The good thing about jet lags
This is just a short post, to compensate my previous one. I hope you don't mind... At least it features a cute kitten, that justifies everything.
In case you don't know: I'm a PhD student studying sandy coasts, meaning I need to travel around the world to visit conferences. I went to the Outer Banks in North Carolina for a week and just got back. Couldn't handle the heat, the strong sunshine and the high amount of airconditioners (seriously, there is something evil about the air that comes out of these things), but man, there is such a wonderful coastal research facility over there, I drooled continuously. This is not the place to talk about it in detail though, but if you are interested: ask me in the comments.
Some say it takes a day for each hour to get adjusted to the jet lag. The time difference with the Netherlands is 6 hours if I remember correctly. Therefore, being there for a week sucks. Hard. By the time you get adjusted to the time difference, you can go back home to continue your misery there.
The purpose of this post is not to whine about it: I wanted to share something I noticed. The jet lag completely turned around my daily schedule, waking me up way too early and forcing me to go to sleep at children's bedtime hours. My writing schedule changed with it. I usually write in the evening, being most productive just after dinner - and often having a second peak of utter brilliance *cough* around 1 to 2 am. I try to stay away from those late moments during working days, obviously. Anyway, writing hours suddenly started at 6 am on average. So weird... But so helpful! I've read changing your writing habit can make creativity and productivity flow more strongly, but I was always too much of a lazy sucker to try it out. I can now confirm it though: it works. Not that my fingers smashed entire chapters out of my keyboard (I had other things to work on), but I got some good ideas. Of course, I'll not tell you what they are, I don't like to spoil. Anyway, I challenge you to try it out! Even when you are not a writer: I suspect this works great for any kind of action that requires creativity.
This is not the only way to get out of your writing habit. Do you have that favourite chair you like to sit in while you write? Go sit somewhere else - or even stand! Always use digital media? Use pen and paper. Always using pen and paper? Use digital media. Already using both? Well, I bet you haven't tried out clay tablets yet! So retro....
So what are your writing/drawing/anything creative habits? Do you do anything to change them?
PS: Now I'm back home, I suffer from the opposite jet lag effect: waking up is hard (and mornings were already terrible monsters to slay), but I can stay up late with ease. Lovely...
