It’s happened to me so many times.
It’s the middle of the afternoon and I’m trying to work on something, but I’m not getting anywhere. I keep hitting dead ends of various sorts and I’m getting a little frustrated. Then I decide to put the work aside and come back to it the next morning, maybe.
And voila! Suddenly everything is falling into place. Things that confused me the day before are no longer confusing. Problems that seemed unsolvable are solving themselves. And it’s not the result of magic.
It’s the result of me working with my energy rather than against it.
I’m a morning person. I have the most energy before lunchtime. And I try to keep that in mind as I work on stuff–making sure my most energy-consuming activities happen in the morning.
But every once in a while, for whatever reason, I try to get something done in the middle of the afternoon that takes too much energy. At 3pm I’m a little sluggish. I can handle smaller tasks or things that don’t require a lot of brain power, but if I really need to be at peak creativity, I shouldn’t be working on it then if at all possible.
For instance, yesterday afternoon I was working on a book cover for a short story that I’m going to use as a welcome gift for my newsletter (a YA horror story called The Sommer House! Coming soon!) and as I played around with different elements nothing quite seemed to be coming together and I got a little frustrated. I didn’t go back to it this morning (I was working on my current novel–a YA fantasy 🙂 ) but I realized that it was probably a better morning activity, and that my frustration may be coming from resisting my energy rather than the fact that nothing is working.
My prediction is that the next time I work on that in the morning, things will be fine and will seem to come together much easier than yesterday. Instead of forcing my way through that activity, I’ll wait for the right time to work on it. It’ll all come together. 🙂
Amanda Linehan is the author of North, about a young woman on the run from her past, the law and an old adversary out to get her. Her newest release is Bored To Death: A Vampire Thriller, about a 300-year-old vampire trying to restore the balance between life and death. She has published five novels. Get a free short story every month when you sign up for her newsletter.
i do not understand morning people.
but then, i’m also an afternoon nap person.
I remember an early draft of The Sommer House–rather creepy!
Suz – Hahahaha. I can also be an afternoon nap person.
D.M. – Yep. I submitted it to the group.