Reshuffling brings equilibrium

I'm handling this month's glut of work much better than I thought I would be. Granted, it's early. But I'm already two-thirds of the way through two articles, much earlier than usual, and I feel like I'm in good shape to get other deadlines in on time.

What happened? I broke a rule I'd set for myself. I started out believing that my early morning work time had to be devoted to my novel. Except that under much pressure, I was already letting other work creep into that time, and I was being dishonest about it. In the meantime, I finally stopped denying that I was going to be late on the novel edit. There was just one thing to do: move the novel time to Prime Time, and use valuable early-morning real estate for the edit.

I make great progress in early mornings. Not so great progress in the evenings. But I feel it's easier for me to be flexible with my novel than it is to be with paid work. And I'll go back to working on it in the mornings, when this edit is done.

My one concern: the boy who has decided that 6 a.m. is a great time to wake up. Lord, help me.