The Insomniacs Guide to Digital Clock Watching

Book excerpt: When I am to be involved in a project or some other activity, either personal or involving other people, and whether I am in charge or a contributor, my brain wants me to be fully prepared. This happens whether I am providing ideas or concepts during the planning phase, providing status or developing work-a-rounds during the implementation phase, or identifying lessons learned during the evaluation phase. The problem is that my brain prefers that I get prepared at night when I should be sleeping. When I try to escape these fits of insomnia by thinking of something else, my brain has a good memory and brings me back to preparation. I started developing Digital Clock Watching as an escape mechanism. It is based on the card game poker, and it worked! Watching my digital clock for, and anticipating, different combinations of numbers was complex enough to keep my brain occupied, but with one minute between display changes, it was slow enough that I could go back to sleep. Watching for of-a-kind and straight combinations was straightforward and easy, but flushes and straight-flushes were a problem, which was eventually solved. When I told friends about my game, they became interested and told me that I should document it. Since all digital clocks should display the same numbers at any given time, it is a single-player game, but my friends later asked whether I could make it competitive. The result is this book.