Polyphasic Day 6

As the previous posts show, I was quite scared there for a while. I was afraid that I had wrecked the whole schedule, making all the effort I put in for nothing.

Things have turned out differently, it doesn’t seem to have affected my adaption…I am falling asleep and getting up before the alarms and I’ve had REM on most of them. The last one I had at 2 am was strange, I keep falling asleep and waking up without having any sense of how long I’ve been out for. The first naps I had on day 5 were in such a way that it felt like ages. I am guessing that it is happening at random at this point…might have something to do with how tired I am feeling and such, but considering the way I am sleeping I would be led to believe that there’s nothing that should be considered a permanent setback to my REM sleep.

I am not so naive that I think I’ll just walk away with a failure like the one I had yesterday. The next week will show how the schedule will work when pressured, and any unfortunate side effects of my mishap will probably make itself known within the first couple of days. I have been feeling a bit sleep deprived the last 12 hours, but nothing as bad as day 3-4…If I must go through another set of hard days like these I will make sure to be better prepared.

I will have my first regular day back to Uni tomorrow….it’ll be interesting to see how I am going to function in a lecture…will I be able to take notes and follow the lecturers train of thought? Even if not, it’ll still be a good opportunity to have a go at some more social interaction…I’m feeling the need for some more human contact, it’s not really bad or anything…but I wouldn’t mind it. Uberman might make my days open for social happenings while my nights could be study-oriented. I am going to contemplate some more on how I am going to use my extra time….

Yet again a small update..

I have been giving quite a lot of these lately; not real posts but more like a explanation to why there haven’t been any “real” posts lately. This is unfortunate of course, but I suppose it is the result of this week being a little outside the ordinary.

In other words, I’ve been busy. I have not been planing to introduce any of the persons that surround me daily, both of respect towards these peoples privacy and that I think it is a little off topic…After all, this is not a place where I come to vent, rather a place to focus my intentions and development.

That being said. I did have a visitor this week, and it has kind of brought me out of my daily rutine; meaning not as many diary “posts”, not getting to write down all of my dreams and not getting up at 5. I have done all of these activities, but not at the normal level. I have however had a new experience concerning cooking, being that there’s suddenly another person to think of when making dinner. It has resulted in some varieties that I haven’t tried before and that’s all really something I’m not used to.

Christmas is coming up, presents, decorations, social gatherings with and without alcohol and the traditional meaty Christmas cuisine. This will definitely be a holiday of temptation. I really don’t want to go back a step from where I’ve gotten to, so this means no meat. The most unfortunate thing is that I suspect that it won’t be accepted or taken lightly by the surrounding people. I have a feeling that many might feel as I’m taking a stab at them or their values, giving them a reason to go with the aggressive approach to respond to a accusation or intrusion that has never even been made.

A lot of this is out of my control, but as long as I keep up my end of the agreement I am certain that no sceptiscism will bring about any unbalance. These are not my doing and I can therefor not be held to any of the claims fabricated out of misunderstanding, stress, frustration and defensiveness.

I will try to make another post in a few days time. It’s important to me that I give an insight into the changes occurring. I will only ever write sincere posts, a promise made to everyone and something which I will make this something to look back on with pride.

Once Again, A Short One

I am still really swamped, but it’s the last part of the essay marathon, and I’m about to start sprinting. I am taking a break in my essay writing to write this. I’ve been really frustrated about not having time to write any updates…it’s been 4 or 5 days since I last posted. That’s just way too long.

As I mentioned before I decided to change my work habits…I wouldn’t say that I’ve succeeded yet, because this feels temporary and I know I won’t be able to keep it up. Instead I now begin to see how I can improve…for my next assessment I’ll try to start preparing at least a month before…so that I can focus my energy writing instead of researching and writing at the same time.

One things for sure, I should be way more stressed than I actually am…I have moments when I see the situation in another perspective, and that’s when I get stressed. When I focus on my own perception and try to put it into the real context, I can’t help but to be amused of how sickly I need this kind of approval to tell me that I am “worth” anything. That’s ridiculous! The outcome of all this will have some effect on my life, but it can’t change the reality of my life….the things that are really important have nothing to do with CAS results.

In 20 years time, if I look back at my life and think of good grades as the highlight of my life, I do not think that I have actually live or learned anything. It’s our experiences that make us into who we are, not our grades. Knowledge and Wisdom are two very different things.

Two Days Left

Tomorrow I’m going to reap the benefits of getting up at  5.00 . I’ll put the extra hours to good use, making the last push towards the finish-line. I have been having a little problem with a lack of sleep the last days, so I’ve been taking some naps…makes me eager to try the Ubermann Schedule….

A teeny-weeny Hello!

I just thought that I’d check in and do a little status report on the different things I’m doing.

Vegetarian

It’s going great! I’ve been a vegetarian for about a month, and I am just now starting to experiment a little more with different kinds of dishes and vegetables; this weeks favourite has been spinach! I never knew that there were so many different things you could make with spinach. I haven’t really been doing any over the edge gourme cooking, but I have been cooking. I seem to have a very bad habit of using way to much garlic though, today I actually felt it burn in my stomach a little while after I had eaten.  Looking forward to learning some new recipes to bring home and make for my family during the Christmas holidays.

Dreaming

I’m actually getting better at remembering my dreams. Last night I was even able to control one of them. I decided to do some downhill skiing,  after a while I lost control and ended up dreaming that I was in a commercial. It was quite weird how I went from going down a mountain and ended up right next to my house, which was frozen and looked like a icicle,  it thawed out and there suddenly was a jingle and a voice that went off right next to my ear!

I am still learning to remember my dreams though, so Lucid Dreaming is still a bit out of reach.

Time Management

It’s been going a little slower than I was hoping, but I have finally started writing on my actual essay. I figure I will finish the Philosophy one first, and then move on to do the politics essay. I might start writing more essays after I am done with these, I clearly need to practice if I’m ever going to get any better!

Short and simple

I had my presentation today, and I must say that I might have had a little high expectancies about the level that is demanded. As it turned out I was the last one of the presentations, and because of a shortage of time I had to shorten it down, so I cut out a lot of the factual stuff that had been said in the other presentations. What I had prepared would’ve taken about 10 minutes, but after the quick mental “revision” I got it down to 2-4 minutes.

A lot of the argument supporting my conclusion was lost, but I think that this will be taken into consideration.

The next thing on my list is setting up my arguments and doing some more research for my essays.

Time Management

Time management, not really my strong side. I have a horrible habit of pushing off important stuff for later, having to pick up the slack the last week or day before it is due. This is painfully obvious in the situation I am in at the moment.

During this first semester I have been preparing for my lectures and tutorials while at the same time having a comfortable amount of time to spend on my personal interest and hobbies. This turns out to have been an unbalanced schedule, and as a result I am currently preparing for a presentation for tomorrow and two essays due next week. This is gonna be a week of all work and no “play”. It will probably make me a dull boy. xD

This would’ve been a lot easier task if I’d ever written an essay before, but since I come from a different school system I have never written an essay of the kind that we’re expected to write here in the UK. These kind of assessments are not ones I am familiar with, and as a logical consequence I am expecting to do quite poorly, which isn’t really helping my motivating.

After reviewing my situation I am willing to accept that this is quite the character flaw, and if there’s something I should make a project of, this is probably what would give me the best direct benefits in my daily life.

I will have to invest some time to figure out how to ween myself off of the habit of postponing. I’m happy to say that I have plenty of early morning hours that I can do some of my work in, since time is something of which I can’t get enough of at the moment.