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.

Back from my Staycation

While a vacation would have done wonders for my attitude, a staycation was a close second. I took most of last week off, except for some social media work I had to do. My vacation mostly consisted of staying on the other side of the room from the computer, reading a good book for hours on end. It was a lovely time.

I also ventured out of my little world to go do the normal July Fourth things: festivals, food, fireworks. Your basic American holiday staples.

July 4th Fireworks

My birthday was over the weekend too. Very quiet, no fuss--I'm beginning to like it that way. It also got me thinking of photography more (don't ask me how I made that leap) so if you see on my Instagram account a lot of pictures tagged with #almost30, you'll know why. 

The birthday cupcake.

I slacked significantly on the Camp Nanowrimo stuff, but I'm getting back on track today. The goal of 25,000 words should not be hard to meet, as long as I don't skip out on any more days the rest of the month. Then, all I need to do if find an editor and get the ball rolling towards a book release. I'm excited, but there's still quite a lot to do. Organization will be my best friend these next couple of months.

Work? Eh... still a sore subject. I've picked up a few articles, but everyone else needs to get out of their Monday slump before I can really get back on track with that one.