It’s nice to be able to wake up without the alarm.

I did that for most of the summer, popping awake sometime between 4:30 AM and 6 AM. The morning is when I get my best work done, so I usually set up my days to make the most of these hours.

In the summer, I didn’t have to try. But lately, well…no matter how early I go to bed, even if I get a full eight hours of sleep, I’m still groggy and disoriented when the ol’ alarm goes off.

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When I started waking up at 5 AM, everything changed. Regardless of when I went to bed the night before, I had clarity and energy.

I could get more done before 8 AM than I would normally achieve in an entire day. In time, waking up at 8 AM began to feel like more of a hardship than waking at 5. I was missing my best time of day.

I’ve come to suspect that there’s nothing intrinsic to the morning hours that makes me so productive. Rather, the act of waking up early makes me feel virtuous and on top of things. I’m starting my day with an achievement that I feel good about.

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There are times when that elusive quarry known as “productivity” is impossible to get ahold of.

Grief, stress, and anxiety are like RAM-intensive applications running in the background of your mind, hogging all the resources and leaving you with only a sliver of processing power to complete your work.

Sometimes, you can still spend the afternoon putting in the time and going through the motions. A day of being present in body only isn’t much of a setback. But if you’re working from home — or worse, working for yourself — day after day without being able to focus, you might need to do something differently. In this article, I’ll share my tips for being productive when I’m exhausted, distracted, or overwhelmed and the work still has to get done.

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Those of us who are high achievers learn early on how great it feels to cross things off the to-do list.

When the homework is done, no one can nag you. You don’t have anything hanging over your head. You’re free! As a special bonus, you may even earn the approval of one or more people in the process.

Each time you complete a task, you get a little hit of dopamine, that highly addictive neurochemical that keeps you doing more of whatever generated it last time. That’s how the valedictorian gets there — she’s just chosen a different drug than the stoners.

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Having spent over a decade teaching music lessons, I can say for certain:

Music lessons aren’t where you learn to play an instrument.

Sure, they help. But the real work is done without your teacher, by yourself, playing and evaluating.

If you are unable or unwilling to spend this time “in the woodshed,” you will not achieve your goal of playing an instrument, no matter how much time and money you spend on the lessons themselves.

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