Stage 3: Day 1 (Day 9): Wee Hours

It's the wee hours, which means I'm officially in stage 2.

Something strange happened yesterday: I slept during all of my naps. The most unusual part is that I overslept, so I ended up sleeping something like 7.5 hours throughout the whole day.

When my alarm went off a minute ago, I woke up. This normally would come as no surprise to anyone, but I was using that little egg timer, and it doesn't always get me up if I'm tired. Also, I've switched to 20 minutes for my naps. I had noticed that I was waking up (all alert, etc) around ten minutes before my alarm went off, and if I tried to go back to sleep, I got up groggy. Don't get me wrong, I could go back to sleep right now, but it didn't feel bad to get up. That's my point.


I can't wait to use up my newfound 4 hours. I can't believe what I've accomplished already with my extra time. Here's a quick rundown:

• I'm done with my Differential Equations homework through next Wednesday. This includes 2 sections we've not touched on yet.
  
• I'm done with the Stats homework that's due Friday.
• I've done extra problems and reading in Computer Organization (Assembly Language).
• I've done extra reading for History.
• I've gotten all my other homework done.
• I've totally cleaned my room.
• I've actually restarted my Japanese training.

Now, for some of you all this may seem trivial, but I'm usually a "get it done right before it's due" kind of person. Also, in this time, I've watched about 7 hours of movies, and probably 15 hours of TV. Not that I'm proud of wasting that kind of time, but just showing how much you really can get done. For what it's worth, the movies and TV (other than about 3 hours) have all been during times when I felt especially groggy or mentally clouded. This only seems to happen within an hour of nap time now.

Anything else... Well, I'm going to work on Japanese after I'm done posting. Even if I do one or two Pimsleur lessons (or one twice), and an JFBP lesson, that leaves me about 2 hours. Hm, maybe I'll read or something.

Free time... it's so nice.

That reminds me, there is one more added side benefit I wouldn't have thought of. I've gotten way ahead in homework, I have a clean room (my side, anyways), I'm getting to do thing I want to do, even time-consuming things (Oh yeah, I logged about 4 hours in Alpha Centauri yesterday). This has all added up into what is quite possibly the best benefit I could have asked for: Low Stress. I'm prepared for class. Hell, I'm overprepared. I often know ALL of what the teacher is going to cover that day before they cover it (reading is so useful).

Also in all of this, I've found a few little secrets to happiness:

• Keeping stress levels low makes you happier in general.
• Make what you like to do, what you have to do. If you do this, you will enjoy your work, enjoy finishing it, and actually get to it in time, leading to the above point.

For now, there are my 2p.