One Thing Better: Nick Fisher + sleep
One Thing Better is a weekly series featuring very cool creators I’m impressed with, in a one-question interview format.
It’s a simple premise. Each week someone will answer The Question.
I heard about Nick Fisher through realtor extraordinaire Paul Kaufman. When Paul mentioned SickFisherArt — and how Nick painted on any surface imaginable — I was hooked.
Check out his website: women’s restrooms, vans, building facades, fire hydrants, doors . . . you, if you stay still too long in his presence.
Nothing in this world is safe from Nick when he’s got paint and brush in hand.
The Question:
What one thing have you been doing recently that’s making your life better?
Nick Fisher:
The one thing I have been doing recently that is making my life better is getting enough of sleep. And not just the correct amount of hours (6-8 in my case), but the right times of the day.
Currently, I go to bed around 9:30-10 pm and wake up around 6:30-7 am everyday… even on my ‘days off’.
Previous stages of my life have had me staying up to the wee hours of the morning and snoozing well into the afternoon. Even though I may have gotten the proper hours of sleep, the rhythm was off. Now, thanks in part to my newish job at the diner on my block, my sleeping patterns are much more standardized.
Here’s the thing. I don’t believe I did it incorrectly by having an inconsistent sleep-schedule as it was the best option for the circumstances. I feel that the vast majority of folks in my line of work are forced to live the same way.
Since my work schedule fluctuated, so did the rest of my life. It was something I took as a given for many years. Open the café at 6 am one day, close it at 11 pm the next. With my job as my main source of income, everything else fit around that, filling in the cracks.
Having since quit that job to work more on my art, these hourly obstacles no longer stand in the way and have streamlined my whole life, especially my sleeping habits.
Fast forward to a month after quitting that job: Out of pure luck, I picked up a part-time job at the small, popular diner on my block. It’s been in business for many years in a neighborhood much more suited to me. It also pays a living wage and has set schedules.
It is unreal just how effective a set schedule has been on my career as an artist. Gigs like commissions, murals, and even band practice fit into my life like never before, making me a happier person. As a side-effect, my sleeping patterns flattened out into the standardized shifts that I mentioned above.
Now, I can count on everyday being as productive as the last (if I so chose) instead of being forced to work only when it was possible. I have also realized that my most productive times are from right when I wake up to around early afternoon. Kinda like high school hours.
SO, although there are many things going on my life that are making me happy, I would attribute the majority of those things to my new found sleep schedule. It’s like getting a really awesome laptop or mp3 player; it’s nothing without a full charge.
For you —
Evan Griffith
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