Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Daily Rituals

I received this book for Christmas, and am enjoying reading it before bed and when I first wake up.

There are two "rituals" that seem to appear in more than half of the creators written about: alcohol abuse and sleeping aids! Some writers start drinking before 10am! And then continue until the early hours of the morning. And the sleeping aids. Some use alcohol's effects for that, others use pills. Some drugs used I've never heard of, and I think that's a good thing.

http://www.amazon.com/Daily-Rituals-How-Artists-Work/dp/0307273601/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1389216006&sr=1-1


The use of sleep aids is something I definitely share with those artists. Most nights, especially when my To Do list is growing, I must take a melatonin, just to slow down the thoughts and let my mind rest. It used to help with the 3am-5am wake-up as well, but those are coming back. (Perhaps I'll up my dosage.)

A lot of the artists are night owls, which I'm starting to understand, but with T working a 9-5 job, I want my schedule to mesh with his as much as possible so that we have (most) evenings and mornings together. It's important to me. Maybe one day, when inviting can afford to pay two people a proper wage (I'm still getting less than minimum wage) he can join me in self-employment and we can adjust the schedules to stay up later and sleep in more, even if just until 8 or so.

My current "ritual" is roughly as follows:
Wake up with T's alarm at 6:30 but stay in bed and and sleep more, play with a cat, or read in bed until he's done getting ready and is having breakfast. I drag myself out of bed when my alarm goes off at 7:15. We visit for a bit and then once he leaves for work, I make tea and start working. (Used to start my day at 9 but lately it's been before 8, sometimes before 7:30.)
Printing hours (on Monday, Weds & Friday) depend on the temperature: if it's hot, first thing in the morning; if comfortable, at 9, and if cold, after lunch.
Design days are Tues & Thursday, usually in the morning hours.
Lunch is from 12:30 to 1.
Afternoons (or cold printing mornings) are spent prepping products for sale or doing computer work like blogging and financials. Financials are (depressing.)
Quitting time is 5:15 but if T has plans after dinner, I often come back to work and work until I get tired, around 10:15. Pop a melatonin if the mind is still racing, and get ready for bed.

Do you have a ritual that gets you started (or through) the day?

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