Battling stress and unpredictability

[cheeni]

2fargon has a note on grad school and sleep deprivation on his blog. I thought it worth my while to share my experiences with him. Maybe you don't want to read it if you don't like long personal accounts.

At the height of my sleep deprivation lunacy during grad school, I fell asleep standing at a bus stop for 4 hours and had no recollection of it.



The next semester I got the same amount of work and *much* more done without losing sleep. All it took was a strict schedule that was grueling and yet strangely comforting. I would be in school at 7AM, and stay there till 12AM - 7 days a week, with one day off every 4 weeks.

Most of my stress vanished even though I was still killing myself because my schedule was predictable, productive and regular. Almost all of my stress was because of mad dashes to meet the deadlines - the unpredictability. The Outlook calendar and task list turned out to be very good tools to invest some time and energy into.

Plan your breaks, plan your work day, and check off tasks on a task list.

I remember telling myself that if ever my life felt like it was worth living, it meant I wasn't working hard enough. It was a central thought that kept me on track and spurned the procrastination. The other resolution I made was to never complain about the work load. The more I complained, the more I felt myself feeling tired. When I didn't complain, I was very thankful for the small mercies of an unexpected break or a lunch treat.

Also, I kept track of everything I did in a day as "personal" or "work". Work was marked in red, personal in blue. I allowed myself 45 minutes of personal time in a day - it worked wonders. No more 20 minute phone calls to a best friend across the country to bitch about how over-worked I was.

Earlier I never used to get to eat on time because I would be dashing towards a deadline during lunch or dinner. The stress of finding a meal place open at 3 AM was needless. I learned to pack lunch and dinner at 6 in the morning. It was a double blessing because firstly there was always food whenever I wanted it; secondly it takes a lot less time to eat a packed meal than wander around campus looking for food. Did I mention that it was also much cheaper? It allowed me to get a morning coffee at Kiva Han the second half of the semester. A rare treasure that cash strapped semester.

I think it works like a charm at least for a semester or two to be the humanoid robot. Inspect every activity you do during the day to slice off time for yourself. I found for example that noodles with frozen veggies took exactly 6 minutes to cook on high, (yes, noodles turn a little mushy if they cook for 6 minutes) but, I could drop in a couple of packs of Ramen with the veggies and seasoning, and jump into the shower and have a quick shower & shave and be out in time to save the noodles from burning.

I also timed my work day around the bus schedule; that way I was never left waiting for a bus; at least not in the mornings.

Another observation I made was that my work day was constantly reactive. I was reacting to a deadline, or, an email from a professor, or, an unproductive team mate, or, an unnecessary meeting. By getting to work earlier than everyone else I was in a position to clear out the email and actually have the others on the back foot. When you send an email at 3 AM seeking an explanation, more often than not you don't see the reply until 1PM the next afternoon. However, if the same email gets sent at ~7AM in the morning, you can expect or at least rightfully demand a reply by 10 AM.

This strategy works wonders in meetings too. If you are the only one at the meeting who has spent time reading the scope document, you get to dictate terms. I was almost always working on each project with a new team, so while it made sense to choose the teams wisely, it was not always possible. If you get stuck with a bad team mate(s), you quickly realize life turning downhill. However I was prepared to bite the bullet at least once a week. Not all things will go according to plan, and there will be at least one project that will go bad, or a deadline that will refuse to be met. I set aside buffer time for this rogue event, and didn't complain when it happened. The power of predictability! I also got really good at showing out the rotten apples - usually by devising clear metrics. Usually I began each meeting by reviewing the work that was done thus far by me, and forcing everyone else to do the same in measurable terms. If you were tongue tied, the meaning was clear to everyone else. Assume leadership - it is greater responsibility, but you also get work done.

I also spoke out more often; I didn't take mad deadlines lying down. I would shoot for a compromise; I never asked for extensions, but for revisions in the work. I often eliminated needlessly painful work this way by asking: "Do you really need this to be done?” Or, by altering the quality of the deliverable: "Would it be ok if I didn't research all this information myself, but used second hand information?”

Almost always a timely deliverable of adequate quality was more valuable than a perfect deliverable just beyond the deadline.

I managed 7 (12 credit hours each) graduate courses each semester, a 20 hour TA responsibility each week, and a job hunt. On second thoughts, maybe I shouldn't have written all this. Maybe it appears to be needlessly reflective, or maybe some one will benefit from all of this.

I'm glad it's over, and I'm glad I prevailed!

Comments

[crabbycool.livejournal.com]

4 hrs at a bus stop? amazing. how did you do that? i take it you didn't get ur bus?

[sriniram.livejournal.com]

The truth is I don't remember much. I remember leaving school and walking to the bus stop around 3PM; I only got home by nine by bus. There's a bus every 5 minutes, and the ride takes about 4 minutes by bus, 15 by walk.

I remember stumbling into my bedroom and crashing onto my bed. I remember noting that my legs and back felt very stiff and sore.

It never struck me as odd that evening. It was only on the next day after a good nights sleep that I realized I had probably napped standing at the bus stop. I can't think of any other explanation :-\

Alien abduction ?

[(Anonymous)]

That is what all those who were abducted
by Alien's say. I don't remember those
hours! Contact your UFOlogist chapter to
awaken your mind by a Hypnotist who is trained
in these kind of things. Or check any UFO
sightings near your co-ordinates, you will
be convinced. Think about it why not alien's
hunting aliens in alien land ? You probably were
the perfect candidate, smart, intelligent, young,
living in an alien environment, in the campus
of one of the esteemd institutions, researching
security methods to prevent access, stressed out,
ambitious..what more they want for a specimen?
I would have liked to put your head inside the
new kind of MRI and watchd your brain activity,
or lack there of!

On a parallel note, few weeks back I saw in PBS
a MIT researcher(robotics)and time management.
He has written a program which manages every second
of his life and how the most wasted time is doing laundry!

I always thought it was that empty conversation after sex.

Re: Alien abduction ?

[sriniram.livejournal.com]

He has written a program which manages every second
of his life and how the most wasted time is doing laundry!

Hah! I had the perfect solution for this. I bought enough clothes to last me a couple of weeks or more without needing a trip to the laundry. I would do my laundry at the laundromat where I could use 4 or more machines at once.

When you have 4 machines full of clothes, you have your hands full, either putting them in the dryer, or folding them. I would wash all the cotton whites first, because they dry faster and help me get a head start on the folding. I would spend two hours non-stop managing the 4 loads instead of two hours for each load if I did them separately.

I couldn't continue this when I shifted to an apartment that wasn't near a laundromat :-(

And yes, I think the little green men told me this trick.

[arucard2.livejournal.com]

thanks a lot cheeni.

Late..

[2fargon.livejournal.com]

Sorry Cheeni, got around to reading this is it's full length now. I will post a longer reply, with questions ;) after Wednesday.

Did you really not do anything else from 7AM to 12AM? No browsing, nothing? That should be an amazing achievement.

Back to work now.