From the Bottom
Finishing the Race
I’m nearing the end of two years comprised of managing a new house with lots of familial objects (i.e., The Wife and the Ranch-hands), while working full-time, and attending university part-time. The courseload has steadily increased, both in the amount of work to be done and its relative difficulty.
This scholastic year, for instance, I have struggled to find a relatively optimum time to work on mathematical proofs. Even at the undergraduate level, working on results that have long been known, this amounts to essays in logic more than numerical cookbookery. Their competent completion relies on a nice mix of logical vision, speedy recollection of the various axioms and their implications, and the on-deck brain performance to weave them into a cogent result.
It should be no surprise that 3:43 a.m. is not quite the sweet spot for such cogitation.
I have experimented with staying up, starting the work around 10:00 p.m., one advantage of which is that I’m already awake and chugging along. However, as the evening ages, I inevitably become more easily distracted, and each hour spent earns diminishing returns.
I have also experimented, in the last couple of months, with getting to bed earlier (like, 10:00) and waking up at 4:00 a.m. The angle here is to put fresher braintime against the problems. However, the warm-up time can be significant; and I’ve found my brain is quite capable of justifying lying down and waiting for the coffee to brew.
I am more eagerly awaiting the close of the next two weeks than I can recall ever having been. Quality is slipping, my retention is slipping, and my body is not defending itself particularly well from normal wear and tear. Sleeping has become more difficult therefrom, and this then requires more time spent doing the work. A vicious cycle.
I haven’t lost sight, though, of how fortunate I am to have this opportunity. I might prefer a few things to happen differently, but there are so many things conspiring toward serendipity that I can’t get too lost in the minutiae.
…except at 3:42 a.m.
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