GTD: Biphasic Sleep Experiment – Day 5

Physical State/Tiredness

Totally. Freaking. Rocking.

Really feel like I am getting in to the swing of it now. Making sure I am learning fast from previous mistakes (e.g. keeping meals small and light, ensuring I keep the afternoon nap on schedule etc) is really paying off. I no longer feel tired or groggy at all.

I have also found I am learning to sleep quicker. I took a few pointers from one of Pavlov’s Dogs and/or The Clockwork Orange (?) and started listening to the same binaural mp3 each and every time I sleep or nap. I have found now that I rapidly fall asleep when listening to it, which really helps in the shorter nap periods where I quickly go from “doing something” to “needing to sleep” (this is not so bad when I get my long sleep, since I wind it down from 0200 and read a book to make me feel sleepy).

I found it also helps to take deep, slow breaths. Breathe in a nice lungful of air, slowly. Once full, slowly exhale.. Keep doing this a few times and you will start to feel your body naturally relax.

As with all forms of training, you get better at it the more you do it. I tend to be able to relax my entire body quite quickly (I used to do this a lot with martial arts to keep loose and movements fast).

Mental State

Brain still running at full whack all the time, this really does make all of the above all the more important. It can be really hard to settle quickly if you can’t shut your head up :)

Now, this sounds cheesy – but I am feeling really positive and happy as an individual. Not having the stupid, meaningless crap that we all have to deal with every day chewing up all my time really does improve your outlook! I know I will no longer be wasting time. Maybe I am just getting old and conscious of the fact that life is short and we should make it count :P

Diet

Caffeine withdrawal symptoms and dependency now all gone and WOW do I feel better for it! This has actually got me seriously thinking of dropping the alcohol too.. But anyone who knows me and how much I love my Jack Daniels and Coke.. Yeah – still mulling this one over :P

I had a really small snack before my afternoon this time around.. The result? 1.5 hours good sleep and one refreshed geek :)

Productivity

Tomatoes Completed

Total number of Pomodori/Iterations from The Pomodoro Technique completed.

I started really well at work, cranking out lots of code.. Then corporate frustration set in and productivity dropped off. Ended on about 9 tomatoes. This is nothing to do with tiredness levels or the experiment.

I went wild and actually took the Friday night off! My ToDo list was empty! (apart from the one item to write this post – which I was happy to carry). MY TODO LIST WAS EMPTY! xD

So, I only did about 9 tomatoes, and it felt really, really good!

ToDo List Zero

Are all items that were on the “ToDo” list at the start of the day/added and urgent completed?

Hell yeah baby!

Inbox Zero

All emails in the Inbox processed. (i.e. relevant tasks created/replies sent)

Replies sent, spam deleted, pretty much all done via my XDA while on idle-time at random points in the day.

Review

Was really sweet to be able to take the night off.. I can’t remember the last time I actually took a night off without genuinely not worrying. I don’t care how crazy people think I am doing this experiment, that made it totally worthwhile.

Exercise

Light exercise is starting Monday! :S

Summary

It really does keep getting better. Today (day 6) I logged on to my computer and I had two tomatoes of boring crap to do. Two as opposed to the normal six. I am fine with that, I am looking at a lot more of a fun schedule over the coming weeks and I genuinely cannot wait.

Happy geek :)