just need a few days to break out of the old and march in the new. I'll use those extra hours to come up with some plan.