Once the programming/problem-solving groove hits, I have passed three days solid prototyping, testing, fixing, testing, fixing, testing, finalizing and integrating, testing, fixing, testing, fixing, and finally testing systems tools.
I had a monday morning flight to Australia a couple years back and had a deadline to complete. I went to work friday morning, and didn't realize what had happened until early monday morning when I got a call from my ride wanted to know where I was. My flight was in three hours. I must have slept the entire way from North Carolina to Adelaide australia. I still don't remember any of the details.
When I was in the Navy, during exercises, I would get by on 30min catnaps. One every 12hrs for two weeks straight. I had to do this because I was the only person who knew our networks well enough to keep the running through the increased load of the various major wargames. That was one of the reasons I got out of the Navy.
