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Removing Normalcy

Posted by Matt Birchler
— 1 min read

You may have noticed that content has slowed down here over the past couple weeks. I sure know I have! For some context, I posted 60 articles/links to BirchTree in July. It was the most prolific month I’ve ever had writing. Now, about 2/3 through August, I have posted 21 articles. My productivity has been cut in half; what happened?

As is so often the case with things like this, life happened. My wife and I packed up everything and moved to a new town. For the entire month of August, my life has been meeting with property managers, doing viewings, working on budgets, buying new furniture, building furniture, moving, and continuing to acclimate to my new job. This has been my month, and it's been exhausting. But I've written plenty despite exhaustion, so what's different?

The big difference is that none of the things listed above are a part of my normal routine. I am completely out of my normal rhythm, and it's absolutely having an impact on how I work. We're creatures of habit, and I'm completely out of mine. The work of getting everything arranged how we want is dying down (the new apartment is finally looking great!) and I have time to work on the site again. My challenge is figuring out a routine that gets me in front of my computer or iPad when I have the energy and inspiration to write something interesting. I'd figured out this rhythm before, and now I have to get it back.

As many inspirational speakers (and one shoe brand) have said, you can't wait for inspiration to strike, you just have to do it. So now that I have a semblance of normalcy returning, I'm jumping back in.