I had one of those sleepless nights last night. You know, when you’ve been hard at work on a project and it’s past your bedtime so you have to force yourself to go to bed, because if you don’t you’re not going to get adequate sleep and you’ll be tired tomorrow. There you will be, yawning on the phone while talking to a customer or client. Falling asleep during that lull. Nope. It’s time for bed.
So you shut down for the night, tidy things up so you can wake up to a clean house, then go about your bedtime routine. You make sure the dogs have been out, lock the doors, make sure the kids are in bed, wash your face and brush your teeth and then it’s off to see the sandman.
But he doesn’t come. Sleep evades you. You try to clear your mind, but that doesn’t work. You count sheep (or do you?), but that doesn’t work (honestly who even does that?). You breathe, slow deep steady breaths, nada. Not only does nothing work, but you’ve got all these ideas still rattling around in your head. Oh! That’s a good one; I should actually write that one down so I don’t forget. So you grab your phone, or your notebook, and jot down your idea. Now it’s out of your head and you can go to sleep.
Except you can’t. Because the ideas keep coming. And these are actually good ideas, so you don’t want to forget them! Write that down. Yep, write that down too. Ok, now you’ve spent 30 minutes or so tossing & turning trying to sleep and you’ve spent a good 20 minutes or more jotting down those “must follow through on” ideas (hopefully in the morning they’ll sound just as good as they did when you HAD to stay up and jot them down). Now you can go to sleep.
Except you can’t. The words are flowing, and you’ve got an outline and your mind is just.not.shutting.down.
Well, I’ll go to bed early tomorrow night. At least I’ve finally got my first post written! And ideas for a few more.
I know I’m not the only one this happens to. What do you use to jot down your ideas and thoughts? How do you clear your mind so you can let go and rest? I’m looking for ideas peeps! Comment and let me know what works for you.
Thanks for stopping by. I hope to see you regularly.
