The real power in working ahead is that it allows you to procrastinate effectively. For example, my NaNoWriMo novel is sitting around 4700 words if I remember correctly, which is almost 3 days’ worth.

And if I’d’ve been allowed to add the 1769 words I just wrote for my self-appraisal at work to that I’d still be a day ahead. And I could’ve really written some great stuff tonight, too, because the stress of having to get my appraisal done had the imagination running fast and the nerves running high all day.

But since I did work ahead yesterday, I had the ability to write my entire self-appraisal today, the night before it’s due, without fretting about my NaNo word count. (I used that extra energy to fret about absolutely everything else instead.)

Tomorrow I get to fret about NaNoWriMo again. But tomorrow I won’t have an entire freaking self-appraisal to write at the same time. Or rather, today I get to fret, because it’s well past midnight yet again. Yay for sleepless nights!

peh.