adrafinil kept me up until 12:30 last night, and I woke at 5am with the sniffles (Shannon is sick and I'm fighting it), so I only got 6 hours. Got up at 7:45 with tovar. I think I'm going to shoot for 7:15 or 7:30, as I think it would be a lot easier and I'll only occasionally get woken up early.

Had 3 cups of tea, the last at noon, then stopped - I'm trying to keep my caffeine early in the day. Was fairly productive, surprisingly enough. Yay caffeine and being naturally energetic. The short sleep may well be a good thing, as it will help me move my bedtime earlier and consolidate my sleep.

My poker trip will go well with the schedule change. While poker is generally a late night activity, I also get to set my own schedule, and it is a very self-energizing activity - it is very easy to do while tired. So while I may be sad to leave good games at 11pm for bed (or may fail my saving throw and stay up), I think it will work out well. As I said to Shannon "it's a great place to be tired - there is no one to grump at!". Which I guess says soMething about me that I only grump at my friends, whereas a lot of gamblers use the dealer as someone to vent at, which is totally unnatural to me.

Went to bed at 11pm. Asleep by 11:30. Woke up a few times. Alarm woke me with the sound of a storm. I am skeptical that the light part of it is bright enough to wake me. Thinking about getting a sleep cycle watch. It uses an accelerometer to see when you are twitchy and thus in light sleep, and then vibrates on your wrist. The vibration has the big advantages of not waking up your partner, and working despite earplugs, so I could wear earplugs for noise reduction and still have an alarm. And of course, the idea is that if you are woken up in light sleep, you will feel more rested. I certainly find that alarms/kids leave me groggier than waking up naturally. Other uses for watch [1].

Digression. We had decided the night before that I'd go out as soon as I got up. That way I'm not tempted to go back to bed, Shannon isn't tempted to dump Tovar on me and go back to bed (which has been happening a bit since I quit Google, and resulting in her sleep schedule moving later), and maybe I'll get something done. So out I went.

Streets full of cars and early joggers. What is wrong with these people? Why are they up at this ridiculous hour? Freaks! I'll never be like them - never!!!

(Ahem. Sorry about that, after watching all of Heroes S1 over the last week, I find myself often spouting pointlessly melodramatic and cliched dialogue. [Mohinder Voice] Because it is, after all, the nature of humanity to search for answers, to hunt for them like the lion hunts the gazelle, as part of evolution's natural cruelty[/Mohinder]...damn, slipped again!)

Went looking for nearest cafe with wifi. The starbucks at Safeway (Mary & El Camino) didn't seem to have wifi. McDonalds by Longs on El Camino is a potential option, but I decided to go to the Starbucks at Mary & Washington. Hoped that wifi would be free, but had to pay for it. $20/mo, also includes airports and lots of other places.

So. Here I am with my tall latte and starbucks sausage mcmuffin. And the internet.

Yawn. Most of the latte is gone, why am I not awake yet? Hopefully my 1/4 tab adrafinil will kick in soon.

So. Do work. Plan is to start by re-re-re-revising my revision of my gtd system (which includes daily/weekly habits & routine) to, as lifeaftrcollege says "prioritize & simplify". I like self-development, and I want to work on it during this semi-mini-retirement break, but I went a little crazy and was trying to do too much too fast. As Leo says "But no matter how much enthusiasm we have for all of these goals, taking on even just two habits at once is setting ourselves up for failure...Devote all of your energy to that habit change, and once it’s on autopilot, move on to the next one. Knock ‘em down one at a time."

Latte all gone. Still sleepy. Might go work out.

[1] Also, it gives nightly data on your sleep quality, based on how often you move during the night. Perhaps I could go all Seth Roberts data self experimentation ninja style against my sleep apnea and track all sorts of potentially affecting variables and see how they affect sleep quality and figure out how to optimize my sleep. Like that guy who invented SuperMemo did for his memory.

While general exercise, shoulder exercise, and meditation have all had positive effects on my life, the size was relatively modest. Whether I feel rested or not, on the other hand, has an enormous impact on my mood and productivity. So I'm going to ruthlessly eliminate habits that don't directly impact sleep.

My initial two projects are: Play the didgeridoo for 15min/day, and get up at 7am every day for at least a month. 7am was chosen because Tovar rarely wakes up before then, and the goal is to wake up at the same time every day, rather than whenever he wakes up (on mornings when I have him) or whenever I wake up (on off days).

Habits I'm cutting: shoulder rehab exercises daily. Yoga weekly. Regular meditation (was first daily, then 3x/week). "Eating that frog" - labeling my todos based on which are the most important / tend to be procrastinated and doing the worst one first thing every day. Diet tracking / strict dieting [1]. Trying to keep in touch w/ people (I am historically bad at this, was going to keep a list and have lunch/coffee/whatever w/ X people/week).

[1] I'm still going to try to eat fairly paleo, do Warrior most days, have occasional 20-24 hour fasts (small amounts of protein and fish oil allowed for muscle maintenance and Shangri-La effects) and some up-days with 3 full meals. But I'm just going to do what feels natural on each day, and not worry about tracking how many days are which or pushing myself to eat the minimum / fast the maximum. Given that I haven't been gaining weight, and that I have the tools to easily lose it if I do, it will be nice to have one less thing to worry about.