My schedule is my enemy.

Each morning I have an alarm set for 7:30. The plan is to wake up and get moving no matter how well I slept. It’s been my hope my body would respond to this, and go along for the ride. Then I would be tired and go to sleep at a time that would let me wake up feeling rested at 7:30 a.m.

I’ve noticed a few things about my energy levels during the day.

• Mornings carry a lot of inertia. If I don’t have somewhere to be, it’s easy to go back to sleep.
• I tend to have a real power outage around 3-4 p.m. when I’ve been writing.
• Around 10:00 in the evening, I seem to get a second wind. This happens even if I don’t have a nap during the day.

Looking back, I might have been a bit optimistic in my plans to ensure a decent wake up hour. The morning inertia is my biggest hurdle. I guess that’s just the lack of good sleep.

Another thing I really need to consider is planning for naps. If I’m nodding off at my desk, I need to go with it, and just lie down.

I’m not sure about the evening energy spurt. It’s good solid quiet time in the house. I might experiment with turning it into admin time. Then I won’t have any expectation of creative productivity. It’ll be a good time for reading, planning, and computer/file maintenance.

If this doesn’t work, maybe I’ll get a bedside coffeemaker.