Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I think the early riser argument makes more sense. Day time is when you need to me more productive. Becoming sleepy when it is dark is normal. If you take the Late Riser approach you still need to get the same amount of sleep, and being productive at night is only helpful for those whose job does not depend on normal work hours. You will not get sunlight and end up looking and feeling unhealthy.
I would recommend getting up early, grab a nap at lunch or take a relaxing break, and then get to sleep early.
Location: Appalachian New York, Formerly Louisiana
4,409 posts, read 6,555,252 times
Reputation: 6253
I find that my internal clock is out of whack. I will go months getting up bright and early and feeling great, then going to bed early. Then for some reason, I will suddenly have months where I cannot sleep until four AM and I wake up at one in the afternoon.
This has made employment a near impossibility for me. I am confined to freelance artwork.
I'm a (somewhat) early riser, but I find I am more productive if I wake up on my own, rather than by alarm. On my own, I wake up around 7, MAYBE 8 if I really need the sleep. By alarm I wake up at 5:30 for work. I need the alarm to get up unfortunately.
However, I find on the days I don't need an alarm, like if I am on vaction, I can wake up at 5am on my own and be quite bright-eyed and productive. Yet waking up by alarm at 5am, I am quite tired for most of the day.
I much prefer getting up at 6am and going grocery shopping or to the laundromat, though, before the crowds come out. LOL
In other words, the results of each of the two different studies probably reflects the bias of the researcher.
There are two kinds of productivity -- Personal productivity and productivity within the context of a larger organization. Because no matter how productive you are at 9 at night, you still have to bounce ideas off of fellow workers, call people up on the phone to research particulars, etc. etc. etc. And those people have to work a normal 8-to-5 workday.
I'm not by nature an early riser. But if I'm really busy, I'm up early and knock out the work. That way, I can show what I've done to my clients, get reactions, and move forward.
In the same sense, I once had a boss who routinely worked until 2 in the morning and didn't come in until noon or 1 p.m. He created chaos every day, chiefly because the people who worked a normal schedule. He was never available to sign off on decisions in the morning, and his time in the afternoon was jam-packed--chiefly because he was never there in the morning. And he was always expecting his team to work until midnight as a result.
He was eventually fired, and I was named his successor. Profitability increased, morale improved, and if I asked team members to work past 6 p.m., it meant something.
In short, if the only person you have to be responsible to is yourself, then you can be productive any hour of the day. If, on the other hand, the world doesn't revolve around you, then you just have to be productive early on and deal with it.
For early risers, don't you just hate it when you are out of cream and you jump in the car only to find out the stores don't open until 7? (I did that, ONCE ).
Or on a weekend for late risers you jump in the car for something you need spur of the moment only to find the store opened at O'dark-thirty that day but is now closed for the weekend? (been there too! ).
In the same sense, I once had a boss who routinely worked until 2 in the morning and didn't come in until noon or 1 p.m. He created chaos every day, chiefly because the people who worked a normal schedule.
That does sound extreme. He should have created a 'night shift' with those hours. Your remaining post makes absolute sense though.
I was actually thinking more about a few hours difference though, like the 05:00 riser versus 09:00. I personally have a 'zone' which I cater to because there are so many times when I am in my zone I review my work (done outside my zone) and I am amassed how many errors there are, and/or "whose been tampering with my work?!!"
That does sound extreme. He should have created a 'night shift' with those hours. Your remaining post makes absolute sense though.
I was actually thinking more about a few hours difference though, like the 05:00 riser versus 09:00. I personally have a 'zone' which I cater to because there are so many times when I am in my zone I review my work (done outside my zone) and I am amassed how many errors there are, and/or "whose been tampering with my work?!!"
True. But he was an extreme kind of guy. However, the argument is essentially the same: I don't care when everybody else is here, because I'm going to tailor my working hours around what works for me.
I've always been a night owl. My normal hours are to wake up around noon, and go to bed three or four in the morning. For those who find early morning the time to do things while sleep, I have never done well in mornings. Even with years of school and a job as a programmer where supposedly I was functional before noon (there are many tasks as a programmer which don't require functional and I saved them up, did them by rote and drank lots of coffee). But something which requries creativity or thought or concentration, my *prime* time is very late at night. I wrote all my reports and essays and did all the homework which mattered most to me late. So I was sleepy in the morning. I couldn't get to sleep anyway.
To me there is nothing wrong with this. When my ex and I had a home business our "working hours" were late late night except for a late afternoon run to the post office with things to mail.
I think productivity is when *you* are wired to be productive, not when you 'expected' to be. You can force me to be awake at 9am. You cannot make me be functional. With all the ways we can work so many jobs without sitting at a desk in an office today, why not let the night owls do the stuff that they do best at night online and when they need to come in, do it in the afternoon? If you want to have good procuctivity, you can not force those not wired to it to be that way if its not their time.
Back before we had watches and timekeepers, people had two sleeps. They'd go to bed as the sun went down and sleep for four or five hours. Then they'd get up, have food, do chores, visit the neighbors and then go back to bed and sleep until dawn. It was this way for a very long time and some cultures preserve the practice (like with the siesta). We impose this unnatural "time schedule" on society now. I wonder how may people with insomnia would do fine if their natural inborn cycke could be allowed to run instead of it being ignored for the purpose of making bean counters happy? How much of the stress and sleep "disorders" today are the result of ignoring that we are not all wired where we fit in the same square peg?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
).
