Sometimes if my sleep schedule gets too late / out of whack, I'll stay up all night, and then sleep early and a lot to normalize it. That was my Day Four plan --

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Day Three Plan:

Day starts at 8AM with no sleep and modafinil.

Let the morning go abstract, a mix of distraction / drifting around while brainstorming on writing… I'm not sure which of 3 outlined good pieces I've got that I'd want to write, so going to do a mix of clicking around on my outlines and fleshing them out, screwing around and playing Chess online, reading other stuff, surfing the web, whatever.

I'd like to complete a piece by noon (or be in an amazing flow and writing something quite long), which means I've got to gear down at 10AM to ensure. Setting a reminder alarm at 10AM. Blog around this time too (a little earlier or later ok).

After noon, size up how I feel. Right now, 8AM, I want to go to the gym again but I don't want to get overtrained… maybe I could just do cardio? (I hate cardio though, hrm.) A short swim? Remember to leave wallet and iPhone at office if I plan on swimming. Energy might be lower around then too, or in a good creative flow that it makes sense to run out, so maybe no gym.

Noon to 5PM: A mix of planning, sales process, writing, creative, high level.

5PM on: Clear up some BS. Answer emails, pay bills, stuff like that. Relax before sleeping for a while unless I'm on fire creatively for writing or planning.

The results --

Day Considered Started: 8AM (0 Hours Sleep, stayed up)

8:10AM: Excellent short planning session. (10 planning)

11:25: Well, I installed Spotify (forgot how good it was) and my ELO shot up in Chess since I was kicking a ton of ass. But umm, overshot my writing mark. (100 distraction, 35 semi-productive -- though, that's what I was planning on doing)

2:05PM: (15 general-life, 25 semi-productive, 30 productive, 90 distraction)

5:30PM: (25 transit, 60 social/relaxing, 120 distraction)

Analysis --

Day Four didn't work out since I overestimated how much energy/alertness I'd have -- the first task I had laid out for the day was creative writing, but around 11AM I fell off the cliff in terms of energy. I figured the modafinil would wipe out the tiredness, but it didn't. I probably should have geared down on it right at 8AM, waiting was a mistake.

Around 4PM, I decided to just call it quits on the day and get some sleep, and crashed out at 5:30PM.

There's a cyclical nature to these sorts of things -- success begets success, and getting off-track can beget more of that.

When trying to go on a huge productivity push, there's two elements to it -- containing the bad days, so you'll get, say, 40% of max production (instead of, like, -20% / ie, setbacks / self-destructiveness, whatever)... and then on the best days, you'll get into those massive inventive/action pushes where you'll get the occasional 500%, 1000%, or 2000% of normal solid baseline days.

So far it's been containment -- definitely not how I wanted to start this cycle, especially while writing / blogging about it. Frankly, it's a little embarrassing. And yet, even with the errors, a strong day or two could lead to all metrics being made, which is what's nice about goals and planning.