How I Made a 26-Hour Day

http://andrewdumont.me/how-i-made-a-26-hour-day

by andrewdumont • 14 years ago

60 46 14 years ago

zobzu• 14 years ago

Note that the post says "context switching is the issue". That's probably true.

I and probably many others too, developed some natural defense against it. I just keep thinking about my task while half-listening to whatever comes up and unless its really that important, just keep it in a corner of my head (or if its a phone conversation, just give basic preplanned replies which take no thinking and make the opposite party happy. I just can't help it, it's automatic).

That's probably because i'm passionate about my tasks and rather introverted, tho. But I though it's interesting to think about it that way too.

qwerta• 14 years ago

How about 28 hour day?

http://www.limedaring.com/hacking-your-week-the-28-hour-day/

solox3• 14 years ago

I thought you would cite http://xkcd.com/320/, but alright.

bryanlarsen• 14 years ago

If you use a 2 week schedule, you can make it a 26 hour day. Arranging a nice schedule is harder, but it is possible.

I experimented a lot with sleep when I was younger. 26 hour days, 28 hour days, uberman. Now that I'm middle aged, I have no problems with sleep. I attribute this to several changes I made:

1) stopping my caffeine habit

2) no screen time before bed. reading fiction on a phone is OK, but no more than that.

3) getting old made waking up early a lot easier

4) My uberman experimentation gave me the ability of an infantry man to fall asleep quickly whenever and wherever I want

lucian303• 14 years ago

Or you could wake up at the same time and not answer emails in the morning to achieve the same effect (since it's context switching that you're trying to avoid).

Also, I fail to see how this makes it a 26-Hour Day.

madoublet2• 14 years ago

As a new dad, I can attest that you can survive (and be productive) on a lot less sleep then you think. The trick is that you have to be a lot more active in the day, so you are actually tired at night and can fall asleep fast. And, you have to avoid stuff like alcohol as it really messes up your sleep cycle.

enraged_camel• 14 years ago

I find that small amounts of alcohol (like a glass of red wine) actually help me sleep well. Anything more than that however causes me to wake up continuously throughout the night and have a headache in the morning.

There's also a trick I learned a couple of years ago that helps you fall asleep when you're lying in bed drunk with your eyes closed and, as the saying goes, "the world keeps turning." That trick is to put one foot on the floor. That will stabilize your sense of balance and you'll be able to fall asleep very quickly. (Also works if you're queasy with things like food poisoning.)

jevinskie• 14 years ago

A useful tip on New Years Eve!

madoublet2• 14 years ago

Ha, that is a cool hack. It has been awhile since I had that feeling, but I remember it well. A beer puts me right to sleep now as well, but that is less convenient if the baby wakes up.

gizmo686• 14 years ago

As others have pointed out, this post is not about a 26 hour day, but rather a more efficient 24 hour day. A find that I get productivity boost by actually leaving the 24 hour day, and sleeping when I get tired (which works out to be about 25.5 hour days). This does lead to jet-lag like effects when I need to work around schedules, but avoids alot of time idling awake in bed.

eCa• 14 years ago

> it can take up to 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get back on task after an interruption.

At first I thought that that is a ridiculously precise time, but it turns out to be a mis-quote. The source [1] claims that that is the average time to get back on task.

[1] http://www.fastcompany.com/944128/worker-interrupted-cost-ta...

andrewdumont8• 14 years ago

Nice catch, updated!

seanliuxx• 14 years ago

doing exercise on 5:15am does harm to health, doesn't it?

g2e2• 14 years ago

I'm guessing any circadian rhythms would adjust with your new waking up/exercise schedule making it no different to your body to exercise that early.

ramblerman• 14 years ago

If you're completely out of shape I guess I wouldn't recommend setting your alarm at 5:15 AM to commence vigorous jumping jacks.

But the generalisation that therefore 5:15 am workouts are detrimental to health is ludicrous.

andrewdumont8• 14 years ago

I haven't heard anything that suggests that. In fact, most medical professionals suggest a morning workout for increased energy and better sleep patterns.

seanalltogether• 14 years ago

if you're going to work out, I would really suggest going first thing in the morning. It has such a dramatically different effect on your day versus working out at night. I'm not a morning person either but I'll never work out at night again.

guynamedloren3• 14 years ago

I usually work out at night but have always heard that working out in the morning is better.. thinking about making the switch. I'm not a morning person either.

What are the benefits? More energy/zest during the day?

sharkweek• 14 years ago

Not a morning person myself, but switched to working out in the AM (especially beneficial here in Seattle where it's dark on both sides of the workday for 6 months of the year). The rush from working out will carry you powerfully into the rest of your day and for the most part get you off on a stronger start.

From a health perspective too, it's a lot easier to "refuel" your body throughout the day after a morning workout as opposed to at night.

andrewdumont8• 14 years ago

I swear by morning workouts. It's just so much more efficient than evenings. When you're tightly scheduled in the morning you're forced to workout efficiently. A good workout isn't necessarily a long one -- high intensity is what matters.

Like Sharkweek said (awesome), the energy it gives you to start your day is amazing. It carries me to lunch with plenty of adrenaline flowing.

I also had difficulty falling asleep when I worked out in the evenings.

guynamedloren3• 14 years ago

Linkbait headline.

tldr; I realized I am more productive when not interrupted during tasks that require thinking (specifically, ignoring phone calls and emails while working).

I thought this was going to be about an actual 26 hour day, which is entirely possible (and a very interesting subject).. but don't even think about maintaining a 26 hour schedule in 24 hours of time.

abhpdk• 14 years ago

"I thought this was going to be about an actual 26 hour day, which is entirely possible (and a very interesting subject).."

Do you mean sleeping 'x' amount of time every '26-x' hours? That is a very interesting notion. It creates an illusion of having more hours in a day. Of course, this comes at cost. If you were to sleep at 12.00am one day, you will have to sleep at 2am the next, and 4am the day after that and so on.

jgeralnik• 14 years ago

Relevant xkcd: http://xkcd.com/320/

guynamedloren3• 14 years ago

Yep, exactly that. The idea is to sleep the same amount of time as you normally would (8 hrs, for example) but stay awake longer.

With a 28 hour day you'd come full circle in a week (I think), but with 6 days in your week instead of 7, and 120 hrs awake vs 112 hrs.

Edit: oops, just noticed jgeralnik beat me to it, with illustrations and all!

kentosi2• 14 years ago

I also get sceptical when I read lifestyle-changing formula posts such as this because there's usually never any indication of time/duration.

How long as he been maintaining this new schedule for? If he only started this a week ago, what's to say that this won't change the next week with an ever more optimised formula?

andrewdumont8• 14 years ago

I've been maintaining this schedule for the past year and consistently tweaked it before then to find the schedule that resulted in the greatest productivity -- this was it.

eertami• 14 years ago

> 8:30 - HOLY HELL, FREE BLOCK

He has only 1 hour a day of "free time"? Surely that can't be in anyway normal.

g2e2• 14 years ago

A few things are important in my opinion regarding productivity:

1) Minimal lying in bed. If you're in your bed, you should be sleeping. If you can't fall asleep find out why and fix it.

2) Don't get distracted. Of course, easier said than done but you can definitely minimize any possibilites.

3) Experimentation with sleep. Try sleeping a little bit less and less until you find the minimal amount required for you to be refreshed.

4) Continuously reflect and ask yourself if there's a better or more efficient way of doing something.

petercooper• 14 years ago

Not always an option but many employers support them.. If you can get a high quality 20 minute nap in the middle of the day, you could cut some time from your overnight sleep.

CKKim3• 14 years ago

The wild misuse of "26-Hour Day" here would make me question doing business with this person. So many startup folk who have made a good first impression on me have blogs full of clangers like this, which should have been a clue as to problems of comprehension and honesty I would experience with them down the line.

andrewdumont8• 14 years ago

Like I said in the 3rd paragraph of the post. "Of course, I'm not speaking literally."

I titled this post in this way because it really does make you feel like the day is extended by two more hours. Not literally, I'm taking about psychologically, which is often just as valuable.

CKKim3• 14 years ago

You did, and I think this submission found me in a mean mood. For people who have read about polyphasic sleep etc. the phrase "26-Hour Day" has an intuitive meaning which led to disappointment on clicking to the article.

I stand by my point about entrepreneurs' blogs providing clues to their character, but I retract the judgement on your use of "26-Hour Day". You could have been clearer in the title rather than waiting until the third paragraph, but then there is a reason you seller types are what you are: you're good at hooking people in; after all, you got me to read the article.

kamaal3• 14 years ago

I've hacked this productivity schedule bit quite a lot, for me the biggest time sink has always been commute time. While I'm working from home, that is when I'm most productive.

Needless to say the author's advice is correct. Waking up early helps. And sometimes helps a lot. If you absolutely want to work like a machine. Then there is a schedule that has worked for me.

    3 AM    - Wake up, tend to hygiene. Excercise etc
    4 AM    - Start Work.
    9 AM    - Break fast/Newspaper/News
    10 AM   - Continue Work.
    2 PM    - Lunch
    3 PM    - Continue Work.
    8 PM    - Dinner.
    8:45 PM - Review current days work, plan for tomorrow.
    9 PM    - Sleep.

Note: This schedule works because there is no time spent traveling, I'm not married and I don't have other errands to run during the day.

If you notice an another thing there is no such a term like meetings in the whole schedule.

Some more tweaks/extensions to this exercise. Every Saturday I sit down to review how the past week went. I also put down clearly defined measurable goals which I want to achieve by next Saturday. These tasks are generally aligned to help me achieve monthly and yearly goals.

The 5 years goals, and decade goals are something of a different thing. Generally mine are financial goals. And are easy to keep a track of.

Now given I absolutely must have to travel many times in the week to office. And inevitable meetings creep in, this schedule doable only once or twice a week.

thewarrior• 14 years ago

What about rest and recreation ?

firefoxman1• 14 years ago

Machines don't need either :)

I'm guessing that's not his schedule 7 days a week. I think that's just the ideal productivity schedule.

kamaal3• 14 years ago

Well I did say, I do it just once or twice a week.

Though I would like to make it a trend(Note to Self: That's impossible)

richo2• 14 years ago

Using the word hacked to describe this irks me. A hack implies some visceral and ingrained knowledge that shouldn't be discernable from magic to the uninitiated.

This is a timetable. It's shiny and all, but it's not as though I'm staring blankly at it trying to work out how you achieved such perfection.

kamaal3• 14 years ago

No, it is a hack.

'Time table' you see is a finished product of months of various schedule attempts, taking feedback, course correcting and that cycle.

Just because the it comes packed, it doesn't mean some one did in one monolithic strike.

andrewdumont8• 14 years ago

A 3am wake up time is crazy impressive, puts my 5am wake up to shame. Really like the recommendation of the review in the evenings.

I too have found that when I don't review and clearly lay out what I'd like to accomplish that day (or week), I tend to work just to work -- another post in and of itself. :)

mgkimsal• 14 years ago

Damn... I was expecting something along the lines of timecube2013 or something revolutionary. Something that most scientists wouldn't understand. Something only Andrew Dumont would understand. :/

andrewdumont8• 14 years ago

I can't talk about my time machine, sadly. :)

Kiro• 14 years ago

Don't you eat anything before going to the gym?

andrewdumont8• 14 years ago

I've tried going with and without food before the gym, but settled on without. I feel more alert and less sluggish when I don't eat before working out.

If you're strength training, you may run into issues though.

How I Made a 26-Hour Day

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