Published Nov 24, 2005
The timestamp attached to this post is a bit deceptive; I’ve actually been up since 5am. And that’s how my week’s been, folks, with the same story for the week before. It’s not generic morningsomonia, and it’s not, remarkably, a generic worry about how much I have to get done. Instead, I’ve woken up early thinking specific thoughts about specific projects, consumed by specific worries about specific deliverables. Which sucks, because, let’s face it, when you wake up at 5am and realize that Godiva Chocolates might be a good comparable for doing a valuation of Peet’s Coffee, there’s nothing that will get that idea out of your head other than logging onto OneSource and grabbing Godiva’s financials. And, when you discover that Godiva is really a subsidiary of Campbell’s Soup, well, there’s no getting back to sleep.
I’ll admit, I thought I had gotten rid of this problem by following the cult of Getting Things Done. Following the simple and clear advice in this book, I’ve reduced the administrativa to reflex and habit, leaving my mind time to churn itself about on topics of real importance or involving real creativity, rather than remembering what meetings I have today. I can only imagine that this strategy has backfired and that my brain has been so freed of dealing with everyday cares that now I can actually think the big ideas that will keep me up at night. Or, in this case, wake me up in the morning.
It’s probably the stress, too. My feasibility project took over my life, as it did everyone’s life in our class, then we missed the bonus points early-turn-in date and got to (had to?) work on it another week, trying desperately to get the extra points back. We turned in the project on Tuesday and I was still amped Wednesday thinking about it. Then there’s the Advertisng and Promotions Management presentation on Monday, on a paper that doesn’t yet exist and which is due Wednesday, competing with the large, research-heavy Valuations project (involving Peet’s, mentioned above) due Thursday, and also with the presentation on the Feasibility report on Wednesday. Plus, you know, the credit card company expects to be paid and all, and it’s time to change Junior’s cage.
So there’s a lot of ideas to think about here. Now I just need to figure out how to not think about them. Shut up, brain, and go back to sleep!
I am the same way, on the other end of the “project”, when it comes to when I do catering. I’m much better at being able to sleep the night before — that used to be a huge problem — because now I’ve done the planning and packing and shopping and refined that to an art, quite frankly. I’ve got checklists to keep track of my checklists. I’m much better about not getting too wound up in advance. One bit of advice here would be to keep a notepad by your bedside, so that you can write down the things you are thinking about. I’ve found that putting my pillow-induced thoughts on paper will help me to get them off of my mental agenda, and keep them from flitting around in my head like dragonflies on crack. Maybe it will work to put your thoughts on a to-think-about-later list. It just might push things into your subconscious where they can work themselves out without your active thought.
But your comment about being amped up on Wednesday is what I relate to even more: the unwinding, the coming down, is a hard thing to master. You get so pumped on adrenaline and so fired up by a job-well-done that you can buzz for HOURS after you get home. I can see how restaurant people drink and do drugs with such alacrity. It becomes part of the ritual. I am learning to create other rituals to come down from the post-event high. One of them is to have some herbal tea or a glass of chocolate milk. Another is to actually start filing some of the paperwork related to the event, even if it’s at 3am. Putting it away physically helps me to put it away mentally as well.
Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with consuming alcohol or drugs, but I’d rather use booze for entertainment, not medication. I don’t want to re-brand my entertainment, or else those things will make me think of work!