UKH

So what happens usually is that on and particular day it is realised that enough has not been done by bed time. Thusly I stay up and make myself knackered the next day, and the next, etc, etc.

I realise that for sustainability the best thing would be to accept limitations of a single day in order to make them all count, adding up to a great effort of work/funs etc over a year (or other arbitrary length of time). But it's well hard to stop and say 'Done enough today, I must sleep in order to do enough tomorrow too'.

So do you have this problem? How do you cope with the shortness of a day, and how do you live sustainably so you don't burn out after 72 hours?

In reply to confusicating:

i keep a fairly strict evening timeline, then cut into the morning instead. it may just be me, but i get more done by getting up early having rested properly than burning on late.

i usually finish at a time that allows for enough rest, proper eating and downtime, which makes 4am starts etc no big deal (i admit coffee has a lot to do with this equation).
when early starts happen i just move everything forward, lunch at 9am etc, and think of anything after about 3pm as going into extra time. its worth noting that 3pm is still a reasonable time to imbibe caffeine without too much effect on sleep if things do go late.
its gotta be the end of the f*cking world for me to be working on something im not naturally inspired by after 4pm.

the worst scenario i can think of is going so late you need booze to put you to sleep. somethings blown a fuse there. chemicals to start you up i believe is healthier than those to send you down.

wont work for everyone tho.

In reply to ice.solo:



Too bloody right!

In reply to ice.solo: I am with you on this one. I hate working late and always try to be finished between 5 and 6. I am far more productive at 6am than 6pm and if I know its going to be a long day I will start early. This has caused many ruptions between my buisiness partner and me, he prefers to start at a more normal time and work late.

In reply to john arran:

ones capacity to rise early is in direct proportion to the amount spent on said individuals espresso machine.

In reply to ice.solo:

As a slight tangent do you use caffeine as a 'training aid' as well ice.solo?

In reply to ice.solo:

Yes but 4am isn't early; it's late!

In reply to confusicating:

Sustainability is the absolute key (a bit like stamina on a very long climb). The secret that life has taught me is to pace oneself, but the line between pacing oneself and laziness is a very fine one. The other really important thing is to be able to concentrate 101 per cent during those hours you are working. One more thing: more and more I have come to see that one of the secrets of life is to get up early.

In reply to JayPee630:

not a lot i dont do without coffee, being from the wolfgang gullich train of thought that 'coffee isnt something you do after climbing, its an integral part of climbing'.

that said, i rarely drink coffee when actually on the move as it messes with my stomach. but before and after, usually. i always carry one or two double espresso gels in case things get hairy.

if thats what you mean.

In reply to john arran:

ahhh, youre playing in a whole other league there john. different set of rules i cant keep up with. not sure how to navigate the caffeine on that schedule.

In reply to ice.solo:

Yeah thanks, that was what I suspected! Green tea is my drug of choice for pre-training (heavy lifts/Crossfit style metcon/running) but a slow creep towards coffee seems inevitable...

What expresso gels do you recommend?

In reply to JayPee630:

give in to it but be wary of the effect on your gut. green tea is great to smooth the coffee crash. theres room for both in a quality addiction.

clif shots work for me, but theyre not really double shots (maybe 1.5). stirred into hot water they almost pass as coffee itself.

In reply to ice.solo:

Thanks. Yes, my GF is a complete coffee hound, and my slip is forecast. I'm consoling myself by saying there's a study saying it's proven to help prevent the development of dementia....

In reply to confusicating: routines for the boring stuff, limit the boring stuff to what has to be done, get started early in the day on something easy to get you going.

In reply to confusicating:

I find that the less time I have to do anything, the easier it is to get on with it - it's amazing what a looming deadline can do for productivity!

I tend to work better in the afternoon/evening, but at the moment I'm having to work round a hyperactive hound, which means I have to be very focused when I *do* work. Argh!

In reply to confusicating:

I read a nice quote to do with habits saying that when it comes to change they need to be led down the stairs one step at a time. ()

Could you set yourself an hour after while you're not going to work, and start getting up at 6 or 5.30 or something instead?

I've found having a time after while i'm going to try not to think about what I need to do the next day helps.

In reply to confusicating:

For me I'm the totally opposite, I'm most productive from 11pm till about 3am. Which I'm trying to change but it's hard trying to totally hijack your reward system.

I'd really recommend Steven pressfields book 'the war of art' he's got some great stuff on productivity/battling procrastination

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

My diary is one of those that has quotes for today. Today's is apt:

"Until you value yourself, you won't value your time.
Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it" - M. Scott Peck

In reply to confusicating: Red Bull, cigarettes and just accept that you're probably not going to live that long?

In reply to ice.solo:


Another strand is woven into the living breathing legend that is ice.solo!

In reply to confusicating:

Have you ever considered the consequences of simply not doing the things that you haven't done yet?

Quite often, they are not that grave. Things are soon superseded by other things. The things you needed to do no longer need doing - other things do. And in turn these things become the things that you haven't done.

This approach hasn't actually done me too much harm, depending on how you look at things. I hold down jobs, do well in them even, do well academically, I go climbing a lot, meet people, watch films and read books and so on. For someone who never gets anything done, I do quite a lot of things.

In reply to Jon Stewart:

It does relieve an awful lot of stress. I knew someone - a professor at a university - whose computer pretty much lost everything, including mountains of 'important' emails (not sure how come they weren't backed up) - and he decided, after a sharp intake of breath, that whatever he'd lost would either find its way back to him or didn't matter in the first place. Turned out he was right.

In reply to Jon Stewart:
Slightly different strand to that line of thought; when we had the business we paid a very good consultant to come in and analyise our processes.for savings and efficiencies. The first thing they did was go through all the tasks we did on a " what'll happen if you justdont do it" basis. Amazing how much time, trouble, worry (& expense) she saved us.