Tag: dailyprompt

Daily writing prompt

When do you feel most productive?

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I feel most productive first thing in the morning.
Before the sun comes up.
Before the day has had a chance to crowd me. Before the phone starts speaking. Before the world begins asking for pieces of me. Before my mind fills up with all the noise that comes from simply being awake and available.
There is a small window in the dark of morning when my thoughts still belong to me.
I have learned to use that time carefully.
Sometimes I lie there in bed for a few minutes before getting up, not rushing, not punishing myself into motion. The room is still dark. The house is quiet. The sun has not yet risen, and for a little while, the day feels like something I can meet on my own terms.
I think about the things I want to accomplish before noon. Not everything. Not some impossible list designed to make me feel like I failed before the day has really begun.
Just enough.
Enough to give the morning shape. Enough to give myself direction. Enough to let me feel, by lunchtime, that I kept a promise to myself.
I have learned that productivity is not always about doing the most.
Sometimes it is about knowing what is reasonable. Knowing what is kind. Knowing that if I ask too much of myself, I may end up doing less. But if I give myself a plan I can actually carry, I get to feel the quiet dignity of finishing what I said I would do.
And there is something powerful in that.
Before the sun comes up, the world has not yet made its demands. The day may still get heavy. The world may still come calling. But in those first quiet hours, when my mind is clear, the house is still, and the light has not yet broken across the room, I feel like I have a chance.

Kyle J. Hayes
kylehayesblog.com
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Daily writing prompt

Write about a time when you didn’t take action but wish you had. What would you do differently?

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I had a friend who was very ill. One time when I visited her in the hospital, she asked if she could have her finances sent to me. I told her no. She had a boyfriend. She had family. I did not want to put myself in the middle of anything that could turn complicated after she passed.
At the time, it felt like the right thing to do. Or at least the safest.
After she died, her brother texted me asking if I could help financially with her funeral and arrangements. That shocked me, because I knew she had money in her account. When no one said much after that, I started to understand why she had asked me in the first place.
That has stayed with me for years.
What bothers me most is that even now, I do not fully know what I would do differently. I wish I had understood what she was really asking. I wish I had seen more clearly what might happen after she was gone. But I also know I was trying to avoid trouble, confusion, and pain.

Kyle J. Hayes
kylehayesblog.com
If this found you at the right time,
Feel free to like, comment, or share it with someone who might need it too.

How do you unwind after a demanding day? 

After a demanding day, I turn to Bruce Springsteen. I put on the Essentials playlist, let the music fill the room, and give myself permission to let go. I sing like no one is listening and dance like nobody is watching. It is one of the simplest ways I know to shake off the weight of the day and feel like myself again.

Kyle Hayes