One day last week l woke up at 6am, then studied till about 11am, then slept from 11am to 4pm, then studied from 4pm to 12am, then slept from 12am to 5am, then studied from 5am to 8:30am, then slept from 8:30am to 10am, then stayed awake till about 4pm, then slept from 4pm to 7pm, then studied from 7pm till 1am, before getting back on a more normal sleep schedule. This was an extreme example, but I do tend to have wacky sleep habits, sometimes voluntarily, sometimes not.
The wackiest of all sleep habits usually occurs when I am simultaneously in Writing Mode and Intense Work Mode. Since my best creative hours occur in the morning, I try to skew my day so that I am waking up and putting in a few hours of writing work before the work-work commences. Since I often have to leave at 6am, this means rising in the middle of the night to tap away on the computer. Things get really insane...usually with me coming home after a 12-hour day and trying to fall asleep immediately at around 8pm, then setting my alarm for 1am and waking up and walking around the block, trying to write from 1:30am to 5:30am. Results vary from day to day, and I can't keep this up for more than a couple of weeks.
But this has lead to the latest discovery: Full Bore does not always equal Most Efficient. In the past, productivity was directly hardwired to coffee consumption. But I'm starting to learn that there are different kinds of productivity and different states of mind and different ways to reach them. Less Sleep does not mean More Productive, no way...Sometimes it does, sure...I find that five or six hours at night, followed by an afternoon nap, then a once-a-week Sleep-In Day seem to maximize the hours. Less sleep than that and I get dumb. More sleep than that and I'm using up valuable work time.
So I'm thinking about doing a self-study for the next three months, making daily notes about diet, exercise, sleep, mood, and how they tie into productivity. Hopefully, certain trends will reveal themselves and I can get a better idea how to listen to my mind and body to maximize results. Then again, I may just find that some days I'm inspired and some days I'm not and it has nothing to do with anything...
Hmmm.
Monday, May 22, 2006
Friday, May 19, 2006
No Phone
Yesterday midnight Z and I started our 2-week No Phone/No Email Lifestyle Test. This morning we went to Paper Source in Beverly Hills and I dropped $80 on stationery. It's true, I have a paper fetish and I like to shop for office supplies when depressed, but Paper Source takes this vice to a whole new level. I love the idea of paying $1 for one sheet of paper. Hilarious. Now if only the quality of my words can live up to this level of decadence.
The saleswoman at the Paper Source totally fawned over our plan when I revealed what we were doing. She asked how long we'd been going out and confirmed that this was a great way to "jump-start any romance" (feel free to interpret that however you please). Then she congratulated Z on the brilliant idea (yes, another gender-based assumption), a credit which is still disputed among us (along with the absurd idea that E is actually romantic somehow).
So, still on Day 1, the Importance of Planning has already become paramount. Last-minute cancellations and flaking aren't really possible...and spontaneity becomes a lot harder too. Not only do you have to make the plan; you have to stick to the plan. And if you can't stick to the plan, then you need to drive over there and explain yourself (or send a courier for $15). So the dates will have more buildup and more importance, something to look forward to (because there is more at stake if it falls thru). This is the idea, anyway. We shall see how it goes.
In the meantime, I'll try to craft a worthwhile letter every day for fourteen days (or until my limited supply of stationery runs out).
The saleswoman at the Paper Source totally fawned over our plan when I revealed what we were doing. She asked how long we'd been going out and confirmed that this was a great way to "jump-start any romance" (feel free to interpret that however you please). Then she congratulated Z on the brilliant idea (yes, another gender-based assumption), a credit which is still disputed among us (along with the absurd idea that E is actually romantic somehow).
So, still on Day 1, the Importance of Planning has already become paramount. Last-minute cancellations and flaking aren't really possible...and spontaneity becomes a lot harder too. Not only do you have to make the plan; you have to stick to the plan. And if you can't stick to the plan, then you need to drive over there and explain yourself (or send a courier for $15). So the dates will have more buildup and more importance, something to look forward to (because there is more at stake if it falls thru). This is the idea, anyway. We shall see how it goes.
In the meantime, I'll try to craft a worthwhile letter every day for fourteen days (or until my limited supply of stationery runs out).
Monday, May 15, 2006
The Sisyphean Mound
First of all, welcome back all. I haven't been writing much lately--finishing the movie was the main culprit, then the gf, then, well...then just life, I guess.
This was the main shocker: that the finishing of the movie wouldn't provide an abundance of free time. That existence was just going to be filled with other things. I have a list of 30 or so tasks that need to be accomplished before I can catch up in life. And these are neither long-range nor abstract goals, either, but concrete things that need to be done in the next couple of days...and which, of course, will just replaced by other things. This list does not seem to diminish. Ever.
And I am unmarried! Childless! Renting! Healthy!
I know I am not unique in this regard, but when did this list turn from three or four things into thirty? Even just two years ago I feel that I might have had one or two things to do on a day off and the rest of the afternoon and evening could be filled with whatever. Now there's just this interminable list and the backlog of responsibilities. Ah, the years of college, when weeks could go by without accomplishing anything, when one could read at random and laze about.
On a side note, when did children start drinking coffee? We were filming at a classroom at this inner-city junior high and when were finished the production left our starbucks and bagels there and the students were all sitting around sipping java. Huh? I do not approve of this behavior. Does that make me a curmudgeon? Whatever happened to juice?
This was the main shocker: that the finishing of the movie wouldn't provide an abundance of free time. That existence was just going to be filled with other things. I have a list of 30 or so tasks that need to be accomplished before I can catch up in life. And these are neither long-range nor abstract goals, either, but concrete things that need to be done in the next couple of days...and which, of course, will just replaced by other things. This list does not seem to diminish. Ever.
And I am unmarried! Childless! Renting! Healthy!
I know I am not unique in this regard, but when did this list turn from three or four things into thirty? Even just two years ago I feel that I might have had one or two things to do on a day off and the rest of the afternoon and evening could be filled with whatever. Now there's just this interminable list and the backlog of responsibilities. Ah, the years of college, when weeks could go by without accomplishing anything, when one could read at random and laze about.
On a side note, when did children start drinking coffee? We were filming at a classroom at this inner-city junior high and when were finished the production left our starbucks and bagels there and the students were all sitting around sipping java. Huh? I do not approve of this behavior. Does that make me a curmudgeon? Whatever happened to juice?
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