Ugh this hits home. I once tried to do back-to-back work calls right after a red-eye, thinking I was fine. Ended up booking a hotel for the wrong week because my brain was so fried and I just clicked dates randomly. It was such a dumb, expensive mistake that just sleeping for one afternoon could have fixed. Honestly, pushing through just makes you do stupid stuff you'd never do normally.

My local library switched from slick event posters to staff cellphone videos. The shaky clips of actual kids doing crafts got triple the signups. That messy realness just works better now.

totally get that, I had a huge art block last year because I kept redoing lines trying to make them perfect. finally showed a friend my sketchbook full of crossed out stuff and she was like "wait this page is actually cool." made me realize the messy parts are what gives it life.