Productivity Paucity

I set aside the evening last night, completely free of distractions of friends, boyfriend, and other obligations, to get some work done.  To write a blog post (I still owe 3 blog-by-request topics), to upload photos from the reading to the Breaking Pairs website, to begin gathering materials for my applications to some summer writing residencies, to update some script edits.  Exactly how much did I get done?

Nothing.  Nada.  Zilch.

I began a topic-by-request blog post, but I just couldn't seem to write.  Everything I wrote seemed clumsy, boring.   The other tasks all seemed too long and involved to begin.  I just could not seem to motivate myself to get anything done, other than cooking myself a nice, healthy dinner and watching more episodes of Lie to Me on Netflix (my current Netflix addition, though I fear I may be tiring of it and in need of another one... suggestions?). 

Some of you may be thinking something along the lines of "gee, that sounds like me most days".  I know and love many people who struggle constantly with motivating themselves to get things done.  But this rarely happens to me.  It is far more common for me to have to talk myself down from continuing to work, or to convince myself that it's ok to take some down-time to relax and watch something mindless.  When I get asked -- as I often do -- if I can teach someone how to stay focused and get stuff done, I honestly don't know what to say.  Because I rarely have to kick my own butt. My main thought is a Nike slogan -- just do it.  I'm used to struggling to decide which thing I will do,  not with trying to get myself to do anything.  So I was at a complete loss last night, not having many tools for how to get myself out of my funk and into working.  

I guess it's understandable -- I was working at such an insane, feverish pace for the first 10 months of the year that it shouldn't be surprising to me that I'm a little worn out and in need of some time to reset.  My boyfriend assures me that my productivity isn't gone forever, it's just on a little bit of a hiatus.  I'm sure he's right.

But for now, forgive me for the scarcity of my blog posts -- I had really hoped to pick them back up again with more consistency.  But I think that will have to wait until the new year, when I am once and for all free of my office job and will have an extra 20 hours a week to get stuff done.

Anyone want to wager how long before those 20 hours are scheduled right back up again?