Recipe for an All Nighter

Food is just as important as caffeine.  And you might say, "Why is an all nighter necessary in the first place?  Plan your day better, Scottula."  I'd love to, but some days/weeks it just doesn't work.  The phone rings with a followup I've been waiting for.  An email comes in that moves a project to step 2 and that needs to be dealt with before someone else's schedule fills up.  The child gets home from school.  Things happen.  Days are rarely quiet when I need them to be - - and the flip side, deathly quiet when I don't want them to be.  So this is absolutely not complaining.  Just passing my recipe along.

All day caffeination is not a good thing.  It makes you shaky and it builds those little interruptions into more mountain than molehill.  Stick to your regular daily caffeine intake.  Then at 9 or 10 o'clock start upping the ante.

English Breakfast tea with a dash of milk and sugar is great for my work night.  Two or three of these between 10pm and 1am do a very good job.  Mix in any sweets and chips with cheese.  Tostitos Queso?  mmmmm, such good crack.  Fritos and melty cheese?  mmmmmm.   A health slice of pie and/or some ice cream.  An orange or an apple.  Those "Cutie" oranges are perfect.

Around 1am it's time for a sandwich or the leftovers from supper.  (Dogs will freak out.)  If the tea no longer tastes good, it's time to brew a pot of coffee.  At 2am a glass of wine is nice.  It balances out all the caffeine, and for me, it helps me chill the f out and get deeper into the groove of what needs to be done.  2 glasses of wine at this point will put you right to bed, so don't do it!

My next break tends to come around 4am.  This is close enough to breakfast time.  Two microwaved eggs, some toast.  At 5am or 6am the computer ought to be grinding away on its own business, so some exercise is a good idea.  And then?  The regular daily routine can kick in.  Breakfast #2, shower, coffee, onward.  Depending on how the days go, I'm anticipating one or two more of these by the 15th.  I've always been a night owl anyway, this is a relatively easy routine for me to slip into.  

It's all good.  Tis the season ;-)

How do you tackle an all nighter?  I know, yes, I KNOW, a lot of you are crunching on the things to get done before the year ends.


Scott Bell - - MediaDesignSeattle.com - - Tuesdays With Deborah