For whatever reason, I’ve been feeling pretty tired this week. Is it because we’re in the depths of a Canberra winter? Is it the constant barrage of miserable world news? Am I coming down something? Could it be something to do with the fact that I’m staying up too late playing video games and binge watching television?
Not a qualified psychologist
Nah, it’s probably that first one, the vague bleariness that seems to ride in with the cold, short days and probably has something to do with reduced exercise and Vitamin D deficiency. I’d make a glib reference to seasonal affective disorder, except that I’m about as qualified to make a clinical diagnosis of depression as that dog up there.
But like a lot of people, I suspect, I find it more difficult to motivate myself to work at this time of year. It helps to have a project or two – or twenty-seven – but even so I find it a real challenge to push myself into anything more strenuous than loading up Netflix.
One strategy for dealing with this I’ve already mentioned – focus on wrapping up old projects instead of starting new ones. I’ve only been partially successful there. I did manage to edit a couple of stories and send them out on submission. And I finally finished critiquing that manuscript I’ve had sitting on my desk all year (sorry Gazza!).
On the other hand, I’m now writing a new flash story every week, I’ve started a new story I thought would be short but which will probably be yet another novelette over ten thousand words. And several responsibilities I’ve picked up in the local writing community start to become busy around this time of year.
Ugh. I know what I *should* do about this. I *should* delete Twitter and Facebook off my phone. I should suck it up and wait until the current seasons of Preacher and Game of Thrones are out on Blu-ray. I should definitely stop running “just one more quick counterfeiting operation” in Grand Theft Auto Online.
All of those things are easier than writing, not eating unnecessary snacks and hitting my daily exercise goals. Like a grownup.
Sigh. Being a grownup sucks.
Think I’ll go flop on the floor and watch Twin Peaks.
