Waking up at 5 am

http://www.freestylemind.com/waking-up-at-5am-conclusion

by oscardelben • 16 years ago

46 26 16 years ago

oscardelben3• 16 years ago

I'm the author of the post. I posted it here because I think it can be relevant to programmers.

I understand many people like to work at night, but for those who are ok with getting up early, it's really something worth trying. In my (limited) experience it's not hard to study programming topics when you just woke up, instead it takes a good 30 minutes or more if you want to concentrate on a bright monitor (but you can use a dark color theme to solve that).

Regarding productivity, the reason I believe waking up early works is because you get a big amount of high quality, uninterrupted time, where you are fresh and not tired from the day.

gkelly• 16 years ago

I read your post, but not any previous ones where you may have addressed this: is the sun up at 5am where you live? I always find it much easier to wake up early if the sun is already up. If the sun is still down, do you do anything to trick your body into thinking the sun is up? Does it help?

oscardelben3• 16 years ago

The sun would certainly help, but unfortunately it doesn't raise until 6am (one month ago was 6.30am). Only in summer we have the sun at 5 am.

vital1012• 16 years ago

"embrace polyphasic sleep".

Not as easy as you would think. Also, most job schedules don't really allow for a polyphasic sleep schedule.

loup-vaillant2• 16 years ago

Plus, it is most probably harmful: http://www.supermemo.com/articles/polyphasic.htm

Maybe the author was talking about biphasic sleep (a smaller core night sleep with a big siesta)?

oscardelben3• 16 years ago

In the article I'm talking about biphasic sleep. I think it's still a category of polyphasic sleep, but if I'm wrong I'll edit the article.

zyfo• 16 years ago

Rebuttal to aforementioned article: http://www.puredoxyk.com/index.php/2006/11/01/an-attack-on-p...

(copy-paste from my comment on the "How to nap..." article)

duck2• 16 years ago

Another advantage of waking up early, if your employer allows it, is working four 10 hour days. I started doing that a couple years ago and would have a hard time going back. Those couple hours in the morning are golden because no one else is around. Having a three day weekend every week isn't bad either.

vital1012• 16 years ago

Four 10 hour days would be great, but I don't think I can concentrate for that period of time. As it is, my concentration diminished after about 6 hours of work.

SamAtt2• 16 years ago

I've found the 10 hour day concept (or 4/40 as it's called in HR circles) to have unintended negative consequences for both sides of the equation. On the side of the employer it's just as you say: employees who are less productive because those last 2 hours are almost worthless. On the employee side you end up doing 2 hours or so of additional work on your "off day" because everyone else is still in the office and they tend to need things from you.

The idea that I've found is better is the "Friday Meeting Day". Schedule all your meetings on Fridays and if the meetings progress quicker than expected give your employees the rest of the day off. It speeds up meetings (which is where employees tend to screw around) and ends up giving the staff an early weekend almost every week.

jimfl• 16 years ago

Celebrate your 40th birthday or so. Then you will find it to be no problem to rise at 5, even if you went to bed at 11:30 or midnight.

msluyter• 16 years ago

Indeed, this is the bane of my existence. I've found that vitamin D helps a little, as does melatonin (though you have to take it at the right time of the evening.) And mostly, having a very consistent schedule. The problem with the 5am thing, for me, would be that I'd blow the schedule every weekend when I stay up till 2am socializing or whatnot.

pingswept• 16 years ago

I'm 37, and I can't wait for this to happen. Most of my friends want to go to sleep at 9 or 10, and I'm regularly up until 1 AM. I'm hoping this shift is just as exciting as leaving adolescence, when I no longer needed 10 or 11 hours of sleep.

swombat• 16 years ago

That's exactly what I did for about 9 months to start my first start-up - except I woke up at 4am, so I could fit in a one-hour nap before going to work (I was still inexperienced at napping back then).

It worked really well. I don't think I could have finished the product without working in the morning.

SamAtt2• 16 years ago

The post is basically suggesting you take your unproductive time (at the end of your day when you are tired) and shift it on to your employer while taking your most productive time (when you first wake up) and keeping it for yourself.

I'm not coming out for or against that I'm just making the point.

defenestrator• 16 years ago

Keep it for yourself. Your own happiness, enlightenment etc is your own. Don't sell it to the lowest bidder. =) (re: waking up at 4:30 am is something I've recently done and it's nothing short of amazing)

aphyr• 16 years ago

Speak for yourself. I'm cognitively useless until at least two--four hours into my day. Best work happens right around 5pm.

anonjon• 16 years ago

There's no reason you can't go in to work at 5am, or just work from home at 5am.

isleyaardvark• 16 years ago

I've woken up early on a regular basis before. In the morning I could get more stuff done, possibly due to these factors:

- Fewer distractions. It's generally quieter in the morning.

- Less chance to procrastinate.

If I'm awake and it's an hour or two before I have to go to work, what else am I going to do besides something productive? The start of work is a built in deadline.

leftnode• 16 years ago

I've always been a morning person, so I regularly wake up between 330 and 430. To me, I'd much rather wake up early than stay up late. I can wake up early and be fine the entire day, and then sleep at 9-10. I get solid sleep and very rarely wake up.

Waking up early is great: I can get uninterrupted work done, head to the gym, make all my food for the day, and make sure I eat breakfast.

Also, if you have a flexible employer, you could work from say 430 to about 10 or 11 and then have the rest of the day to do what you wish.

orblivion• 16 years ago

I do this on occasion. I totally agree about getting things done before work rather than after. It sometimes wears me down though, and I'd rather sleep in and do things after work. I like to switch back and forth.

mhd• 16 years ago

At times like this I'm thankful that my current employer is on the flextime wagon. I still have my alloted time per week (mostly more than that, but well...), yet it doesn't really matter that much when I take it. So I don't have to fit my natural rhythm around my work schedule. Talking to your employer might be a decent alternative to this. It has the added benefit that in the evening the office is pretty empty -- and that's when I usually get more productive. For people who have their highest productivity in the morning, being the first in the office would be better, though.

Waking up at 5 am

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