This is an updated version of an article I wrote on 18 September 2019.

I am having one of those days. As deadlines start to close in on me, like the zombies in Night of the Living Dead, my ability to be creative is rapidly diminishing, mainly because of having to deal with “stuff”. This is bad news: I have a long article to write for my own website, a blogging course to adapt for online use (see below for details), and two to write for a magazine.

My solution when I wrote the original version of this article was to take myself off to the gym, or go swimming. I had recently taken up keep fit in a serious way, going to the gym or going swimming at least three times a week. It sounds like a waste of time, and indeed it was time I can ill afford. However, I don’t think it’s my imagination that the surge of creativity I experience afterwards outweighs the time used.

I now feel it unsafe to go gymming or swimming, at least for me in my circumstances. I have elderly relatives, and, to quote from a Muddy Waters song called “I’m a man”, I’m way past 21.

Therefore my fitness method of choice now is to go on walks every day, for at least 20 minutes each time. As well as finding myself thinking more creatively, a happy side effect is that I am becoming more Adonis-like with every passing day. I will soon be so thin it will be impossible to see me when I turn sideways. (I wish!)