should i give up on trying to work during the day and be a night owl?

[Kronique]

during the day i am a space case and its like i procrastinate all the time. its not that i cant get up. i dont press snooze. i get up and i go. but then the whole day just slips away anyway. its like grasping depserately for straws

but then come 7 o clock everything just falls into place, and im solid

during the night its like, i am just more alert, more focused, i can work for hours. its easy to recover from distractions.

why cant i wake up in the morning and get so focused? i really feel guilty sleeping through the day. taking evening classes and stuff..

what if i am wasting time and actually being less productive trying to wake up early and go to bed early though?

there is something about sunlight or natural indirect light that compromises me and idk why
not that i am a vampire or anything

should i give up on trying to start in the mornings and forgive myself already
what do you think?

[Andrew Gubb]

Yeah, I think you should forgive yourself <3

Apart from that I think a productive way of taking on this challenge is to do a Steve Pavlina style 30-day trial of living as a night owl and then maybe a self-judgement-free 30 day trial of making your best effort to live as a day person for contrast. Then with the results of these two experiments you'll have a lot of data to work out your next move.

Funnily enough, though, I notice a lot of things shift in your life when you just add in the element of self forgiveness. Just forgiving yourself for a bad habit may be enough for the habit to change, seemingly of its own accord.

I still like the 30 day trial idea though, because this can also be a means of exploring things from a less judgemental angle and may bring about some self-forgiveness in the doing.

[moonrambler]

I think Andrew's got a good idea there of experimenting for two 30 day segments to see which schedule actually works best for your productivity.

Personally I think all the focus on early rising is overrated. I'm not exactly a night owl but my inner time seems skewed slightly later than what the first-shift world expects. I've always felt better and been more productive if I start classes or work around 9:00 or 10:00 a.m. rather than earlier.

[CoolBee]

I agree with moonrambler, I don't know why getting up early got this righteous holy vibe. As I've said before 8 hours sleep or whatever is 8 hours regardless of whether you are 'holier than thou' and sleep 9pm to 5am or whether you are a 'degenerate' and do a 3am - 9am shift and then a further 4pm-6pm sleep shift.

If I wake up of my own accord early, then fine. If I force myself to, then I'm still in zombie-mode for hours.

On the whole, and left to my own devices, my best brain work happens late in the evening.

It depends also what other commitments you have - eg an employer focused on 'presenteeism' - sometimes necessary, sometimes not depending on your role!

[C33]

I've been trying to get up early every day for a few months, and I just can't.
I don't do any productive work in the morning, I just keep my butt in the chair.

In my language we have a saying that goes: The world belongs to early risers. But I think this is total ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, because the worse jobs on the planet are done by people who get up early.

Seriously, who wants to wake up at 5 to go down the mine shaft?

It all comes down to choices. Do you have the choice of waking up at the best possible, optimal productive time for you? Or does someone make you?

[Clint Cora]

Since you mentioned that you are taking classes, I'm assuming that you are a student. In my opinion, I don't think you should give up on days even if you think that you are more alert at night. The reason for this is that if you get so use to being a night owl and just coast during your daytime hours, what is going to happen to your ability to focus and concentrate if you have a future exam during the daytime hours? You will be screwed as a result.

The same thing with your post grad years after all your education is formally done. How are you going to function well in a job during the daytime? Unless you are committed to only working in a career that is exclusively night shifts, I think you better not give up on daytime hours and pull yourself together when the morning comes.

[MagicalRealist]

I'm a night owl, pretty much as you've described. So I've structured my life accordingly.

I usually get to bed between 4:00-5:00AM, get up between 11:00AM and noon, and I hit my peak at night. I take care of routine errands and other chores during the afternoon, while I'm still waking up, reserving more demanding work for the hours between 9:00PM and 3:00AM. I get far more done that way, and do better quality work.

Occasionally I have to adjust my schedule (such as when I'm visiting family), and I work a volunteer position between 8:00AM and noon once a week, but the rest of the time? Nocturnal, baby.

The seeming moral superiority ascribed to getting up early comes from long ago, before electricity, when working during the daylight hours was a necessity. If you wanted to get a full day's work done, you had to get up with the sun (or before). The only people who stayed up all night, then laid around in bed until noon or later, were aristocrats or lowlifes; those who had work to do were "early to bed, early to rise." So the standard business hours of 8-6 are a holdover from that.

But we have electricity, now. And email, voicemail, and the Internet. And if you can find a way to make your living that doesn't demand adherence to a daytime schedule, there's no reason not to be a night owl. I always liked night work, and did various grave and swing-shift jobs for years. Now I'm self-employed and there's no good reason to force myself back onto a daytime schedule.

And the world needs us night people--there's always work that needs doing, 24/7, and normal people don't want to work the graveyard shift. So find a way to use that to your advantage.

[Ceoarob]

I usually go to bed somewhere around 6-11 AM.

Get up anywhere between 4-6 PM.

It's awesome.