Absolutely HORRIBLE sleep last night. It was probably one of the worst nights of sleep I’ve had in months, so I decided to rearrange my day to get the rest I needed to perform at my best, even if I didn’t get the time to perform as much as I wanted to. Still, I worked on writing in the morning before the kids woke up — I made pretty significant progress on the final course outline that I’m planning for CreateQuest.

Then I sat aside time in the AM to take a nap at the expense of some of my creative tasks for the day.

I felt much better after my nap, though still not 100%. Enough to really get some deep focus in on my warmup page for the day:

Maddix was playing in the cabin the entire time I was working on this one, but I still managed to execute it well, I think. I’m still struggling with ellipses after my long break from warmups, but the super-imposed lines are getting easier already.

Then I rushed to prepare a good design for my client:

I didn’t take the time to clean up the digital design, but I treated it as a skeleton or sketch for the final design on the skin:

My client was incredibly pleased with the tattoo. I’m glad I was able to help him celebrate his family (and surprise them).

I’m exhausted, but it was a good day.

What was awesome?

Getting some writing done in the AM.

A good warmup page.

A much-needed nap.

A super-happy client.

What needs work?

Figuring out what had such a huge effect on my sleep last night.

Managing my focus when I’m tired.

What did I learn?

I need to do the best work I can for my clients. And if I’m motivated enough by the story, I can do that when I’m exhausted, too. Flow happens when you’re focused on something challenging but interesting, and it happens even faster when you’re doing it in a way that contributes to someone else.