Back on the Something! (zomg Uberman?)
I took a long long drive to see family over the holiday, and in the copious thinking time I had this surface like some crazy contextual shark from the depths of my subconscious:
OKAY ENOUGH OF THIS CRAZYPHASIC CRAP > YOU HAVE COMPLETE CONTROL OF YOUR SCHEDULE NOW > GET BACK TO IT!!!
I think the voice meant Uberman.
Because, of course, I *loved* Uberman, and I always swore I'd get it back if I could. Well, for the time being (and for as long as it works out), I'm a freelancer; so I both have the time, and I need absolutely inhuman amounts of time, if I'm to make this work and do other little things like, oh, finishing the Second Edition!
Thankfully, I had another few hours to think. How exactly would I pull that off? Here are the challenges that face me:
- significantly higher exercise load than I've ever had before
- I have a roommate for the next few months
- the holidays are coming, which will mean travel and staying in boring suburbs with no night-time activities in a houseful of people I can't disturb
- it's winter! Not only am I sleepier when it's cold, but I don't like going outside as much
Then again, there are some upsides:
- aforementioned complete control of my schedule for at least a few months, hopefully longer
- tons and tons and tons of stuff that needs doing, both mental and physical
- my roommate is very understanding
- I have a car now, and it's comfortable to sleep in
- I have a membership to the 24/7 makerspace literally blocks from my house, so I DO have somewhere to go at night, even during tricky hours like 3-4 a.m.
Plus, I can't argue that giving up some sleep is a really good practical decision right now…what I'm doing is pretty well understood to be undoable in a Standard Human Amount of Time (you know, a SHAT ;)…and I really, really want it to succeed, because I've always wanted to work for myself and this is a great opportunity.
I DO have almost 4 weeks before I have to travel and disrupt the crap out of my schedule. On the other hand, getting 4 weeks in and then having everything get shredded would be pretty awful! So one option is to get on strict E3 for now and try to keep that through the holidays, then shift to Uberman afterwards.
On the other (third? fourth?) hand, being me, I could probably adapt to Uberman now, shift to E3 while I'm traveling, and shift back after. I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND THAT TO MOST PEOPLE, mind you; remember that I'm incredibly well-adapted to polyphasic sleep in general.
…Which isn't to say that I think dropping from Crazyphasic (which is E3, 4.5 and 6 as needed, and works well with an unpredictable schedule and, as I've discovered, tons of exercise) to Uberman (while keeping the exercise) is going to be easy. I'm spitballing it here as part of today's non-work project, which is Think About This and Figure Out A Good Path To Take.
Something else that definitely bears mentioning: Polyphasic sleep is AMAZING for road-tripping! I did a 15-hour and a 13-hour drive in the last week, and both times I drove straight through, alone, stopping every 4-6 hours for a 20-minute nap; and I never so much as yawned the whole time! (I was bored out of my skull, mind you; but not, at any point, physically tired.) I've done this before of course, but every time it works so well I'm always amazed.
Thoughts are welcome, of course. I'm going to wipe part of my Whiteboard of Doom this afternoon and see what I can get for a Big Fat List, and take stock of my alarms…
::evil excited hand-rubbing::
Originally published at *Transcendental *Logic. You can comment here or there.