My New Sunday
How TV shift work is affecting all areas of my life in unexpected ways
My Sunday Scaries have been replaced by something else. For now I call it the Sunday Stamina Schedule — or a carefully curated, stress-free day to ensure I get to sleep at a reasonable hour and can survive the 3 a.m. writing shift.
The first casualty came this afternoon. I got a surprise text from a friend who had contracted Covid-19 earlier in the week. She felt like crap for days. But after some rest and relaxation — and finally testing negative — she was inviting us out for drinks to celebrate.
My first instinct was “hell yeah! So great to hear you’re feeling better!”
Then I realized the time. She wanted to meet up at 3 p.m.
To the average person, this is the perfect time to meet up with friends on a surprisingly warm day for a pint and a long overdue catchup.
To me, it was too close to my Sunday bedtime to risk getting overstimulated.
That’s the deal I made with myself when I agreed to a shift where I need to go to bed at 7 p.m. four days a week.
How Did I Get Here?
See, I took a “casual, part-time” freelance news writing job around the same time I launched my consulting company. It continues to be the best decision I ever made.
The advice came from a friend whose career I’ve long admired. Amanda ran her own successful medical writing company for years. Almost as long as I’ve known her.
I was feeling anxious about going out on my own, so she recommended I take a part-time job to pay the bills. Once that stress is sorted, I would have the brain space to focus and build the company.
She was right.
Having a bills-paying job that wasn’t challenging outside of shift hours gave me the brain space to focus on building the business.
The only problem happened when my part-time job kept giving me full-time hours. And sometimes overtime. All while I was trying to keep up with a growing business.
A good problem to have, yes. But time management when you’re self-employed is a never-ending balancing act.
I chose this path so I could create my own schedule. But the job that paid the bills, the one that was supposed to be part-time, was giving me stress.
It was part-time, but it was shift work. And in TV, that means morning, middays and weekends.
My schedule was different every week. Not just the days worked, but the hours too.
I’ve never had a great memory. And now at 44, if it’s not written down, it doesn’t exist. This goes for groceries and my work schedule.
I had a system that included no less than five calendars. One of them digital.
In my previous network job, the Sunday scaries revolved around a never-ending to-do list. My job was to anticipate problems and solve them. Then solve the problems I didn’t anticipate, and come up with a solution to prevent it from happening again.
In this transition period where I worked irregular hours and my schedule changed week to week, the days lost all meaning. I had no weekend, which meant no Sunday Scaries. It also meant no TGIF, so I guess everything comes at a cost.
And because I worked weekends, my off days during the week were spent working on my consulting.
For almost nine months I worked practically every day. In both areas I felt like I was treading water, not seeing any potential for growth.
Something had to give. I needed to set boundaries with the part-time job.
I just didn’t expect the opportunity to come from them. And to come at the expense of a normal sleep schedule.
The Hidden Magic of Set Schedules
My schedule changed in a very sneaky way. The news channel I write for is also part of the broadcasting network.
I was scheduled to work Monday to Friday, but the 3:15 to 11:30 a.m. shift.
Made sense I would be called in to boost the Beijing coverage. And I appreciated the weekends off.
Then the executive producer for the morning show wanted to check in and talk about my interests.
Turns out, they wanted to keep me on that shift long after the Olympics.
Was I willing to work the early morning shift every day for the foreseeable future? Or would I be better off going to back to weekend work and an irregular schedule like before?
The clarity came from an unexpected place. One of my clients is a peak performance coach.
We were brainstorming segment ideas and got to talking about why work has been so stressful for so many people during the pandemic.
She said it has everything to do with habits and daily rituals.
The brain only uses 10% of its conscious energy, she explained. The rest is auto-pilot. When we work the same schedule, have the same morning routine, the same office rituals, all of that is automatic. Our brains are free to focus on more important tasks; like the work itself.
But when you need to think about your schedule, or your routine, or where you’re going to work that day, none of that is automatic. When you need to adjust to new health and safety protocols, or adjust to working from home because of a surge in Covid-19 cases, you’re devoting more of your conscious brain to these new tasks; leaving less for the work itself.
It wasn’t working every day that put a drain on my creativity. It was the extra brain hours I put into planning out what work I was going to do each and every morning.
Yes, the 3 a.m. shift means I’m asleep by 7 for most of the week. But it also means I have most of the afternoon to do client work.
I can complete everything I need to work on for both income streams during the work week. This leaves weekends to rest and relax.
But it also gives me the peace of mind of a set schedule.
I’ve eliminated three of my calendars. I have a desktop calendar I keep up-to-date for quick reference. And I have a planner where I put all of my appointments.
I set one more boundary with the part-time job. I will work those painfully early shifts, but only for four days a week. This now gives me all day Friday to do deep work on my consulting business.
It’s only been a few weeks and this schedule is already paying off in reducing the stress and time spent thinking about work.
If I have a great idea for my business, I don’t have to cram it into whatever free hour I have between irregular shifts. Instead I add it to Friday’s to-do list.
I’m never short of big-picture things to work on to help me grow my business. And putting a pin in the idea for a few days keeps it fresh. Sometimes with a new perspective that came up during the week.
It’s a small sacrifice I’ve decided to make until the consulting business is strong enough to sustain itself.
I now have weekends again. And instead of TGIF, I have TGIThursday (which is when I allow myself a nap in the afternoon).
Instead of the Sunday Scaries, I have the Sunday Schedule: a list of carefully timed activities geared to set me up for an early bedtime.
It might make me the boring friend who can’t meet up for drinks on a Sunday afternoon. But it’s also keeping me from being the anxious, burnout friend who can’t do anything because she’s always working.
It’s what I’m doing for now. And for now it seems to be the right thing.
