daily schedules and routines

how do you feel about the clock and structure in your life?

  • i like the comfort and security of a set structure

    Votes: 3 13.6%
  • i need it or i go stark raving mad

    Votes: 2 9.1%
  • never lived any other way, but curious

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • in it but digging the tunnel when the warden's not looking

    Votes: 3 13.6%
  • i'm like zhao, a giant anarchic baby, and i love it

    Votes: 6 27.3%
  • like in minimal, it's all about variation within sameness

    Votes: 8 36.4%

  • Total voters
    22

zhao

there are no accidents
some may have noticed me sometimes posting at all kinds of ungodly hours of the night -- my schedule, which really does not exist, but if it did, would be completely fucked according to any standard of social normalcy. i'll wake up at 4AM and if i don't feel like sleeping, i'll work on dj sets or design or read dissensus. or it's 4PM the last hour of most people's work day, if i'm tired i'll brush my teeth, put on my jammies and hit the hay. it's especially bad when i'm on the ganj -- there litereally is NO pattern what so ever, i stay up all night for no reason and crash when ever: at any given time i could be eating, sleeping, or have my head buried in ableton.

only thing i don't like about it is when it conflicts with other people, when friends want to go out sometimes i'm dead tired, etc. other than that i really see nothing wrong with it for the time being --- but in the back of my mind i'm wondering if i did this for any prolonged period, say, the rest of my life, if it will lead to health or mental health issues or something... but i'm not too worried.

thoughts?
 
Last edited:

josef k.

Dangerous Mystagogue
I have the same problem/experience. I tend to go in cycles. I basically live 28 hour days. Over the course of several weeks, my sleeping patterns get later and later, until I'm living completely at night. Then things begin to correct themselves, and for a time I have the same patterns as most regular humans. Then these start to slip again, and I'm back to where I was. As a freelancer, this is eminently achievable work-wise. Socially-speaking, normal-hours friends and lovers have, on occasion, become exasperated. Probably because of this, I used to feel incredibly guilty about my strange cycles. But I've since more-or-less resigned myself to my fate.

Incidentally, this is what Sebald says:

Time, said Austerlitz in the observation room in Greenwich,
was by far the most artificial of all our inventions,
and in being bound to the planet turning on its own
axis was no less arbitrary than would be, say, a calculation
based on the growth of trees or the duration
required for a piece of limestone to disintegrate, quite
apart from the fact that the solar day which we take
as our guideline does not provide any precise measurement,
so that in order to reckon time we have to
devise an imaginary, average sun which has an invariable
speed of movement and does not incline towards
the equator in its orbit.
 
Last edited:

zhao

there are no accidents
nice quote! certainly artificial and arbituary... the 3 meals a day thing is rubbish too, it's much better to eat small amounts constantly. but i have heard that a big block of sleep is good for the body because small blocks just don't cut it. wonder how true that is.
 

BareBones

wheezy
i met a neurologist a few years back who said (and i don't know if this is really true or not, just saying) that seven hours is the absolute optimum amount of time for sleep - any more or less than that and your brain doesn't function as well during waking hours. He said sleeping for, say, 10 hours, is just as detrimental as sleeping for only 3 hours. Detrimental probably isn't the right word, but i'm hungover and can't think properly right now.

i answered "in it but digging the tunnel when the warden's not looking". I have to have a fairly standard routine due to work, but if i find myself in a situation where i have a few days/weeks off, then i always end up becoming half-nocturnal or just having a pretty arbitrary sleep pattern.
 

Pestario

tell your friends
minimal for me. The rhythm of the 9 to 5 is hard to shake. On the weekends, unless I'm out clubbing/raving whatever, I tend to stay up only a hour or two later than usual.
 

nomadthethird

more issues than Time mag
I don't sleep for more than an hour or two for weeks at a time. Then sometimes I sleep for half the day everyday.
 

nomadthethird

more issues than Time mag
i met a neurologist a few years back who said (and i don't know if this is really true or not, just saying) that seven hours is the absolute optimum amount of time for sleep - any more or less than that and your brain doesn't function as well during waking hours. He said sleeping for, say, 10 hours, is just as detrimental as sleeping for only 3 hours. Detrimental probably isn't the right word, but i'm hungover and can't think properly right now.

i answered "in it but digging the tunnel when the warden's not looking". I have to have a fairly standard routine due to work, but if i find myself in a situation where i have a few days/weeks off, then i always end up becoming half-nocturnal or just having a pretty arbitrary sleep pattern.

That's not true, some people get REM sleep after only a few hours.

I've read that General Patton was one of these people and he never slept more than 4 hours in a night for his entire life. Don't know if this is actually true or not, though.
 

nomadthethird

more issues than Time mag
Zhao, you don't "catch" mental health issues by not sleeping. You have them for genetic reasons and environmental reasons that have nothing to do with sleeping really.
 

zhao

there are no accidents
Zhao, you don't "catch" mental health issues by not sleeping. You have them for genetic reasons and environmental reasons that have nothing to do with sleeping really.

oh? and i suppose you can't catch it from kissing a crazy person either :rolleyes:
 

swears

preppy-kei
I work a 9-5, and try to get as close to 8 hours a night as possible. This is usually only 5-7 hours more often then not, though. If I've had a rough week I end up having ridiculously long lie-ins on Saturday and Sunday mornings if there's nothing to do, there doesn't seem like any point in getting up until 4 PM (because by then I'm getting cramps in my arms and legs.) If my gf stays over for the weekend then she might drag me out of bed by 11PM, otherwise I'll "waste the day" as my gran always put it. I think a lot of this behaviour is down to y'know, depression and stuff. Then of course on Sunday night I'll get about 4 hours sleep because I overslept Sunday morning and be a cranky bastard all day Monday and the cycle begins again.
 

nomadthethird

more issues than Time mag
When I was still in the city I'd love getting away for a weekend, but I'd hate going to my bf's country house because his parents are there on the weekends and they would force us to get out of bed by noon.

I think it's evil to wake up someone who's sleeping.
 

zhao

there are no accidents
only reason i think this might be unhealthy is it allows me to totally dive into my obsessions and indulge every whim with creative excess... with little regard to what my body needs. when i'm excited about a project i'll push my self past the brink of exhaustion and crash for a few hours and at it again. no eating either. need to take it easy but when i get into something it's unstoppable sometimes. will be much better to work in a studio because then it's more concentrated, and will provide a healthy boundaries between work and life. which is of course necessary sometimes. i feel. sometimes. in some ways.

I think it's evil to wake up someone who's sleeping.

i think it's evil to snore. i normally don't but sometimes when my sinuses are messed up and feel so bad for the GF... i know how bad it is from other people. the horror. i've told her to just punch me in the ribs and wake me up. whiskey seems to induce this too.
 

Grievous Angel

Beast of Burden
My day, and my sleep, is structured around doing the school run, or when I'm working, it's structured around running projects.

Off work I'm usually up around 7. I try to get to bed around midnight, but I'm producing a lot at the moment and it tends to be creeping up to around 1AM.

When working, it's a bit later - I usually get in for 8.30 unless there's an early meeting which means getting up around 7.30, since I tend to stay in central London. I normally finish around 9, always try to finish by 1AM.

So I tend to get 7, maybe 6 hours a night. I used to be a little concerned about not getting 8 hours regularly but I'm now happy with 7. It only takes me a few minutes to get going and I rarely get particularly tired; I just have loads of energy. I think as you get older you get more stamina and more focus.
 

zhao

there are no accidents
I don't sleep for more than an hour or two for weeks at a time. Then sometimes I sleep for half the day everyday.

you mean an hour or 2 per night for weeks at a time, right? not that its all that much better than the alternative. and is this when you are clean or otherwise?

right now the GF is still sleeping in the next room but im wide awake - just waiting for her to get up to have breakfast...
 

polystyle

Well-known member
It's Wednesday =

Wish you had a few more options in the poll Zhao.
Having been 'freelancer' for last decade , tend to get up 8 -ish,
sometimes spurred by work begin done outside in all seasons ( 'leaf blowers', replanting and dogs - all brought on by the new owners, 'masters of the universe' they are).
Have a tea then a coffee, go through emails, get online ck The Times and Dissensus.
If Noyuri is up Japanese TV is on.
Days can be loose - mostly a blessing and sometimes a drag.
Someone wants to go up upstate for a day hike, nice - on a week day I can usually do that.
Wife's family needs her in Japan, she can book it and go.
New jobs come ( well, they used to ! ) , can take them.
Friends, work come into town ( all the time, plus surprises, includes 'attending' Japanese clients or guests from wherever) we can deal.

Have to shop ? out to Trader Joe's and / or Whole Foods - early.
By noon at Joe's - forget it .
Lucky to have a sweet lady who likes to cook so if she's here I will be called from the computer
around 8:30, sometimes later to eat something usually great.
But we eat different times, depends on work stuff, mood, what's up that night.
Turn off my 'office' after dinner so I won't be compelled to keep talking about days events in calls that come in after 9 .
Calls, faxes, emails start to come in from Japan side.

Pop downtown to Great Jones St. where friend has his Studio for some hours,
into Astor wines , back up across St.Marks Place and home deep in StuyvesantTown.
So between 14th Union Sq. East and Houston St. I often patrol, back and forth in course of a day.

Stay up all night from time to time when on the ganj' ,
out to club if something seems essential, a party here or there.
Lately out to Hamilton Ave. or Red Hook area, Greenpoint , Brooklyn for various.
Our Apt. is a pretty snug cockpit so once we get into it, sometimes hard to get out !

Hours, sometimes days slip in music work modes or certain moods.
The ' by myself and have time so let's see what's going on ... ,
go to the bookstore you used to go to ...
the restaurant that was always good ... ' roaming, feel the seasons, time filling mode.
 

Amplesamples

Well-known member
I absolutely need the routine.

As a school teacher, although each day is different (for example, I was told to f*** off at 8.30 this morning, and broke up a fight the day before - never two days the same!), my day starts at the same time, I eat at the same times, I pretty much sleep at the same times all the time. Even loo breaks are usually done at certain times - obviously can't go in the middle of a lesson. That comes undone during the holidays obviously, when I start making tunes or whatever, then I stay up much much later.

My friends find it hilarious - one's a freelance graphics guy whose whole life is has never been to a routine. He eats whenever, gets up whenever etc. Annoyingly, he's incredibly unorganised - always late etc. and I do find this exasperating. Mind you, I think he gets annoyed that I always need to have lunch at 1pm and tea at 6.30.
 

Guybrush

Dittohead
Charles Darwin’s:

7 a.m. Rose and took a short walk.
7:45 a.m. Breakfast alone
8–9:30 a.m. Worked in his study; he considered this his best working time.
9:30–10:30 a.m. Went to drawing-room and read his letters, followed by reading aloud of family letters.
10:30 a.m.–
12 or 12:15 p.m. Returned to study, which period he considered the end of his working day.
12 noon Walk, starting with visit to greenhouse, then round the sandwalk, the number of times depending on his health, usually alone or with a dog.
12:45 p.m. Lunch with whole family, which was his main meal of the day. After lunch read The Times and answered his letters.
3 p.m. Rested in his bedroom on the sofa and smoked a cigarette, listened to a novel or other light literature read by ED [Emma Darwin, his wife].
4 p.m. Walked, usually round sandwalk, sometimes farther afield and sometimes in company.
4:30–5:30 p.m. Worked in study, clearing up matters of the day.
6 p.m. Rested again in bedroom with ED reading aloud.
7.30 p.m. Light high tea while the family dined. In late years never stayed in the dining room with the men, but retired to the drawing-room with the ladies. If no guests were present, he played two games of backgammon with ED, usually followed by reading to himself, then ED played the piano, followed by reading aloud.
10 p.m. Left the drawing-room and usually in bed by 10:30, but slept badly.

[Via Daily Routines, of which I’m sure some of you have heard. It features the daily routines of countless luminaries.]
 

bassbeyondreason

Chtonic Fatigue Syndrome
I'm pretty much like Zhao, except for alternate mondays when I have to sign on. Past few night I've been going to bed at 10pm, getting up at 2am, going back to bed at 7 and sleeping til lunchtime.
 
Top