Productivity bloggers love to go on about getting up early. After some GTD loving, sleep is probably the most discussed topic out there… except here. Is this where I’m going wrong? Anyways, why is it so important whether you drag your body out of bed at midday, 8AM or even (ouch!) 5AM? Apparently, from those who do it on a daily basis it is supposed to make you more productive, if only for the reason that you get more stuff done with less distractions because the rest of the world is still (wasting time) sleeping.
Fair enough, that does make a lot of sense and I’m sure it works brilliantly… for those who can get up that early. Problem is it is now generally accepted that people function better at different times of the day. For every early bird there is a night owl (and probably a bunch of other birds between them). Let’s take a look at our caveman ancestors for a moment. Imagine if they all rose at the same time. Think of all the fights that would ensue when they all tried to hunt their breakfast. Or the struggle to get near the river for a drink. Nowadays it’s called the morning rush hour and the river has become a Starbucks, but the principle is the same.
It would be pointless writing this without having experimented with it myself. A few months ago I tried to get into the habit of waking up early. The only problem was no matter how much sleep I would get I’d never feel any better when I woke up in the morning. It was almost as though 7.00AM was the boundary upon which my sleepy body started to get cranky and fight back. Any later I felt fine, but if I got up earlier then grumpiness, lack of focus, motivation and various other unpleasantries would ensue, regardless of whether I had six hours or nine hours of sleep. I’m all for streamlining my life but putting myself through that so I could empty my inbox or get the bills posted quicker didn’t seem worth it. Especially when I could simply streamline my workload and relax instead.
If getting up early suits you personally and your lifestyle overall, great! You’ll get more done and feel better in the process. But if you are, for instance, someone who really comes to life during the evenings then take advantage of it instead of struggling away trying not to let your eyelids close. For all those people commenting on these posts about getting up early, saying they struggle to do it, guess what! You don’t have to. The early bird might be able to take advantage of everyone else being asleep, but you can equally take advantage of your energized evenings because people are too busy lounging in front of the TV. Though people continue to labor in a rigid 9-5 world, there are always measures you can take to let your life and work fit around your sleeping habits and not the other way around.
June 23, 2008 at 08:36PM
I am a natural early bird, and I love it. But, if I were a night owl instead, I’d revel in that too. You’re so right that respecting your own rhythm is the key! In today’s shrinking world, what with the internet and all, any time is a good time to get work done. By the same token, any time is a good time to get our rest. As long as we do enough of both, life is great!
June 23, 2008 at 11:16PM
I am a night owl for sure! I find it really easy to stay up until 2-3AM sometimes, but really hard to get up around 7-8AM. Everyone is asleep around 11PM and it is peaceful, so I can get things done without distractions. I guess the point about how you can do stuff while everybody is sleeping is two sided. I can see the benefits of getting up early as well, but it is much harder to completely overhaul one’s sleeping patterns.
June 24, 2008 at 01:53AM
I wish I could be an early bird because I feel I could get so much more done early in the early mornings, but I enjoy reading before bed and find myself up as late as 1AM. However, I’m expecting my first child in September, so I have a feeling I’m going to go through some challenges soon regarding my rhythms and sleep patterns.
June 24, 2008 at 03:28AM
Try being a night owl in an office full of early birds. After several years, I’ve convinced them that some people really are NOT most productive early in the day, but they still tend to discount my productivity because I’m most comfortable getting in later and staying later than everyone else… until they arrive at their desks at 7AM and find the pile of stuff I accomplished after they left for the day!
June 24, 2008 at 03:40PM
Thanks for the comments. It’s unfortunate that night owls tend to have this bad reputation for being lazy and sleeping all the time, when the opposite is usually true. Workplaces should do more to take advantage of people’s natural highs and lows when it comes to work hours.
June 24, 2008 at 08:32PM
Think of how many more posts like this you could have written if you had got up earlier!
I agree with the gist of what you are saying, and I particularly like the myth busting nature of your post. However, since most people wake up at 7AM and get to work by 9AM, those who wake at 5AM get a head start on the day. Now one could argue that what gets done between 5AM and 7AM could be done equally well by staying up late the night before. However, I think we are wired for the daily rat race, so the early riser head start is at minimum a psychological head start.
June 25, 2008 at 05:27PM
Brick Andrews, you make a good point about how we are wired towards the daily rat race. However I’m not so sure it’s totally a psychological advantage, rather that the (business) world is so tailored towards the early bird that we’ve just had to deal with it. I think it relates to the old idea that hard workers always got up really early. Early to bed, early to rise and all that.
June 29, 2008 at 10:43PM
I think the big thing is having time when you aren’t interrupted regardless of when that is. I like working late into the night because I know I will not be interrupted until I’m finished.
July 9, 2008 at 07:21PM
Yeah, someone finally fights for the right to have your own sleeping schedule! I tend to get up very early in summer and to bed late, but I have a nap at around 2AM (at our company everyone is there in the morning for meetings and many of us choose to work from home in the afternoon), but in winter I sleep longer (the heater doesn’t start till 6AM) but don’t nap. Works great for me. I guess I’m lucky that my workplace allows this very personal schedule.
July 12, 2008 at 06:49PM
Thanks for the insight Mira. You are very lucky to have that sort of flexibility in your work schedule though I’d imagine the business does benefit from such an approach.
July 16, 2008 at 01:31AM
I’m a natural night owl, so when I make the effort to get up early it’s a psychological boost, like mentioned by Brick Andrews above. I feel like I’ve just kicked the day in the ass and that everything will be uphill from there.
I don’t think it’s more than just a mind game for me, though. I don’t believe I’m actually more productive in the mornings, I’ve just set the right tone to get things accomplished. I figure that there’s no point in taking the trouble to wake up early just to read comics, so I get to work to make it worth the hassle.
To be honest, I’m still looking for an ideal balance that lets me wake up refreshed, and I haven’t found it yet even though I’ve tried some crazy schedules. Thanks for standing up for the productivity of late sleeping night owls!
July 18, 2008 at 10:53AM
This is a good point Sara, I’d not thought of how rising early can set the right tone. It makes sense. When I was experimenting with getting up earlier I certainly felt more focused even though I was tired and grumpy. I suppose the same effect can be achieved by doing the biggest work first thing in the morning.
July 20, 2008 at 07:32AM
It’s true, however not many companies are really that are comfortable with flexi-time working. So, for night owls like myself, the alarm at 6AM is a daily nightmare.
July 21, 2008 at 06:01PM
I agree. As long as you are getting your eight hours of sleep, it doesn’t really matter what time you get up (unless you have to be at work by a certain time). I also find I am more productive later in the day… but for those times when I have to get up early and get six or less hours of sleep, I find a twenty minute power nap during the day helps a lot!
July 23, 2008 at 05:04PM
I am definitely a night owl. I feel like my most productive time is between 10PM and 2AM. One problem with that is my wife is definitely not a night owl, and with our one year old son it makes it nearly impossible to keep the hours I would like to.
I too have been experimenting with different schedules and I think I have found something that works for me. I get up at 5AM, and although that is a terrible time to get up, it is just getting light so I head out and run a few miles. The exercise gets me awake and moving and I have time in the morning to get some things done I’ve always wanted to do daily but never made time for previously. Then when I get in to work just after 7AM I am focused. I’m also done with work earlier so I can get home and help my wife out with the house and I get time between 8PM and 10PM to get some other things done if I feel motivated to do so.
Any other schedule I’ve tried ends up with me wasting the evening time not getting things done and then laying in bed because I can’t fall asleep. With my routine, when bed time comes, I’m pretty tired and I fall pretty much right to sleep.
August 9, 2008 at 02:07AM
This reminds me of something I read a couple of ago, regret that I do not remember and thus cannot credit the author. “The early bird may catch the worm, but it’s the second mouse that gets the cheese.”
December 1, 2008 at 02:09PM
I think the benefits of getting up early depend a lot on what you intend to do in that time. I get up early to do my writing. Things are quiet, my dog isn’t even ready to get moving, and there won’t be reason for phone call or email until hours later. Once 9AM hits, communications with the world can begin. I also found, though I’m naturally a night owl, that I do better work when I get up early and do that work straightaway.
September 16, 2009 at 04:39AM
The early bird may get the worm… but the second mouse gets the cheese.
November 18, 2009 at 03:43PM
Any advice for a restaurant employee who has a constantly switching morning shift (8AM) and graveyard shift (11PM) schedule? Any links to studies about this sort of sleep pattern?