Summary: Eating lots of sugar, and realizing that it isn’t sugar crashes, sleeplessness, or lack of exercise that’s making me sleepy. It’s sheer lack of engagement and poor attitude.

I didn’t want to get out of bed this morning when the alarm clock went off at 7AM. I’d had trouble falling asleep again. Didn’t take the melatonin. Stomach was troubling me, felt restless. I probably should have taken an antacid. I just tried lying very still. If it happens again tonight, I’ll try meditating first. Maybe I’m having trouble sleeping because I’m trying to rush the process. I finally got out of bed at around 9AM.

0900 to 0945: Ate a quick breakfast of sliced turkey with oatmeal bread and a cup of pod coffee (Donut House for the Keurig). Have a client call at 10AM. Have 7 minutes to kill.

There’s only a couple of major things I’m focusing on this week: one client project and one personal writing project for a friend. I’ve pushed everything else back. The main things on the backburner are (1) IMPROVED “MARKETING” OF STUFF I DO and (2) SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT. The constant presence of MAKE ENOUGH MONEY TO DO THESE THINGS is always there too. That’s pretty much the soup of my life right now.

5 minutes to kill.

On the brain fuel thing: Jeff pointed out that the Sugar High / Sugar Crash is a myth; this blog article I found after this (it was news to me) describes the situation pretty well. The upshot: healthy bodies process sugar just fine. Diabetics though experience issues, but they aren’t “high” or “crash”. The surge of energy people experience is merely the sensation of being refueled. Which ties into what I was thinking this morning. The reason I wasn’t getting up, I think, was because I wasn’t particularly excited about it. I only got up because I had to prepare for this conference call.

1000 to 1015: Connection problems prevent me from contacting the client, so I tried texting his phone to tell him to call me when he gets into the office.
1015 to 1130: Answered a variety of emails and questions. Client call was cancelled by client. Will reschedule whenever.
1130 to 1215: Ate lunch, caught up on some forum reading and Facebook.

I’m finding it difficult to switch back to productivity mode. Now that I know (1) a sugar high/crash doesn’t exist and (2) insulin-related response is survivable with sufficient mental activity over 30 minutes, there isn’t much stopping me from getting productive other than my own resistance. There are a few tricks I have available to start:

• 15 minute rule: works on open-ended projects, and for working in small bursts
• Writing down steps so I don’t have to think about them, and then resetting brain with 15-minute nap
• Writing or talking aloud a series of questions designed to get me to work through the solutions to problems that require a lot of analysis and assumption making.
• Set a research goal in the immediate action, based on measuring metrics and performance.

It’s 12:15PM, and I have eaten 4 rolls of “Smarties” to see what th eeffect will be. I’m at the 10 minute mark, I think. I just have to stay away for another 10 minutes and the feeling should pass. Might be a good time to go do some chores.

1215 to 1315: I went downstairs and disassembled a carburetor to soak in some cleaner solution, taking the time to also look up parts for the scooter that I might need. I bought a cheap 50cc scooter a few years ago, and there have been performance issues with it. A scooter friend suggested to me that it might have been a dirty carburetor or a bad CDI. I’m soaking the carb (which looks pretty clean to me) and the jets (the nozzles that control how much fuel gets squirted into the carb) to make sure they’re clean. I think the problem might actually be with the oil mix; I read something about there being an oil cable linked to the throttle, and if they are not adjusted correctly the oil will drip into the carburetor. That might explain why the scoot runs kind of rich…too much oil!

I just had a regular class of soda. The sugar crash didn’t happen. Even after eating another one of those cookies. Going downstairs and doing light, mind-engaging work that I found interesting staved off any loss. And my mind feels pretty limber. Hmm. New theory! Lack of productivity, fuzzy-headedness, etc is caused by boredom and lack of engagement. It’s entirely an attitude. Is that possible?

1315 to 1800: Puttered around some CSS conversion work. Also, used the new frame bracket to try fixing the old door frame for the screen door. 1800 to 1700: Chatted with Sid via Google Hangout, my first time trying it.
1700 to 1730: More CSS putter work.
1730 to 1900: Fell asleep on couch. I knew that if I sat on it, I would fall asleep. 1900 to 2115: Puttered with CSS conversion work. Got to a good place.

I need to eat some real food now. I’ve been snacking on sugar all day to see if I could induce a crash through sheer sugar alone. Apparently, not!

2115 to 2515: Did some character development work on STO and a related forum.