As I Xi It v2.3 » productivity

Adaptations

XiYu — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 00:48:19 +0000

I think its been about 4 – 6 weeks since I got my netbook and in that time I’ve barely used my desktop or laptop. In fact, I think this might be the first time in over a month that I’ve booted up my laptop. At the moment I’m typing this entry on the laptop and its rather bizzare. It just feels significantly larger than my netbook, it doesn’t feel like a 14.1″ but more of a 17″, if I was using an actual 17″ then I suspect it’d feel like a portable cinema. Strange thing though – I don’t seem to notice the size difference so much when I’m using the desktop which has a 22.1″ screen.

Over the past few weeks I’ve grown accustomed to the little keyboard on my netbook and I can touch type with ease. Now I find myself having to readjust to the laptop and desktop keys which are both the same size.

Since this laptop is more or less devoid of “fun things”, I figured that it should help me focus on writing my book chapter. Progress has been somewhat sluggish at best. I know what I need to write, it’s just a matter of doing it. For some bizzare reason, I seem to be at my most hardworking at around 2 – 3 am onwards. Afternoons – early evenings are no good, they just make me drowsy. First thing in the morning is alright though.

I’ve just realised that I haven’t got a blog category devoted to work.

Sleep Experiment: Day 5

XiYu — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 23:08:54 +0000

Wednesday and Thursday were quite busy days. I zonked out pretty quickly on Thursday night. Got up at 8.40 am Friday morning, but didn’t sleep till around 3.00 am in the wee hours of Saturday. But this morning I did get out of bed at 10.00 am.

I’m doubtful that this uberman sleep schedule works for me. There are plenty others out there in the blogosphere that have written about their experiences, I for one will be calling it quits here. I know its just shy of a week into a two week “adaptation period”, but I’m better off with one chunk of sleep (monophasic sleep) rather than a mix.

Working Hard or Hardly Working?

XiYu — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 12:30:29 +0000

If you’re in bed with your laptop (or some other computing device, I don’t discriminate) doing something like writing a book, doing spreadsheets etc., is that considered being really lazy because you’re in bed, or really hard working because of the same reason?

Sleep Experiment: Day 1 & Day 2

XiYu — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 19:20:19 +0000

Day 1 was a bit of a flop. I’ve come to realise that I can’t take naps. All I do is have my eyes shut for half an hour, when I almost fall asleep, it’s time to get back up. So really, I only had 5 hours sleep.

Day 2 I had to head into uni so there were no times for naps. I got home and didn’t feel like much napping. There’s much yawning, but no napping. Probably had a fragmented 4 hours or so.

At the moment, I don’t feel as tired as I thought I’d be. I don’t think this whole uberman sleep schedule will work with me. In the past, I’ve managed to survive fine with just 6 hours of sleep each night for 8 years or so.

Sleep Experiment: Beginnings

XiYu — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:53:40 +0000

I intended to start off with a core 4 hours sleep but this morning I slept for 5 hours (6 – 11am), its now almost 3pm and I’m feeling rather sleepy. The thing is if I have a nap now, I’m likely to go past my 30 minutes. Perhaps if I have a snooze in my easy chair rather than go to bed.

Sleep Experiment: Teething Problems

XiYu — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 03:19:59 +0000

For the past few days I’ve tried to kick start my sleep experiment, but it’s really not going very well at all. When the alarm goes off after the first sleep session, I’m awake, but because I’m still tucked up in bed, I drift off back to sleep again and wake up some hours later. I don’t seem to have the discipline or mentality for it at the moment.

I’ll give it a few more tries and see what happens. The problem might be the “core hours” of sleep or just difficulty waking up on these dark wintery days. It should be easier when its sunny. Unfortunately, the weather’s just wet and miserable for the rest of the week.

Uberman Sleep Schedule

XiYu — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 18:44:03 +0000

At the moment I’ve got some free time so I thought to myself, why not give the Uberman Sleep Schedule (USS) a go? It’s basically a way of reducing your overall sleep time through an initial adaptation period of having a series of naps. There’s more info on the Wikipedia site – click here.

From my initial literature search, it seems that no one knows what the long term effects are and the first couple of days are the worst. From this, I’m hoping that I’ll be feeling less fatigued throughout the day having only had a few hours of sleep overall.

The method I’ve devised for myself is to get 4 hours of “core sleep” then have three 30 minute naps spread throughout the day. Hopefully I’ll adjust to this regime in a week or two and find it easier to wake up and fall asleep. Ideally, I’d like to have a few hours of “core sleep” and a 30 minute nap when I get back from a 9-5 working day.

Let the experiment begin!