June 24: #11 Go to bed an hour later than you normally would
Phil: This challenge means something completely different when you work the night shift like I do. I already go to bed pretty late, basically whenever I want. Generally, that’s around 1:30 a.m. or 2:30 a.m. Last night, I just added another hour of that to the shenanigans and fell asleep around 3:30 a.m. instead. Aside from the obvious benefits of having more time to do things like finish House of Cards, read, do some independent work and so on, there was also another unforeseen benefit. I noticed that because I knew I was staying awake an extra hour, I felt like I had more time throughout the entire night to do whatever I was doing. I felt less rushed, less watching the clock. It’s like I suddenly had all the time in the world. I’m reading a book right now called The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle and it talks about how psychological time -- that is, time that we perceive as the past and future -- is an illusion and can cause emotional stress and pain if we utilize it too much. It should only be used in practical ways, like knowing what time it is so you know when to leave for an appointment. But other than that, it’s best to ignore time and live now. By adding an hour to my day like this, I suddenly felt free of time. I didn’t see that one coming.
Bruce: The very nature of this challenge fused with the very nature of my night owl self meant that I could not update this at the end of Saturday. It is currently 3 AM on the 25th technically and I'm just about ready to go to bed. I tend to go to sleep late and wake up early and sleep very little, tonight the extra hour or so was definitely necessary since I spent a lot of time during the afternoon, evening and night at a graduation party for my brother so I wasn't able to get as much done as I needed to so I transcribed and edited some poems for a book and did some promotional work and write ups for a single that just came out that I did with my friend Kyle. I definitely always wish that sleep was not necessary so that I could have so much more time to work but I get it, rest is important too. This task came at a good time, it gave me the kick in the pants to stay up and get the work done!
Tomorrow's challenge: #2 Buy a song from your childhood that’s no longer in your music library and listen today