Muscle Time!

NEWS: I am holding in my hand (or was, before I began typing [hunting and pecking is for the weak!]) a DVD of the fine cut of Weighted.

Producing said disc has eaten the lion's share of my day, so here I am, at 6pm, just now starting today's post. Eventually, I'll get to the point where I start these things early, and queue them up so that I don't have to rush to get something out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Eventually. Probably right before I give up on this blog entirely.

This is the worst thing you've seen all day.

Kidding! I know how important this is to all of you. I have made a commitment.

I do have some advice today (SHOCK), and it's current, which means this is something that I have recently re-established as valuable and important. 

It is exercise. 

Does that sound like a cop-out? Well, it sort of is, but it's also the thing I feel most strongly about in this very moment. You see, I'm one of those people whose need for sleep seems to fluctuate pretty dramatically. I know people who can get by on six, or five, or three hours of sleep every night and somehow survive and stay productive. (I hate those people.) I need nine. 

I feel like it's not too hard to deduce that this puts me at a terrible disadvantage. While many healthy, normal people seem to get by just fine on six or seven hours of sleep, and wind up with a 17 or 18 hour day of work, play, and reasonable laziness, I have to make due with 15 (or less, if I'm stressed or overworked). 

BUT. I've learned, finally (again and again and...), that there is a consistant pattern to my level of physical activity (i.e. exercise), and the amount of sleep I need. Everyone agrees exercise is good. Duh. But here's the thing that always takes me by surprise (embarrassingly): I need much less sleep when I exercise regularly. I find myself feeling better and having more energy, and waking up naturally, no less, after seven hours or less.

Why am I telling you this? Why would you possibly care? What does this have to do with being a film-type? 

This is a time-making tool, this exercise business. And I've talked a lot about filling your time with good things, projects and the like. Getting experience, getting well-rounded, making connections and keeping them. Being a professional at whatever it is that drives your passion. How many times have you wished you needed less sleep? How many times have you caught yourself uttering that absurd cliche "if there were only more hours in the day..." 

OK, I'll leave the horse alone. It's starting to splatter, and blood stains miserably. 

I'm sure that everyone is physiologically different, but let me go ahead and recommend exercise as strongly as I can to every living human. You may not start at nine hours and end at seven, but you'll most certainly gain time, and, far more importantly, energy--that other thing there never seems to be enough of. 

Yes, I just spent an entire post telling you to go exercise. Sue me.*

*Please don't sue me.