Post-Traumatic Tech Disorder

… well-rested. ^_^

Oddly enough, not being able to sleep at night used to be normal for me. For over a decade, I had sleep apnea, and since I wasn’t really getting much benefit from sleeping, I’d stay up working until the wee hours of the morning working on stuff (for a long stretch of that time period I was actually up late doing work work). Before that, I had an extremely hyper metabolism. Yep, I used to be one of those people hated because of the ability to eat two or three double bacon cheeseburgers, chili cheese tater tots, and a couple milkshakes for lunch without gaining a pound (“used to be” because I blew out my knee and had to cut back on my running, so all that eating finally caught up with me). There was the other side of being hyper… having so much energy, you have trouble getting to sleep at night, and I dealt with that for many, many years before the sleep apnea kicked in.
So, why am I having trouble sleeping tonight (and for the past few nights as well)?

Well, the sleep apnea was fixed via surgery (and allergy immunotherapy), but it looks like my metabolism is making a comeback. I’ve been getting back to regular workouts, eating a little better, and drinking my fair share of green tea (along with a ton of water). Part of my reverse resolution (resolution made in November to be completed by January 1st… give it a more immediate deadline rather than giving it a year and allowing procrastination to sink in) was to get my workouts started again and hit a specific weight goal by January first. Well, i’m one-third of the way to my weight goal, and it’s getting later and later at night until I get tired enough to fall asleep. I’ve been working on different things each night to kill the time until the drowsiness kicks in… tonight I decided to blog.

Mind you, I don’t have work in the morning, so that’s a good thing (and I’m hoping to have this under control before I start back at work again). And the time has been productive. Been tinkering with my websites (in case you didn’t notice the new digs here), getting ahead on Brat-halla (so Seth and Anthony can relax a bit over the holidays), fleshing out plots and story ideas for the new webcomic Seth and I will be launching early next year, and I’ve managed to get 12 pages into my next screenplay (I’m shooting for sending it out as a Nicholl entry in early January). I’ve also been catching up on a lot of movie watching (and analyzing) I’ve missed out on (I love movies, and I went through a serious dry spell for a while as I hopped from critical project to critical project at work).

The bad thing is… a lot of that productive work has been at the cost of other projects. I’ll start working on an article or pitch that I need to get done, and when I hit a snag, I’ll go work on something else for a little while to let the thoughts percolate. And a little while quickly becomes a few hours (or in one case, half a day). Sure, I can say, “Well, you’re getting stuff done. And it’s stuff that you’ve been meaning to do for a while.”, but it still feels like procrastination in disguise.
And that’s why I’m writing this. It’s a reminder to me that next time, I need to just power through those pieces I’ve been jumping away from to work on other things.

Of course, by taking the time to write this, I’ve jumped away from those other projects I should be powering through right now. I should get back to those.