Get up Early or Stay Up Late?
What’s more effective — getting up early or staying up late? Or both?
No related posts.
Comments
11 Responses to “Get up Early or Stay Up Late?”
Leave a Reply
About Matt Perman
Follower of Christ. Husband of one, father of three. Former director of strategy at Desiring God. This blog exists to help equip Christians in good works, because that's what productivity is really about.
Learn more Contact me Friend me on Facebook Follow me on Twitter
Keep Updated
Subscribe by email
Since I am typing this comment at 6:43 a.m. on a Friday, I would say that “Getting up earlier” is better. FOr me, the mind is freshest, house is quietest, and coffee is good!…
I feel like my life has been about making your “or” into an “and”!
I really wish I could say late. It makes me feel cooler. But no, I wind up being much more productive in the morning. After 10:00 or so, my mind starts to turn into jello.
I am a big advocate of mornings. It is the one part of the day where you usually still have control. Things happen to derail the day, but if you’re the first one up in the house you are in control of how you spend your time.
I find that I’m way more productive late at night, but that I can’t usually take advantage of that time due to my responsibilities during “normal” hours.
The problem with late nights is the other distractions, especially late night TV which is rarely edifying. Going to bed late has other downsides also… such as husbands and wives developing different bedtime clocks, resulting in less intimacy; or stealing from the beginning of the next day, leaving your wife and family to do it al, while you recover from another late night. All in all, both early mornings and late nights may hide a problem of chronic ‘daytime inefficiency’, that is, procrastinating on matters because you know you can squeeze in the time later. Confessions of a late-night-aholic.
I’m way more productive at night. Unfortunately, our society doesn’t make much provision for us night-owls, so I spent my working life in misery. Now that I’m retired, I can do what my inner time clock always wanted and stay up all night and sleep all day!
I enjoy both.
I went to sleep around midnight and am up writing this post before 7. However one of those times usually gets cut short.
Getting up early is ALWAYS better. By nature and habit the brain wants to gain momentum in the morning (because this is what it used to) whereas in the evening it wants to shut down (because this is what it is used to). Also, Waffle House has a lot less weird people at 5:00 AM than 2:00 AM.
I think this would depend on when you hit your creative stride and what work you’re doing. I get mentally started later in the day, so if I have a lot of mindless things I need done before I need to hit some heavy lifting, an early start is better because that gives me more time during my creative high-point to do creative things. If I have a lot of creative work to do, I’ll stay up later and work then.
I agree with Aaron, it depends on the person. This has changed for me in the last few years. I used to be much more effective late at night, but in the past few years, my energy has shifted to the early mornings.