It might be too soon to tell, but I think I dodged a bullet. Or, at least, scraped by with only a flesh wound. Last night had me feeling pretty good and this morning I’ve been nothing short of a maelstrom of productivity. I hit my word count goal for the day, managed to touch base with some people who needed their bases touched and still feel like I have energy to spare.

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it in these exact words, but that all-important balance I’ve been trying to strike when I’m feeling good has been all-important because of times like this. Before, I went through periods of near-frantic activity, working as hard as I could for as long as I could each day. Then, when the inevitable shitty days turned up, my activity plummeted to zero. It was a cycle marked by sharp peaks and valleys without any slow curves to be seen.

The last time I ran into the wall, I made a choice to smooth things out. Instead of working ten, twelve, even fourteen hours a day when I was on my game, I dialed myself down to three or four. And when I work, I force myself to stay mellow by taking frequent breaks. The work still gets done, and it may take a little longer, but I never feel burnt out at the end of the day.

The point of all this was to find a level of work I could do even when I wasn’t feeling perfect. Sure, there are still days when I can’t do anything at all, but I can almost always get something done. And by teaching myself it doesn’t have to be all or nothing, I hoped that the positive feeling I’d get by continuing to work would translate into an easier climb out of the hole.

It’s probably too early to be certain, but so far it looks like it worked this time. I’m writing, reading and going out and about again, without really feeling like I lost much of anything this weekend.

I guess the bottom line is that this feels like progress. With that sort of thing in short supply, I’m happy for any that happens to creep in.