Sleep vs Poof-reading
Week 2 of 2024 asks, when things get busy, is it worth losing sleep?
To see how Sam Pepys spent this week 364 years ago, follow this link.
Ah, this week began so well. By the end of Tuesday, I’d seen my tutees make amazing strides in their first sessions since Christmas, enjoyed a promising meeting with the UK Sales & Marketing Director for Ingram Publisher Services, and signed off a new press release about All the Better.
Best of all, late on Tuesday, an agent at one of the UK’s best literary agencies for children’s books emailed to request the manuscript of my first full-length children’s novel! Partly because I’d invited her to my upcoming book launch, partly because I could thank her for some of the inspiration that went into this novel after the 2022 SCBWI Conference.
So I awoke on Wednesday in a pretty good mood. There were still heaps to do before the launch party, most urgent being to implement the proof-reader’s recommendations in time to get the final book printed in time. I got going with that around 7am Wednesday morning.
Boy, had I underestimated how long that’d take. By 7pm, I’d worked on nothing else all day, yet still needed Ermma to let me work into the evening so we could have our London trip the next day.
That same evening, I discovered that the proof-reader hadn’t sent his suggestions for the final few chapters. The book absolutely had to be off to print the next morning, so I had no choice but to do my own proof-read.
I finally finished around 7am Thursday morning.
I still couldn’t sleep, though, because I had tuition to provide – plus I had to organise the print run. That’s the downside of working for the company publishing your book – you can’t just write it and be done.
I’m hugely grateful to the Ingram team, though, especially Wajdan. Thanks largely to her, we didn’t just ensure the books would arrive in time for the launch, but my employer scored a whopping 50% discount on their production!
How I stayed awake for my afternoon with Ermma, I don’t know – but I wasn’t gonna miss it. BBC Radio 4’s News Quiz has been staple entertainment of mine since Gaggy introduced it to me in my early teens. He and I once saw it live with the late great Jeremy Hardy.
Now, Ermma’s become a fan, thanks mostly (I think) to Andy Zaltzman’s off-the-wall magnificence. So we’d both squealed when I received two free tickets in the random draw.
Ermma took the day off work so we could leave early enough to get there around 6pm. We planned to leave the train at Finsbury Park and take the bus to avoid the planned Tube strikes. That would get us there 90min before doors opened, but for the very start of registration; winning the random draw didn’t guarantee entry, and I knew from last time that there’d be a queue to beat.
As it happened, the Tube strike was called off, so we were able to arrive even earlier – about 5:30pm, before even registration started.
Ermma was not impressed to discover that, though we were half an hour earlier than our planned early arrival, the queue was already halfway around BBC Broadcasting House, and we had an hour at least of standing under drizzly weather…
The anticipation cheered us up as we rounded the last corner, though, and soon we were inside and snapping happy selfies. (NB: The one below was taken much earlier, before we realised that the queue was not at the front entrance to the Beeb, but around the side…)
Andy and co didn’t let us down. It was the first episode of the 113th series, and it felt like stepping into a lounge with very good friends – several hundred of ‘em. The main headline of the week was ITV’s dramatization of the Post Office Horizon scandal bringing the subpostmasters’ plight back into the news. The comedians milked it for enough laughs to get Brexiteers complaining about rivers of excess.
After nearly 42 hours of wakefulness, though, I desperately needed sleep – which sadly meant missing a friend’s last gig at a Cambridge club he’s rocked for the last five years or so. Both that gig and the free BBC tickets were once in a decade opportunities, if not once in a lifetime, but I just couldn’t do both. Did I choose the right one?
But the saddest moment was Saturday, when I heard from my best friend David that his father Richard had finally succumbed completely to his motor neurone disease.
I lived with Richard and his wife for a year and a half of my life, during which time he imparted on me a love of red wine, black coffee, good theatre, and DIY. He’d also hugely supported my writing; when we last met in October, he managed to describe All the Better as the best thing I’ve ever written – an utterance requiring, at that point, quite a heap of effort.
Richard, you’re a huge part of the man I’ve become, as well as your family and friends. Thank you.
When you have to choose between urgent tasks and sleep, what sacrifices would you be prepared to make?
I’d love to discuss your thoughts with you, so please shoot me a reply. $:-)
Weekly Productivity Score: 57%
Quarterly Best: 66%
Annual Best: 66%
In return for the smiles these words gave you, please send them to a friend!
You’ll then get two bonus smiles: one for bringing joy to your friend, and one for my mahoosive gratitude. $:-D