How long do you work for at the moment and what are you aiming for? Some details about your current and hoped for day structure?
I've done a lot of personal work on improving these things naturally (after taking a huge dive off of a caffeine high and flunking the end of year exams for my second year of uni).
To give you a rough idea of my day now I usually work 10-13 hours of the day, sleep for 6-8 and socialise for 4-6 (all variable - usually I work 13hrs 3 days and 11hrs 2 days extending my social time for the shorter days)
All of this is on limited caffeine (4 coffees and 4 teas MAX) per day and mostly reliant on fruit juice as the stimulant :) (and discipline)
20-70 per week, depending on how you define work. These days, my day is almost completely unstructured by nature: I have to structure it myself with scheduling and journals.
Would you care to elaborate on how you put in 10-13 per day? That would be wonderful.
I get up around 7: exercise, shower and eat (in that order). Wake myself with OJ not caffeine (much more effective I find).
Work from 9am to 5pm in my day job - lunching at 2pm. Work from 6pm at home on personal projects / my personal company / consultancy. Till sometime between 8-11pm. Usually pause for 1/2 an hr for dinner at 9:30 if I am not already stopped working by then.
Religously in bed by 12pm if at home. If socialising (in, say, a pub) religiously home and in bed by 1pm (usually the next day is one I work 10hrs). Light Alcohol consumption only.
Weekends I work 8 hours (10am to 6pm) and keep incredibly strict to that timetable. Sundays I will sometimes work the mornings only.
last week I worked a total of 2 12hr days, 1 13hr day, 2 10hr days and 12 hrs at the weekend (69hrs). That is typical.
One thing I found was that it was about discipline and then developing some habits to help you concentrate.
I meditate for 10-20mins before I go to bed. I also make sure I read for around an hr before bed to wind down.
Cardio exercise first thing in the morning seems to keep me stimulated and awake for most of the day (I use wii sports and do some boxing). I also replace caffeine with OJ because that has a better effect for me.
But it is discipline that really does it: up at 7am every day with a simple but set routine for the first hour ensures you wake up really well. And being strict about bed time (and winding down before bed) ensures your fresh.
Good meals are another benefit. A good breakfast keeps me going till 2 (which is a good portion of the day gone!). A late lunch at 2 gives me energy for working at home and dinner at 9pm (the smallest meal) is just to boost energy levels slightly and to give me a simple break to the work.
I refuse point blank now to work longer hours at work: before I was working till 9pm and getting to bed straight from my PC at about 1am. But the thing is it's not a problem anymore - I am getting 50% more work done during the day right now than I did before so overtime isnt required :D
Be prepared to work hard though - it took me about 6 months to train myself into the basics and a further 18 to cement it. However this did involve finishing university and starting work (at the 6 month mark) meaning I had to reorder the routine setting me back quite a bit (I slumped for about 3 months as I mentioned before getting back on track)
EDIT: I should add about the 10hrs thing. I made this choice deliberately to limit myself to 13 hrs max but try my best to stop and do other stuff before I reached then. If I finish at 9pm for example there is loads of time to go hang out with a friend or just flake in front of the TV. I find this one of the biggest contributors to my heightened activity and concentration. Ive also taken to reading non-fiction like crazy in this time: stuff lik popular physics, sociology, body language, politics are my current fad :)
Also this clearly wont work if you have a partner - I am coming up with a routine to fit that situation though (as a relationship is on the horizon :)).
Life and work are marathons, not sprints. Take the time to develop good life-long habits and your pursuit of a band-aid will seem like what it really is: frivilous and mistaken.
My experience is a lot like ErrantX's. I'm in this for the long haul and I've developed an indefinitely sustainable method of work for myself. It involves all aspects of my mind and body and everything I do.
Your pursuit of drugs for performance gain may work in the near term. It most certainly will not for the long term. Please reconsider.
Do you use an alarm clock to wake up? If so, are you sure you're not sleep-deprived?
What do you eat for breakfast? I'm usually hungry within 2-3 hours after eating cereal, oatmeal, or a banana.
Where do domestic tasks fit in? Weekends only? I can't cook, eat, and do dishes in half an hour, and if you're cooking fresh vegetables, waiting a week between grocery trips seems to be suboptimal.
> Do you use an alarm clock to wake up? If so, are you sure you're not sleep-deprived?
Originally for a few months to train me into it. Now I wake up automatically at a few minutes to 7 :)
I never slept much before anyway - 7 hours is the best I have slept for years. I cant physically sleep for more than 8-9 hours (I will always wake up - tried it :))
Weekends I wake up at 8-9am (I make that a bit flexible; basically just rely on my body to wake me up when it feels like it) and the lie in is a great "weekend feeling" boost (part of feeling a lot more positive).
> What do you eat for breakfast? I'm usually hungry within 2-3 hours after eating cereal, oatmeal, or a banana.
Cereal. Then either a bacon sandwich, or a boiled egg or a bagel with cream cheese and smoked salmon. I eat a BIG breakfast and lunch but a small tea.
> Where do domestic tasks fit in? Weekends only? I can't cook, eat, and do dishes in half an hour, and if you're cooking fresh vegetables, waiting a week between grocery trips seems to be suboptimal.
I do have a slight confession here: in that I live at home (an annoyingly necessary arrangement for the time being) so my family shares the cooking. I cook maybe twice a week and those are my 10hr days. Chores I do in the morning before work - im less than 10 minutes walk away so I basically have 2hrs for "doing stuff" in the mornings. Other domestic chores give me my breaks
I pick up fresh veg on my way home every few nights (and because I only live 10 mins away I have an hr to get home, do chores and chill till I start to work again).
Actually the last few weeks i have been slipping. Prior to last week I spent a month on standard 8 hour days and (unusually for me) a lot of time in bed due to a tooth and ear infection. It's been really useful to find I can get back into my rythm really quickly again :D The onyl downside is I felt awful those few weeks of illness - more so than I should have. I think I was actually "crashing" because of being out of the routine (a doctor friend has confirmed this is something he has seen before) so some of the caveats as with the drugs apply! I suspect my recovery was extended substantially because of feeling like I did. Which is something interesting I need to explore.
I've done a lot of personal work on improving these things naturally (after taking a huge dive off of a caffeine high and flunking the end of year exams for my second year of uni).
To give you a rough idea of my day now I usually work 10-13 hours of the day, sleep for 6-8 and socialise for 4-6 (all variable - usually I work 13hrs 3 days and 11hrs 2 days extending my social time for the shorter days)
All of this is on limited caffeine (4 coffees and 4 teas MAX) per day and mostly reliant on fruit juice as the stimulant :) (and discipline)