After experiencing a few highly tumultuous weeks that completely restructured my life and left me emotionally and physically exhausted, my sleeping schedule was royally distorted. I was finding myself unable to sleep for lengths of 24+ hours, which would be followed by four-hour crashes at odd times of day. After I’d laid sleepless in my bed for hours, feeling generally tortured and frustrated by thoughts I couldn’t stop, I’d get up in the early hours of the morning and ride the exercise bike until I was too tired to be distracted by everything else that was going on. For the rest of the day I would cling to this accomplishment: nothing else was right, but I had done One Good Thing by exercising.

Eventually, I’ve come to establish a new rhythm. My day still isn’t conventional: I sleep about 4 hours a night, get up between 4 and 5 am, have a two-hour nap in the afternoon, and repeat. But the most important part of this rhythm isn’t the sleeping; it’s my Daily One Good Thing. Everyday, no matter how crappy and fragile I’m feeling, I do One Good Thing that contributes to my sense of worth and well-being. Some days that’s been turning in a bunch of assignments for my online classes; other days it’s riding 11 miles on the bike. Yesterday, it was successfully baking French bread from scratch and making a baked potato, both for the first time ever. They’re not huge accomplishments by most people’s standards, but they add up to my having a more positive attitude and lifestyle.

So everyday, as best as I can, I intend on updating this blog with something positive I did during the course of my day. These things will be relative, and might be boring/standard behavior for others, but they will always be good for me. I’ll tag this feature as The Daily Good.

Here’s to wasting no time before rebuilding after things have fallen apart.