From: Scott Vermillion (scott_ccie_list@it-ag.com)
Date: Sun Mar 02 2008 - 20:59:09 ARST
In all seriousness, I did give up nearly all of my favorite distractions for
the period of Sept - Feb. I do not watch television (oh, Letterman and
Discovery HD occasionally) or movies (less than 1/yr is probably about my
lifetime average). I did give up (more or less) my beloved collection of
Cubans, which if properly smoked, can chew up two or three hours of an
evening. Perhaps this contributed to my reaching that burnout phase,
though? I don't really know for sure. But I can tell you that once I got
back up on that horse in early Jan, the final four weeks were focus, focus,
focus and I was no longer bothered with any nagging, lingering symptoms of
burnout; I was actually more or less enjoying myself again. During this
time, I gave up my thrice-weekly trips to the gym (possibly a mistake) and
my kids started bringing dinner to my desk and clearing it for me an hour or
so later (and that was generally the one meal a day I managed to get in). I
followed my own advice and dropped off the list, e-mail, and landline/cell.
It was not a pleasant lifestyle and not one I look forward to readopting
anytime soon. All I can say for sure is that my little rebellious phase and
the break it led to were ultimately what allowed me to regain my focus and
to get my head out long enough to see that train (aka "The Beast") barreling
down the track, ready or not (they take the brakes out of that sucker 28
days before it comes smashing into the terminating station)!
And Rik is telling you the flat truth. He predicted back in August with
cunning accuracy what I had laid in store for myself and how it would all
unfold (no swap for a December date for me, eh Rik?). So listen to him if
not to me, he's pretty well got this routine dialed in...
Cheers all,
Scott
-----Original Message-----
From: nobody@groupstudy.com [mailto:nobody@groupstudy.com] On Behalf Of
Joseph Brunner
Sent: Sunday, March 02, 2008 3:32 PM
To: 'keith tokash'; ccielab@groupstudy.com
Subject: RE: Study schedule
>On weekends I almost never go anywhere, just alternate between lab work and
>taking Netflix + food breaks.
Why I suspect I needed 4 trips to get my number, while Scott Vermillion only
needed 1.
You need to drop all the extraneous bull shit.
Your morning routine is also garbage. Here is my answer to you.
Leave your house EARLY (by 4:30am). RUSH to work.
DO all your studying BEFORE anyone gets in. by 10am you HAVE all your
studying done for the day. Anything else is gravy.
Study at little more, perhaps the debugs you captured during your lab study
in the early morning. Makes notes... now take all the notes you made at
lunch to the doc cd in the afternoon. If you study at night, only study the
doc cd. On the weekends, sleep in. don't get up to early. Your body will
have a sleep debt you need to pay off each week. At about noon, hit the lab
hard with full 8 hour labs. End the weekend days with reviewing your
configs, and debugs. Take notes as you go through them. Resolve any
uncertainties with the doc cd.
This is my study routine for the next three.
You'll never get anywhere with netflix.
Just a friendly help.
-Joe
-----Original Message-----
From: nobody@groupstudy.com [mailto:nobody@groupstudy.com] On Behalf Of
keith tokash
Sent: Sunday, March 02, 2008 4:38 PM
To: ccielab@groupstudy.com
Subject: Study schedule
Dear Abby,
I hate to say this, but I'm really burning out here and would like to
compare
notes a little. I wake up at 5.30am each weekday, but I'm a slow riser so I
may not quite make it out of bed right away. Average time to start lab work
=
7am. I go until 9-9.15am, then head to work. I get home about 6-7pm (3
mile
commute) and get about 1.5 hours of lab time in. On weekends I almost never
go anywhere, just alternate between lab work and taking Netflix + food
breaks.
I've been doing this for about 3 months now, with another 6 months of
various
other schedules before that, and I'm starting to have more and more trouble
focusing, and I'm losing my patience more as well. Of course I'm becoming
more and more fun for my wife to deal with on the side.
Does anyone have any type of advice or schedule that worked for them? I
don't
suppose it helps that I'm normally really busy at work too, so I can't study
there, or take time to play video games like some sysadmin types seem to
have
time for. At this point I'm really having trouble just finishing the last
two
tasks in my current lab on account of wanting to take a nosedive off my
balcony. I'm thinking a week off might do wonders, as I have a bootcamp
scheduled for March 17th, but I hate to lose the time (May 20th lab date).
With a few exceptions, secrecy is deeply incompatible with democracy and
with
science.
--Carl Sagan
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