Wake up to the sound of an alarm clock you didn’t really need to set. Remember the day that lies ahead of you, and drift off again for a few minutes. Repeat. Slide your feet into a pair of slippers, or don’t, and shuffle to the kitchen to make coffee. Still in your pajamas, drink this coffee at your desk while looking over your work from the day before. Remove a comma from the last sentence you translated before going to bed. Put it back. Remember that you haven’t brushed your teeth yet. Read the next paragraph in the book you’re translating, twice. Just as the right phrase begins to take shape in your mind, go brush your teeth. Forget the phrase you’d come up with and abandon hope of recovering it. Let the caffeine kick in. Ride this momentum until you reach a difficult sentence, then rise mindlessly in search of a snack. Google the etymology of “secretion” and observe a shift in your targeted ads. Remove a comma from the first sentence you translated after lunch. Put it back. Make a pot of tea. Re-read yesterday’s work again; depending on the barometric pressure, the alignment of Mercury, or the last song you heard on the radio, you will either find it brilliant or horrifying. Studiously avoid calculating the hourly rate of your labor. Remove a comma.