For a couple of months, but particularly in the last week, I've had a lot of trouble getting out of bed. I know it's stress. I've taken on too much (as usual) and have tons of deadlines coming up, along with interviews scheduled.
Pretty much every day, the same thing happens. I vaguely hear the phone ring or someone leaving a message on my machine, and this little song runs through my head:
You know the song "I Wanna Be Loved By You" (just you, and nobody else but you)? Well, in my mind, it plays "I Wanna Be Left Alone."
Most of the time, it's a coauthor, editor, publicist, or agent on the machine, wanting to schedule a conference call or telling me that copyedits are coming or asking if I'm available for an 8 a.m. radio interview. I try not to weep.
I go back to sleep. At some point the alarm goes off or Anthony tries to wake me, but this never lasts unless it's a MUST GET UP day (e.g., a day when I absolutely have to be up for a call with an editor or a radio interview). When I finally do wake up on my own, I lie there arguing with myself for at least an hour, sometimes two. Today I woke up at 3 p.m., but couldn't get myself out of bed until 5. For these two hours, what went through my head was something like this:
Damn, I really should get up. I want to get that chapter done, and I need to go to Staples to get an erasable colored pencil because my editor told me I need to correct the proofs with an erasable colored pencil and she forgot to enclose one. Damn editor. I finished that book almost a year ago. Now she expects me to jump because she took her own sweet time getting to it. I hate this business.
No, I don't hate it. Get up, Jenna. I have to prep questions for that interview tomorrow, and that editor sent me questions last week, and I still haven't called back that client, and...
But it's so warm and nice here. When I get up, I'm actually going to have to do stuff. And it's going to be cold. Nope. I think I'll stay here.
No. I can't. It'll just be worse tomorrow if I waste another hour today. And I'm going away next week, so I have to write out two newsletter issues in advance. And have you seen my inbox? 426 messages that I haven't answered yet.
Yes, I have seen that inbox, and that's precisely why I've decided to just stay right here today, thank you very much. Mmm. Blankie. Pillow. They never ask me for anything.
...
See, once I'm up and about, I'm okay. But it's that dread... that crushing dread every day about all the stuff I know I have to get done...
I had improved my sleep schedule a bit toward the end of the summer, but I'm right back to my worst now. I wake up extremely late, which means there's no way I can go to sleep before dawn the next day. And it's depressing me.
So... what do you do to make yourself get up on days when you really, really don't want to get up?
Pretty much every day, the same thing happens. I vaguely hear the phone ring or someone leaving a message on my machine, and this little song runs through my head:
You know the song "I Wanna Be Loved By You" (just you, and nobody else but you)? Well, in my mind, it plays "I Wanna Be Left Alone."
Most of the time, it's a coauthor, editor, publicist, or agent on the machine, wanting to schedule a conference call or telling me that copyedits are coming or asking if I'm available for an 8 a.m. radio interview. I try not to weep.
I go back to sleep. At some point the alarm goes off or Anthony tries to wake me, but this never lasts unless it's a MUST GET UP day (e.g., a day when I absolutely have to be up for a call with an editor or a radio interview). When I finally do wake up on my own, I lie there arguing with myself for at least an hour, sometimes two. Today I woke up at 3 p.m., but couldn't get myself out of bed until 5. For these two hours, what went through my head was something like this:
Damn, I really should get up. I want to get that chapter done, and I need to go to Staples to get an erasable colored pencil because my editor told me I need to correct the proofs with an erasable colored pencil and she forgot to enclose one. Damn editor. I finished that book almost a year ago. Now she expects me to jump because she took her own sweet time getting to it. I hate this business.
No, I don't hate it. Get up, Jenna. I have to prep questions for that interview tomorrow, and that editor sent me questions last week, and I still haven't called back that client, and...
But it's so warm and nice here. When I get up, I'm actually going to have to do stuff. And it's going to be cold. Nope. I think I'll stay here.
No. I can't. It'll just be worse tomorrow if I waste another hour today. And I'm going away next week, so I have to write out two newsletter issues in advance. And have you seen my inbox? 426 messages that I haven't answered yet.
Yes, I have seen that inbox, and that's precisely why I've decided to just stay right here today, thank you very much. Mmm. Blankie. Pillow. They never ask me for anything.
...
See, once I'm up and about, I'm okay. But it's that dread... that crushing dread every day about all the stuff I know I have to get done...
I had improved my sleep schedule a bit toward the end of the summer, but I'm right back to my worst now. I wake up extremely late, which means there's no way I can go to sleep before dawn the next day. And it's depressing me.
So... what do you do to make yourself get up on days when you really, really don't want to get up?