Some days, the work is so hard.

Everything you try to undertake makes you feel like the embodiment of one of those paparazzi photos of Ben Affleck smoking through the ennui of existence. It all feels so heavy.

I’m having fewer days like this now that the receding pandemic has lightened my everyday life. However, when I’m working on a big, ugly project, these feelings of weariness or overwhelm can still arise. I have significantly improved in my ability to persist and push through when it’s necessary, and I wanted to share some ideas with you.

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It’s the moment of truth. We’ve clearly identified a problem, and it’s time to pivot to solutions.

“Now that you see this pattern, what will you do differently?”

“I guess I’ve just got to try harder to stay on top of my work,” she says.

It sounds right. It sounds virtuous. It sounds like a reasonable thing to say to get your teacher/boss/mom/coach off of your back. But of course, nothing really changes as a result of “trying harder.” If the way we’re doing it isn’t working, trying to do more of the same isn’t going to help.

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Explaining is not teaching, but it’s usually a tool that teachers rely on anyway. It comes in handy in some situations, like giving multi-step directions.

But what do you do when you can’t explain something because you don’t speak the same language? It’s one thing to tell a group of kids what’s expected of them in an obstacle course, but what about a mouse?

In that case, you rely on shaping. Essentially, you reward any steps in the direction (sometimes literally) of what you want the training subject to do, even if they bear little resemblance to the desired behavior.

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Confession: I talk to myself all the time.

Not just the banal, absent-minded things I might announce to the world, like “time for a snack,” or the occasional curse word when I hurt myself. I’m talking about full-on, dictating whole paragraphs into the voice recorder on my phone. Often, I do this while walking down the street, hoping that others will assume I’m doing the more acceptable thing of talking to a fellow human.

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I know that I tend to be at my best when I wake up early.

Whether it’s a weekday or the weekend, I feel physically, mentally, and emotionally sharpest throughout the day if I rise before dawn.

Like sticking to a schedule, tracking my time, eating certain meals at certain times, getting lots of exercise, starting the day with creative work, and staying well ahead of deadlines, this is just one of the things that I know works for me.

Except when it doesn’t.

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