Is the Pressure of Leap Year Too Much?

Every four years, the calendar gods give us a blessing in February: One more day.

(And a curse every four years in November, but we won’t talk politics on this blog.)

A warm feeling swells up inside me when I hear that I have one more day to write, to brainstorm ideas, to create something new.

Think of the possibilities! Oh, what I can accomplish with just one more day!

Then it hits me. Leap Day this year doesn’t fall on a Friday, a Saturday or a Sunday. This year, Leap Day happens to be today, on a Monday.

If you’re an average nine-to-fiver like me, you work on Monday. And if you’re like me, your Mondays are routine.

Here’s how my Mondays roll:

• Mornings: I run before sunrise and check my work email so that I can come in with a game plan.
• Days: I work like a boss.
• Nights: I hit up my chores list and clock off at least half of my to-dos.

Yes, I live a thrilling life on Monday…

Perhaps what’s weird about me is that I actually like Mondays. After two days of some serious R&R, I come in refreshed and ready to hit the ground running. I love seeing how much I can get done in one day. How I approach Monday can seriously impact how I view the rest of the week.

I love Mondays so much that I even wrote a short story about a misunderstood Monday in personified form. Ask me to publish it.

I don’t spend Mondays getting stuff done in my writing. I spend my Mondays getting stuff done so that I can focus on my writing during other days of the week.

But Leap Day presents a pressure to do something spontaneous and out of the ordinary. It’s a day once every four years that calls me out for being stuck in my ways.

It’s not that I have bad habits. In fact, it’s taken me years to refine a pattern that really works for my productivity, from deciding what needs to get done on specific days of the week to committing to an early bedtime.

And my older sister cynically judges me for this.

So why do I feel the pressure to change my ways because of Leap Day? Why does Leap Year try to defy the way I live my life?

It’s because I think of Leap Day like a wish. A genie has popped out of a lamp and has granted me one day to make my wildest dreams come true.

Yet that’s not what Leap Day is. It’s a day. I can’t let another ordinary day added to the calendar to balance out some math control me—or at least my mood at the end of February.

Leap Day is just a day. So here’s what I’m going to do with my extra day: I’m going to live it like every other Monday.

Here’s the (plot) twist. On this Monday, I’m going to be more conscious about the things I’m getting done so that I can write. I’m going to think more about what I want to write while I’m folding laundry and cleaning the kitchen. I’m going to ramp up the excitement for life that I feel on Monday so that I still feel the same enthusiasm on the days I sit down to do my creative writing.

My life might not change on Leap Day, but my attitude sure will.

What do you plan to do on Leap Day? Share it below.