Still here

Well, I had a very nice run at the start of this year in writing journal entries nearly every day, and then I seem to have gotten much quieter. This is not actually because less stuff is going on, but I started working on larger projects without meaningful daily progress, and I also got drawn into some very rewarding creative work that has kicked my schedule in the ass.

Schedules are something that I've always struggled with. I'm fairly convinced that I have even more than the natural human tendency towards a longer than 24-hour schedule. (I lived in 28-hour days and 6-day weeks for one full quarter when I was a college student and rather liked it, but it wasn't practical enough to stay with.) This means that, without applying a lot of discipline, I tend to stay up later and later because I'm engaged in interesting things and don't want to stop, and then drift further and further out of sync with the world.

When I was just out of college and working as just another member of a team that wasn't very close-knit, I just shrugged and let it happen. I used to get into work at about two or three in the afternoon and work until well past midnight. It had some lovely properties, such as getting to work most of my "day" after everyone else had left and the building was quiet. Unfortunately, it's really not compatible with a lead position that requires interaction with people and quite a few meetings and other types of coordination.

Given that I can't just let my schedule go wherever, I realized a year or two ago that I do much better if I can stick to a fairly reliable and consistent schedule and go to bed at a regular time, even if I'm involved in something. It cuts off my evenings in a way I don't like, but it makes mornings much more pleasant and it makes it easier to schedule and stick with various chores like exercise. But it's remarkably hard to get back into that mode once I've gotten out of it, particularly when I get caught up in things in the evenings.

This meander is mostly my way of getting these thoughts out of my head and on a screen in front of me so that I'll think about them and build up enough willpower to go back to a regular schedule. It really is worth it; I was keeping one through most of January and it had a lot to do with why January was awesome.

Hopefully a more sustantive update tomorrow.