Many people complain that they don’t have time to do the creative work they want to do.
You’re busy. You have kids who need you.
There’s always something.
This is true. And valid.
It’s also a lie.
You need a time when nobody will disturb you?
How about the window between 1–4 am?
It’s generally quiet.
Most people wouldn’t dare bother you then, even if they’re awake.
Not surprisingly, most people push back on this suggestion.
That window of time is when most people sleep.
I get it. I generally like to sleep then too. But those middle of the night hours can be sacred creating time.
When I was in college, that was the time frame in which I wrote almost all of my papers.
Reviews of old records from the age before electricity shows that many people used to sleep in phases: a “first sleep” and a “second sleep,” with a period of wakefulness between to do creative work or make love.
I tend to be a night owl, but my coherency isn’t great in the evening. That said, sometimes I fall asleep early and wake in the middle of the night. When that happens, I might do a couple of hours of work before going back to sleep.
My point here is not to convince you to get up and work in the middle of the night — although if you do get up, instead of tossing and turning or pathologizing your sleeplessness, you might wish to experiment with doing some work.
Rather, my point is that “I don’t have time” is a lie that you keep telling yourself. The time is there for you; it’s just perhaps not the optimal time for you to do whatever task you say you don’t have time for.
This is a crucial skill of “time management” that often gets overlooked.
When it comes to planning your tasks, it’s not just about scheduling time; it’s about scheduling time at the right time for you.
What is that “right time?”
That’s something you must discover through experimentation.
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