If you work from home, there’s a good chance that you spend a fair share of your time in your home office. I know I do. But is it too cluttered?

If you missed my post yesterday, I already talked about the art of decluttering and how nice it feels. Along with getting rid of everything I didn’t need, I also spent time making my home office as minimalist as possible.

What Is A Minimalist Home Office?

I think this varies depending on who you ask. For me, it’s all about having the things I need to do my job and nothing else. Others might find that they need more or less things depending on your profession. I’ve seen some awesome offices before where people had nothing but a desk, a pad of paper, and a pencil.

However, not all of us can get by without a computer and other technology related items. So that’s why it’s important to decide what you NEED to get your work done.

Determine What You Need

The most important step of this whole operation is going through everything and determining what you need to get your work done. It’s easy to start with the basic items like your computer, something to write with, and so on. However, don’t overlook the small things like pens and pencils.

Prior to going through everything, I had about 40 pens and pencils stashed around my desk. Half of them didn’t even work. So I took the time to go through all of them and tossed the ones that didn’t work and kept a few of the good ones. I also moved them to my drawer instead of keeping them on my desk. When I need one, I grab it out of the drawer.

Once I finished that, I went through my two drawers and removed everything I didn’t need. Man is it amazing to have drawers that have more room than you need. I remember when I had stuff piled up in them and couldn’t find a damn thing when I needed it.

Don’t Forget The Computer Itself

Of all the items in most peoples offices, the one they often overlook when cleaning up is the computer itself. Is your computer organized? Do you keep it updated? Do you have applications and files lying around that you don’t use?

Going through my computer took the most time because I had a lot of stuff to clean up. For the past few weeks I’ve had issues with my user account, so I ended up creating a brand new one. It felt like a fresh start and ended up being a life saver as I managed to remove a lot of stuff I no longer needed.

Here’s a quick look at my current desktop:

If you didn’t notice, I stopped using desktop icons and set my dock to hide automatically. Instead, I’ve opted for a clean and simple setup.

I also added the large clock to my desktop because it helps me stay focused. I tend to waste far less time when I’m staring at a clock that’s ticking away. It reminds me that time is precious and that it shouldn’t be wasted.

I’m also a big fan of positive quotes on my wallpapers. I created a bunch of them and set it to automatically change every hour. Seems to keep me in a great mood

A Few Tips To Help You Out

In the process of simplifying my home office (and my life), I’ve noticed a few things that can make it easier. Here’s what I recommend:

• Learn To Let Go – The hardest thing for me was learning to let go of some of the stuff I had. Even getting rid of unused pens and pencils can be tough. It must be the pack rat in all of us.


• Keep Your Desk Simple (and clean) – The less stuff you keep on your desk, the better you’ll feel. The things we collect and set up around our desks distract us, even if we don’t notice.


• Don’t Be A Collector – In other words, don’t keep multiple copies of the same items.  Do you have two printers? More than one stapler? Three pairs of headphones? Try your best to buy (or keep) the nice things and remove the rest. I’d take one nice pen over 10 dead ones any day.


• Take An Inventory Of Your Work Tools – Then remove the ones you don’t need. I used to have a stapler, a cork-board, a scanner, and tons of other stuff that I used once or twice and never touched again.


• Use Less Paper – I must admit that I love to jot notes down and keep papers lying around. However, I’ve taught myself to use the computer for the majority of my note taking. When I still feel the need to write stuff down, I use a designated notebook. It’s so much nicer having a nice notebook that you can use for all your note taking, ideas, and other items you might want to write down. Then you can tuck it away in your drawer and know where it is.

Good luck. if you have any tips and tricks on simplifying your workspace, I’d love to hear them!

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Does your place look like similar to the picture? If so, it’s time to start decluttering.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been busy decluttering my life and all I can say is wow does it feel great! It is amazing how much clutter we accumulate in our lives, both physical and mental. And it’s a safe assumption that a lot of our mental clutter is the result of all the physical clutter we surround ourselves with.

So What Is Clutter?

When I use the term clutter, I’m referring to anything that is unnecessary. We do need certain things to be happy, but most of us need far less than we think. For example, when’s the last time you took a good look in one of your closets? My guess is there is a ton of stuff in them that you haven’t used in a long, long time.

What about your computer? I’m sure you have tons of files, folders, and random desktop icons that you don’t use.

My rule of thumb was that if I hadn’t used it in the past year, I no longer needed it. And don’t forget the things that you have multiples of. My girlfriend and I went through our kitchen cupboards and noticed we had about 20 glasses or cups, 7 or 8 plates, and a whole bunch of bowls. But did we really need that many for two people?

Sure, we might have people over that want to eat but that’s the only reason we would ever need more than two of each. So we went ahead and donated all the extras to Goodwill.

How Do You Free Yourself?

So now that we know everyone has clutter, how do you get rid of it? For me, the easiest way was to go through every room in my apartment. I made sure to check all my backpacks, boxes, and drawers that I’ve accumulated over the past few years. I also spent a ton of time going through our closets.

For every item that you find, you need to ask yourself if you truly need it. If you know you don’t need it, throw it in the get rid of pile. If you find something you might want to keep, throw it in the maybe pile. Everything else can stay in the “safe” pile.

The first round is tough because your mind constantly tries to tell you that you need ALL of it. You start thinking stuff like:

• “I might need this sometime.”


• “I paid like X dollars for this, I can’t get rid of it!”


• “If I ever do blank, this would come in really handy”

It’s amazing how much your mind loves to keep everything. But eventually you have to tell it NO.

Start With Your Clothes

The first step for me was going through the bedroom, specifically my clothes. I went through every piece of clothing I own and made a pile of all the items that I had worn in the past year. Once I finished that, I was left with the following unused items in my closet:

• 25 Shirts


• 10 Pairs of Pants


• 6 Pairs of Shorts


• 5 Pairs of Shoes


• 2 Jackets


• 10 Hats

Talk about a ton of unnecessary baggage! Heck, some of the shirts still had the tags on them. I also had a few pairs of shoes that I knew I would never wear again. So I threw all of the clothes into 4 garbage bags and took them to the used clothing store. I managed to get a whopping 5 bucks for a few items and donated the rest to charity.

The Rest Of My Apartment

Once my clothes were finished, it was time to go through the rest of my belongings. I went through each room and cloest and made a gigantic pile of stuff I didn’t need. I was left with a heaping pile of crap in the living room that consisted of:

• Weight Set


• Jack Lelanne Power Juicer


• 2 Framed Posters


• Playstation 2


• Computer Speakers


• Digital Camera (crappy one)


• Trash Can


• Cables I No Longer Used


• Bunch Of Random Crap

The good news is I managed to sell almost everything above on Craigslist. It’s amazing how fast people come by and pick up your stuff. I ended up pulling a profit on a few items, which made it even more awesome.

It Feels Great

I cannot believe how good it feels to not own a lot of things. Now when I walk into my apartment it feels cleaner and much easier to find the things I need. It also feels good to give your unused stuff to charity so someone else can get use out of it.

Photo Credit: allyaubry | CC 2.0

PS. Tune in tomorrow for another post about decluttering your home office.

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I’ve been an iPhone user since it first came out a few years back. I even upgraded to the 3G version since I wanted to get some faster internet. But guess what? As of this week, I am officially iPhone free! I just sold my used iPhone on Craigslist for $250 and feel great about it.

Over the past year, I’ve been contemplating on and off whether or not I needed a cellphone. A few times I got close to pulling the plug but then changed my mind. I really don’t like the idea of constantly having a phone on me. Heck, I even saw two people run into each other on the sidewalk yesterday because they were both walking and texting. Have we really gotten this bad?

1. I Have A Land Line

Can you believe it? It’s 2009 and the main reason I ditched my iPhone is because I have a land line. I spend the majority of my time talking on the phone at home, especially when it comes to conference calls. Best of all, I only pay for the limited service which comes in around 8 bucks a month.

Now that I use Google voice, I can still dial out to anywhere in the US without paying long distance fees. Best of all, when people call my Google voice number it automatically rings on my land line. I also installed Gizmo5 on my laptop, which allows me to have my phone up on my desktop when I’m at the coffee shop.

2. I Didn’t Use It Enough

This goes along with having a land line. Over the past few months, I’ve been monitoring my iPhone usage on the AT&T website. For the month of September, I used a whopping 51 out of 450 anytime minutes. And the only reason I used that many minutes is because I was lazy and didn’t take the time to call the person using Google voice.

I also used 51 of my 1,500 text messages. Funny thing is, almost all of them took place sitting at my desk. I’ve now got into the habit of using Google voice for my texting and I’ve actually grown to like it a lot more than typical texting.

3. I Wasn’t Much Of An Application User

It’s true that there are tons of cool applications available for the iPhone. However, of the 85,000 or so available I had about 6 installed on my phone. I really wasn’t a fun of the stupid applications you always see on the commercials. Sure it’s nice to be able to look up a restaurant and see it’s rating. But it’s even better when you take a walk and randomly pick a place to eat.

The same goes for directions. I’ve decided it’s time to get back into the habit of using a paper map to find directions to where I’m going. It sure beats relying on your phone, only to have the battery die before you found your destination.

3. I Was Sick Of The Monthly Bills

Even if you go with the cheapest iPhone plan available, it’s still going to come in over 70 bucks a month. That does include limited data, but I already pay for internet in the form of DSL. The rest of the bill goes to the voice plan that I hardly ever used.

I’ve gotten much more efficient when it comes to email that I no longer feel the need to constantly be able to check it. I actually feel more relieved when I leave the house now because it actually means I get a break from the web.

4. I Bought A Tracfone

You read the right. I’ve upgraded from an iPhone to a Tracfone. Look how badass my new Motorola phone is. Not only is it lighter than my old iPhone, but it’s smaller. It even traveled forward in time from 1997. Best of all, it even has the one application I constantly used on my iPhone: a calculator.

I did a ton of research before canceling my iPhone plan because I wanted to keep the phone number just in case people still call it. So I knew that getting a prepaid cell phone was my best option. When I went to the store I wasn’t sure which phone I was going to get but I ended up with the Tracfone. The main reason being that I only need to add 20 bucks every three months to keep the phone active. That comes out at roughly $6.67 a month for my cell phone.

I also opted for one of the phones that doubles your minutes for life. Even better, I also managed to find a promo code online for some extra minutes and an extra month worth of service. I now have over 280 minutes and don’t have to add any until April of next year. Those minutes will easily cover the call and text messages I make while not at home. It will mainly be used for emergencies or when I really need to get in touch with someone.

Porting my number was really simple. I just went on to Tracfone’s website and started the port process. They automatically canceled my AT&T account once the port came over to this phone.

5. I Hated The Service

It’s no secret that AT&T has some issues when it comes to their services. I would constantly get calls that would drop, even when standing in downtown Austin. My internet was also hit or miss in terms of speed. What I disliked even more was using the account manager to access my account. Funny thing is, here’s what I saw when I tried to login just before cancelling my account:

It wasn’t the only time I’ve had issues trying to access my account. It sure feels good knowing I no longer have a contract with them and I don’t have to log in anytime soon to manage my account. Now I just need to move so I can get cable internet instead of the DSL…

6. Google Voice

I’ve already mentioned Google voice a handful of times in this post. It was the one thing that finally made it possible for me to say screw the cell phone. Prior to Google voice, I used Skype but it still lacked some features that I couldn’t do without.

Now that I can easily make calls, forward them to my various phones, and send free SMS messages, I no longer have any issues.

It was awesome when I took a trip home to Wisconsin and simple changed my Google voice settings to forward to my parents land line. It’s amazing how easy it is to bring your phone number with you where ever you go. Plus it made having a land line feasible again, since you can bring the number with you when you are not at home.

We’ll See How It Goes

I plan on doing a followup post a month or two down the road. I’ll summarize how the transition went from an iPhone to a prepaid cell phone/land line combo. I really thing it is going to go just fine without any problems but we will see.

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(Photo Credit: St3ve)

Today is officially the first day of the rest of my life. I am finally free of the cubicle and all the crap that goes along with it. I no longer have to be the “tech” guy that everyone comes to for problems and stupid questions.

The above quote is from a post I wrote a year ago entitled A New Journey Starts Today. It was officially the first day of my new life after leaving my cubicle job. Well guess what? It’s been a year since that happened!

I can’t believe a year has come and gone. When I first quit my job, my main goal was to make it a year without having to get another job. All I wanted to do was work for myself for a year without having to commute, sit in a cubicle, or answer to a boss. Luckily, I managed to do just that. I learned a lot along the way and wanted to put together a list of some of the things I’ve learned from a year of self-employment.

1. Hard Work: You Can’t Escape It

When a lot of people make the jump to working for themselves, they often assume they will be able to work less and set their own hours. While this can be true to some extent, it’s not likely going to happen this way. Instead, I’ve learned that hard work is necessary to build a successful company (or career). I’ve easily worked more than twenty 75 hour+ weeks since I quit my job.

Heck, I often work more than 12 hours a day. It’s one of the sacrifices I made in making the move to working for myself. However, the hours you put in are much different from clocking 12 hours at your day job. Working for yourself means you can take breaks when you want, work on the projects you want, and work when you want. That’s why I often split my work up and do some throughout the day and some at night.

Plus the work I do is fun so it doesn’t really feel like work to me. It feels more like playing video games did back in high school. You don’t even realize the time is flying right by.

2. Trial And Error Is Necessary

While spending all that time working, I’ve noticed that some things work well while others fail miserably. If everything worked the way we wanted it to, I probably would have retired already. But things fail and this is where we learn a lot about business, as well as ourselves.

So don’t be afraid of trail and error. It’s not as simple as finding a book with all the directions in it because not everything works for everyone. You need to find the things that work for you. Once you do, take baby steps to scale them to be much larger. This is where you will start to see success.

3. Sleep Will Be Lost

With working long hours and failing constantly, you will no doubt lose sleep. I often find it hard to sleep when I can’t get something off my mind. I even wrote a post about my unplanned experiment with sleep deprivation, where I ended up staying awake for more than a day straight.

The good news is since you can set your own work hours, you can easily catch up on sleep by giving yourself the enjoyment of sleeping in.

4. Sacrifices Will Be Made

Regardless if you plan on it or not, you will eventually make some sacrifices when working for yourself. It might be as simple as skipping an event with a friend to catch up on work or saying no to something you really want to buy. It’s just part of life and anything worth having requires some sacrifices.

As I mentioned above, one of the sacrifices I made was working far more than I used to. I also sold my car and got rid of a lot of things I no longer used. These things made it easier for me to make it a year without any problems.

5. Money Isn’t Everything

A lot of people go into business to make money. While obviously this is one of the goals of a company, it should not be the only one. What you should be focused on is proving some sort of value, making a difference, or creating something unique. The goals will lead you to the money you were hoping for.

However, working for myself quickly made me realize how unimportant money is. Yes we need it to survive, but that’s it. Other than food/water, clothes, and a place to sleep, we really don’t NEED much else. Instead, we WANT everything we see on TV. The key is to use your money wisely.

Do you absolutely love watching television? If so, then go grab a badass TV. But if you’re only buying the TV to have a bigger one than your neighbor, think twice before you get it. If you’re like me, you’re happy with a 23 inch screen and some rabbit ears. It’s important to decide what you want in life and then focus your money on it.

Neil Patel over at Quicksprout summed it up perfectly in this quote:

So what has all of this taught me? It is easier to save money than it is to make it. You can’t always control how much money you make, but what you can control is what you spend your money on.”

6. Benefits Are Nice, But You Can Live Without Them

One of the things that everyone pointed out to me was “if you quit your job, you will lose your benefits!” I think other people were worried more than I was. It was probably due to that fact that I was just out of college and barely had benefits prior to landing my first two office jobs. So I knew what it was like to not have them.

But the truth is, benefits are overrated. This is coming from someone without a family so I’m sure things would be different if I had a family to support. When you’re young and single, you don’t really need benefits. As soon as I quit my job a year ago, I grabbed a health insurance plan online for less than 90 bucks a month. 6 Months later, I ended up cutting that plan down to a 60 dollar plan that covers me in case of an emergency. Guess what? I haven’t used my plan in over 12 months.

If it’s retirement you are worried about, you can also setup a retirement plan for yourself. This can provide a nice tax break since you can put some of your income into a retirement account.

The key is to do your research prior to quitting your job. Learn as much as you can about your current benefits and see what you can get on your own. This will make the transition a lot easier for you.

7. Bookkeeping And Taxes Suck

One thing I cannot stand doing is the books. I hate accounting and always have. Taxes are a whole other ballgame. When you go into business for yourself, these are some of the things you will have to learn about. You don’t need to know everything, but the more you learn the easier it will be to meet with an accountant.

I’ve slowly been learning more as I go and I’m finally to the point where I have a good understanding of how things work. However, when I just started I wanted to pull my hair out.

You can check out my podcast on bookkeeping and tax tips for bloggers and freelancers for some useful tips.

8. Office Politics Are Shit

If you’ve been here before, you’ve probably read my post about hating office politics. I used to hate everything about them. The gossip, the power tripping, and the alliances that employees make. It used to drive me absolutely insane. Even the whole idea of “climbing the ladder” made me want to cry.

After spending an entire year as far away from an office as possible, I can tell you one thing: office politics sucks. I don’t miss them one bit and I really hope I can continue to work from my home rather than an office.

9. You Will Learn (A Lot)

Of all the things I’ve mentioned so far, nothing has been more enjoyable than learning. It’s absolutely amazing how many things I have learned over the course of one year. I can easily predict that I’ve learned at least 5 (maybe 10) times as much as I did from high school and college combined. I’ve learned valuable things about business, life, and everything in-between.

If anything, I recommend trying out self-employment for the learning experience. It forces you to quickly adapt to what’s happening around you. I think one of the reasons it works so well is because you don’t have a lot of people around to ask questions. If you need to figure something out, you find a way to make it happen (the best saying ever). Whether it’s from reading online or visiting the public library (a lifesaver), the answers are always out there.

10. Freedom Is What Matters

Last but not least is freedom. Freedom is the one thing that made me want to work for myself, as well as build an online business. Why? Because I love to travel and be anywhere at any time. I also enjoy moving fairly often, which might be happening fairly soon.

Having a normal job makes it difficult to live the digital nomad lifestyle because you always have to be at work. Yes you can take vacation but you only get so much time a year. Instead, I decided it would be far more beneficial to create a career that can move around with me.

So the most important thing anyone can have is freedom. The ability to do what you want whenever you want. This is far more important money. People with high-paying jobs have plenty of money, but they don’t necessarily have freedom.

It Was A Great Year

Overall, it was the best year of my life. Not only was it fun and rewarding, but it was also challenging and difficult. I learned a lot and have been making progress since the first day I started. I can only hope that this upcoming year can be just as fun and rewarding. So far, it has been just that.

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(Photo credit: Stinkie Pinkie)

Over the past 5 months, My girlfriend and I debated about going to Austin City Limits. It took place this weekend, just a short walk down the street from where we live. Due to the fact it was sold out (and overpriced), we decided to skip it.

Another factor in choosing not to go was the fact that none of the headliners were bands we cared to see. There’s no reason to shed out a couple hundred bucks to see some bands we’re note huge fans of play outside.

Anyway, it ended up raining on Friday and all day Saturday. So I enjoyed watching the rain from inside my apartment, where I didn’t have to worry about getting wet, breaking my iPhone (Country USA 2008), or trying to fight my way through the crowds.

Watching Cars Get Towed

Instead of going to ACL, I enjoyed the small things in life like watching cars get towed from my apartment complex. They sent out an email newsletter a few days ago saying that they would tow any cars that tried to park here this weekend. As it turns out, a ton of cars decided to try it and they weren’t bluffing.

I actually sat and watched the tow truck jack a few cars (and trucks) up and haul them away. That’s always a kick in the ass.

Then Comes The Mud Fail

It wasn’t until last night that I saw video footage on the news from Austin City Limits. They showed how bad Zilker Park’s lawn was and how the new grass was transformed into a mud fest. Not only did they show people running and sliding in the mud, but they showed tons of people covering their faces in it. Not exactly something I enjoy doing.

Especially after reading this exact sentence from Austin360.com:

“Based on the mud’s distinctive low-tide odor, most of what surfaced seemed to be Dillo Dirt, the compost made by the City of Austin from yard trimmings collected curbside as well as some treated sewage sludge.”

Wait, what was that again? Sewage sludge? Mmm. To make thing’s better, someone left a comment on that article saying that a lot of people were getting a rash from the mud. Nice.

I definitely didn’t miss out on that one.

A Long Weekend Of Working (aka Fun)

Instead of hitting up ACL, I bounced around to various coffee shops and drank about 8 cups of coffee on Saturday and Sunday. I started working on a few new projects with my new business partner. One of them happens to be a new blog that’s part of a case study we’re doing, but you’ll have to wait to hear more about it.

Other than that, it was a pretty quiet weekend. It was a slow weekend for football since Texas had a bye and the Packers play tonight. Lets go Pack (and Favre)!

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If you haven’t noticed, it’s been a little quiet around here lately. And it’s not because I’ve run out of things to say. I’ve just been super busy working on a few projects, most importantly the new look for ZoopMedia. We just launched the new look this morning and so far it’s been a success.

New WordPress Video Series

One of the biggest changes to the site is the addition of our new WordPress Crash Course. It’s a 16 video WordPress course that covers all the basics to get started. Each video is shot in high definition so you can easily follow along and not have to worry about blurry or choppy video.

Best of all, the course is completely FREE of charge. All we ask is that you sign up for our ZoopMedia newsletter so we can send you WordPress related news and updates.

Now Writing For Performancing

Another thing I’ve started doing is writing over at the Performancing blog. It’s a blog geared to helping bloggers succeed. So if you’re ever in the need for a few quick blog tips, don’t hesitate to check it out.

Interview At Blogger Talks

If you missed my post the other day, I also did an interview over at Blogger Talks. It’s always fun to answer peoples questions when it comes to blogging and it was a great interview. You can read the full interview over at Blogger Talks.

A Few Upcoming Posts

Now that I have the largest project completed, I plan on spending more time working on this blog. I hope to start pumping out a few new posts each week so don’t forget to check back soon!

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Hey Everyone, just wanted to let you know about an interview I did for Blogger Talks. If you’ve never heard of it, it’s a blog devoted to interviewing various bloggers from around the world. It’s an awesome content and something I find very interesting.It’s always cool to see what other bloggers have to say.

You can check out the full article here: Justin Wright Talks About Passion, Zoopmedia

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Who would of thought you could do something this awesome using a couple printers.

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(Photo credit: Thomas Claveirole’s)

Want to catch up on work? I think I’ve found the solution. Don’t sleep. Ever.

Just kidding, that’s a horrible idea. However, I did stay up for over 35 hours straight over the last two days and managed to get a TON done. Not only did I build two websites from scratch, but I also managed to do some design modifications to a bunch of my websites and blogs. If you’ve been there before, you’ve probably noticed the changes I made to this one. Anyways, I wanted to write a little bit about what it was like staying up so long.

The First Question Is Why?

No I’m not psychic, but I do know that most of you are wondering why someone would go without sleep. Was it work? Sleep? Combination of the two? Well it’s true that I’ve been working a lot lately and have a lot of projects to get done. However, this was not the only reason why I went so long without sleep.

The main reason why I went so long without sleep is because I completely forgot to go to sleep. It’s that simple. I sat down to work and the next thing I knew it was the next day. Which leads us to the next section…

The Concept of Time

(Photo credit: Brandie!)

Believe it or not, ever since I started working for myself I have completely forgotten about the concept of time. Huh? In other words, I’ve stopped following any sort of schedule. I wake up when I wake up and go to sleep when I’m tired. I think that’s the way it’s supposed to be but who knows.

Anyways, this is the main reason why I went so long without sleep. I got in a groove of working and didn’t feel tired so I chose not to sleep.

It’s amazing how easy it is to lose track of time when you work a lot it’s not that relevant. One of my good friends who runs a business could not have summed it any better than this:

Time is just kind of a fuzzy concept right now.

If you couldn’t tell, he’s also someone who likes what he does and spends a lot of time working.

When it comes to a normal day, I would guess that I glance at a clock only once or twice. And that’s only when I know I have to do something. I’ve gone days where I didn’t even look at a clock, let alone a calendar. Heck, even months don’t mean much unless you live somewhere where it’s going to get cold. Thank goodness for Texas weather.

The concept of time becomes even more weird when you go so long without sleep. It felt like a week went by when in reality only 35 hours passed. The sun literally went down, came back up, and then went back down again. Crazy.

The Side Effects

I did a lot of reading this morning on sleep deprivation. I know it’s by no means healthy, which is why I would never recommend it. However, I feel that if you naturally stay up and don’t feel tired then there’s no reason to force yourself to sleep. I eventually crashed and slept like a baby anyway.

Here’s some interesting information from Wikipedia:

According to a 2000 study published in the British Medical Journal, researchers in Australia and New Zealand reported that sleep deprivation can have some of the same hazardous effects as being drunk.[20] People who drove after being awake for 17–19 hours performed worse than those with a blood alcohol level of .05 percent, which is the legal limit for drunk driving in most western European countries (Canada, the U.S. and U.K. set their blood alcohol limits at .08 percent).

It’s interesting to read that considering I felt anything but drunk. I got a ton of work done, though it might have to do with the fact I didn’t try anything difficult like physical activity or driving. As far as brain function goes, I felt as normal as ever. I actually feel less productive immediately after waking up for some reason. Probably because I’m a night owl.

The After Effects

Like mentioned above, I ended up crashing last night and slept for 9 and a half hours. So how did I feel upon waking? Tired as hell that’s for sure. Had I not had a meeting, I would probably of slept for 2 or 3 more hours (possibly more). So I can guess it’s safe to say that you won’t feel that great after sleeping off a long night. 1 point for sleep.

Will I Do It Again?

Not on purpose. I’ll probably never try and stay up strictly to beat my hours awake record. I wouldn’t even use a bunch of caffeine to stay up, since I know that can cause all sorts of issues. I did that back in middle school but we’re grownups now.

Either way, I definitely recommend living on your own schedule if it’s feasible. It’s so great to be free of alarm clocks!

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