How was the first half of the year for you? Mine was busy and productive, thank you. I certainly would like to have a few days totally off, but things are not always the way we wanted them to be, so here I am trying to organize myself in order to get what I planned for the second half of the year done.

It is also time to start looking for some “year from now” deals and opportunities. This is a tiring move, as you have to make plans based on probabilities. However, there is no way to move on to real actions without going through the sphere of intentions. What do I mean by that?

Intentions are all those messages you send that are not always answered. Intentions are also the projects that you put together in your head, but mostly will not survive the shock of reality. I, for example, often put together imaginary tours that work great in my mind, but have little bearing on my budget reality.

For these and other reasons, the second half of the year is a time for desk work, which means hard work, but no visibility. To tell the truth, moderate levels of invisibility are welcome from time to time. They are perfect for health check ups and treatments for the hair and skin, deeply mistreated by stage make-up and curling iron.

The problem is the hard work itself, that is, how to manage it in an intelligent, productive way. More precisely: how to build up an effective work routine without deadlines?

Say what you will about the oppressive nature of deadlines, but they guarantee that the job gets done. Without them, I oscillate between a mindset of “work, work, work and work” and “hey, how about finally watching that movie from your must see list?”

I am not only talking about indulging yourself to a little bit of laziness on a Thursday afternoon, but also about being awere that, well, it is now or never. As soon as the first booking confirmation arrives, the pre-production process begins, the deadlines pop up, and you can forget about finishing that one book that has been living on your bedside for ages, much less watch that 2016 movie that everyone was talking about… in 2016.

Maybe this mismatch between “take a break” and “you have a lot of work to do” comes from my current difficulty getting restorative sleep. I may not be in the position to give you any advice, but what the heck! So here it goes: my five items list of little tricks that usually work:

1. every time you feel guilty about an afternoon nap, think about how many times you worked on Sundays, holidays, including Christmas and carnival;
2. do not, I repeat, do not take your cell phone everywhere with you all the time and, if possible, leave it far away from your bed, to avoid falling into the temptation of “quickly checking what time it is”, and end up up hearing the alarm clock go off with your eyes wide open, after pointless spending the night reading posts on socials.
3. some of the symptoms of a bad night of sleep can be avoided with careful hydration during the following day, so do not forget: drink water!
4. your energy is not one hundred percent proportional to the number of cups of coffee you drink throughout the day, but maybe your heartburn is, so go easy on the coffee, will you?
5. mint or lemongrass tea can work miracles in some cases and are woth trying.

Now to that 2016 movie.

Be seeing you!

G.F.