Wednesday is my most draining day. Work is very intense every day – after all, I am working with teenagers – but Wednesday this academic year is the day with all the lessons. I have all the most challenging groups and students in one fell swoop. At the end of Wednesdays, I am done.

Don’t misunderstand me: I love my work and Wednesdays are not a day I dread. Even those most challenging groups and students are great to work with because… well, they are a challenge. But it’s hard labour. To be precise, it’s emotional labour. It’s work that requires all of my being, all of my experience, and all of my presence.

When I come home, I want to relax. I want to recover, yes, but I want to find some diversion that will bring me joy. Generally, because I am too drained to do the it, there is a massive gap between the aspiration I have to do something hobby and the reality of ending up sitting on the sofa watching old Trek episodes.

Which is to say that Wednesdays are the day I am least likely to even so much as pick up an RPG book and do anything with it. Reading is a challenge on Wednesday evenings. My 5% fiction reading goal is probably too much even though I fully aim to complete it this evening. Consequently, I usually end up feeling guilty on Wednesdays.

The Wednesday Guilt is two things: firstly, because Monday and Tuesday are tough days and I am drained, I usually don’t do GM prep on those days; then comes Wednesday, the sense that I am half way to the weekend and I still haven’t prepped! I know full well that anything I do will be crap but, still… guilt.

I write and share this to call it out. To admit to the experience and to tell myself, once again, that the words “must” and “should” are unhelpful thoughts when it comes to things that are supposed to be enjoyable. Yes, I know I have a responsibility to my players at the weekend. I also have a responsibility to myself; to my own well-being.

There is such as thing as pushing yourself too far. The fastest way to drain all the fun out your hobby is to put it on a schedule and treat it like work. Certainly, we need to have our ways of getting prepped. Yet the trick is to focus on smart prep, moves that cost you the least effort for the most gain at the table.

Wednesday is not a good night for me to do prep. And that’s ok.

Game on!