Hell Week 

Sparing the details, the last week of work (two weeks, really) have been hell. Pure, unrelenting, fire-and-brimstone hell. No sleep, working 'round the clock, fixing things that weren't broken 10 minutes before, hell.

I don't think I've ever quite been involved in a situation where as many things went south at the same time; many of which I had no control over. But there were things that I had control over (or at least nominal control over) that I didn't handle as adeptly as I could have or normally do. I've run through a whole range of emotions, lost sleep, lost weight, forgotten to eat meals (a couple of times I forgot to eat *all* day), and basically given up my life.

And in the end, I don't think it's worth it. I've basically missed out on 1/25th of my life this year working on this, and the payoff just isn't great enough for the stress.

I'm a startup type of guy, and I don't mind putting in the extra hours or the hard work. I like it, quite frankly. Because you're building something and you spend a bunch of time adding features and tweaking and improving and making something fun. This has been an exercise in replication, where I should only be involved peripherally in the work (but am far more involved for a variety of reasons), and the payoff isn't fun. It's rote and mundane.

Of course, this is my job, and it's not always this bad. It's just been this bad for a couple of weeks. But this is the sign I need to find a better work/life balance.

It's just too bad it took two weeks of no sleep, a loss of 10 pounds, and no life to figure it out.