Good morning! It’s 2:18 AM a time of peak creativity and thankfully an earthquake not imagined awoke me to finish something on my list.
In a past life I’d just be starting this post after an evening of procrastinating and searching for LOLCats or blog post topic prompts on Google, but I’m a Mom now and as my Mom told me you learn to use the time between times to get things accomplished.
You’ll never do just one thing again honey, I remember reading my mail on the toilet. —my Mom
I’ve actually written most of this post standing up after sneaking out from under my sleeping baby to go downstairs and wash my face, brush my teeth all those other things that seemed less essential than putting my 8 month old daughter to bed IMMEDIATELY before she went full meltdown because we dared to suction her nose so she could breathe.
All the best writers do it standing up. (Insert X here, for fun.) No really, it’s true! New moms aren’t the only demographic pressed for time. Barry Lancet, author of the wildly successful debut novel Japantown and upcoming sequel Tokyo Kill
wrote standing up on the commuter train. It was actually something he stressed in his advice to aspiring writers, just do it~ find a way.
This is good advice, it’s good to be tough on ourselves and to strive to cut out the bullshit. I’m tough on my students, I shout inspiring maxims at them in a big, loud voice all day: take a risk, dare to be boring, don’t cheat yourself by taking shortcuts, just spend a little time everyday & you’ll improve!! Boy, do I need my own advice~ I have let so many things slip this week & often whenever possible just want to hide at home because I’m living in a state of quasi-exhaustion…because I’m a new mom, right!! NEW MOM CARD PLAYED, back off world.
Except, I’m not *that* new a mom anymore. And this exhaustion isn’t really different than college staying up all night partying, or binge watching all of season one of True Blood in three days, or just staying up with chronic insomnia which guess what is completely CURED by having babies at least while they are little because SO TIRED. In fact, I go to bed at the same time every night like all those productive people books tell you, I wake up early everyday because babies are crazy consistent what is wrong with them, and I am SUPERORGANIZED because omigod no bib, no change of clothes, no zillion plastic bags, no wet wipes stashed everywhere humanly accessible, no 200 diapers with names handwritten across the bum is UNACCEPTABLE at daycare. I may be at the ultimate peak of productivity.
No more excuses. I will get s*** done. I will write standing up at two AM, on the train, in a boat, on a plane yes I will eat those green eggs and ham, between stories, and bathtime, or eating a chocolate pistachio croissant *wipes crumbs off face* because I feel better when I take my own advice, and this way I’ll really sound convincing when I go all Tiger Mom on my kid in 15…maybe 5 years.
What I’m wondering is how did I manage to get so little done before and feel accomplished? My dear friend and new dad, Andrew Woolner, once challenged a few of us at a board planning meeting for a theater company to do our tasks in the next five minutes. Just take 5 and do it, see how much you can get done. It works, and I challenge you, Empresses, to see what you can get done in five minutes here and there in the time between times. Maybe even call your Mom perhaps?
As for me, it’s 2:55 AM and I’m sneaking back into bed, after I brush the pistachio off my teeth again…
