Hours

My normal work hours are 14:00 UTC to 22:00 UTC. But most people where I work tend to get in at 13:00 UTC. (During the summer anyway, in the winter everybody comes in an hour later. They do that goofy savings time thing here.) Anyway, it seemed like coming in an hour earlier at 13:00 UTC would be a good thing for me.

So a couple months ago I made a bet with Kelly from work as a technique to motivate myself. I would pay her a dollar if I got in after 13:00 UTC, and an additional dollar for every 10 minutes beyond that I got in. So, for instance, if I came in at 13:43 UTC, she’d get five dollars. This would go on until I did an entire week getting in before 13:00 UTC.

This has not gone well. I’ve ended up giving Kelly money almost every day. Maybe once a week or so I’ll not have to. Some days I’ve had to pay up to $12. Kelly is now planning a vacation to Mexico financed by me being late. This is not good.

So this week I am planning on doing the week on time, to end this thing. OK. Good.

Problem. OK. To get in at 13, I need to have my alarm set to 11 to give me time to hit snooze a few times, get up, get ready, and get to work. OK. Fine. That means to have a decent nights sleep I have to be asleep by 3 UTC. Urgh. For me that is horribly early. I almost never get to sleep before 5 UTC. And it is often later.

So today at 3 I started thinking about sleeping. At 4 UTC I actually turned off the lights and tried to sleep. I failed miserably. By 5 UTC I had given up and was surfing the web, answering email and making a couple posts here (my latest distraction). It is now after 7 UTC. I am finally starting to feel sleepy. But now I have to get up in only 4 hours.

I doubt my willpower to actually get up when the alarm rings. My first meeting today is actually not until 15 UTC. In my little brain I know I don’t HAVE to be at work until then. Even though 13 is my goal. And I will be sleepy and not fuilly concious and rational, and I will want to sleep.

But I should try. This daily cash outflow needs to stop! I am buying a house after all! But I will keep my word on my little bet. I need to be in by 13 for a full calendar week to get out of this. I’ve got to try.

Of course, to do that, I should stop writing, and try to sleep again. I think I will do that now.