Matt B. Perkins

The Ugly Truth About the Snooze Button

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Somewhere in the groggy mist between sleep and consciousness I hear a weird, distant sound. At first I think I’m in a strange dream, and then as the mist fades I realize it’s the piano melody of Vince Guaraldi, the song is O Tannenbaum from “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”

Yes, this probably sounds like a strange choice for wake-up call music, but I don’t care. This is the smooth, calming tune I’ve chosen; Christmas being one of my favorite seasons, I have this unavoidable notion that it’s a good thing to wake up to.

So, once I hear this, I mosey on out of bed over across the room to grab my phone. I’ve given up on using my traditional alarm clock; by default I just slap that long flat snooze button that I’ll be talking about in a minute. Instead I’ve been using the Alarmy Pro app on my phone, one of the only apps I’ve felt the need to pay for. There is a setting in this app to include snooze, but I don’t use it. I think by doing this that I’ve defeated the snooze option once and for all, that by removing it I have hereby defeated one of my most formidable foes.

I’ve written about the snooze button briefly before and about my efforts with morning habits, but I wanted to take a deeper dive here into what I’m really getting at when I talk about snooze and how it ties in with creativity and goals and procrastination.

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A Note to the Lost and Confused Writer

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There are writers out there who are lost. Who are uncertain, afraid, filled with doubt, unsure of what step to take, where to go, what to write.

But there is something within, some inevitable force — what I like to call the “deep-down hum” — driving them, flicking their ears from behind, begging for attention, screaming in silence for them to create.

They are the ones who have been struggling for years, not to just find their voice, but to find the courage to actually step forth and speak with words on the page. The ones who have stifled their own creative efforts for fear of failure or fear of ridicule or fear of success or anything between.

I know this, because I am one of them.

But I know something else: when lost on the dim or fog-filled path, the best source of light isn’t a match. It comes from somewhere else entirely.

Photo via Canva

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The Path Ahead: What to Expect Here Moving Forward

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I’ve written quite a bit lately about establishing a creative mindset, writing more, even about my diet shift in recent years.

Still, some may be wondering, What the hell is he rambling about?

And if so, first, apologies for the confusion. Either way, I felt it would be a good time to clarify what you can expect from me here on the blog and through other avenues moving forward.

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No More Resets: Final Thoughts

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About a month ago, around the same time I revamped this little effort of a website and blog, I announced my plan to spend 30 days building a new routine and mindset and doing so without resetting back to a “day one” mentality on a regular basis. I then laid out what I learned just two weeks into the effort. The reason for all of this was because I previously found myself habitually procrastinating, trying a new routine frequently but always starting back over, and I was quite honestly tired of getting no where from this unproductive loop of crap. Hence the term, no more resets.

The plan was to spend 30 days consistently working on myself creatively, physically, and mentally to change my approach on what I want to do most in life, which is to write — and I mean write a lot — connect with readers, and share my experience on what I find working, as well as insights here on the blog and through other written works and creative efforts.

I went into this with an open mind knowing that things may be different at the end of 30 days than I’d expected them to be. And good lord, was I right.

So, here’s what I learned after working on a new routine and mindset over the past month.

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Five Things I’ve Learned from Becoming a Vegetarian

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A little more than two years ago, I decided to become a vegetarian. This was actually something I’d been brewing in my head for quite a while, but was always afraid to take the leap. When I finally did, some people naturally asked why. Two years out, I still get questions, so I thought I’d answer some of them now and assemble a list of takeaways from what I’ve learned so far from this experience.

Okay, in all honesty, there are actually quite a bit more than just five things I’ve learned from this transition, and the points I lay out below are pretty layered. I could write a series of posts on this topic alone (and I may at some point). But they fall into five main buckets and I’ve tried to summarize as best I can.

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The Pebble: A Poem

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A few months back I participated in a writer’s workshop called Creative UnBootcamp: A Course for writers . . . and those who want to be. The course was hosted by Jacob Nordby, author of the incredible Blessed Are the Weird: A Manifesto for Creatives, and it was one of the best courses on creativity I’ve taken (this is an organic tip of the hat from me, I’ve not been asked to endorse the program, I really, genuinely loved the course). One of the assignments of the course was to focus on one of three images that captures the imagination and write a poem based on your reaction.

The image I chose to focus on depicted a figure, who appeared to be made of stone, with a locked wooden door or gate on its chest. Behind the locked was a bright white light emitting in glowing rays through its cracks, and from the way the figure is posed in the image, it, to me, seemed as though this light suddenly appeared out of nowhere, as though something had awoken inside.

I couldn’t take my eyes of the damn thing, and it sparked something in me that I put together for the assignment. I wanted to share the resulting poem, The Pebble, as I think it’s a bit of an appropriate reflection of where I am on the journey with this blog, with the start of renewed writing, and what will be coming with more writing ahead.

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