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Waking up at 5 am

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Re: Waking up at 5 am

#11

Post by SamAtt »

vital101 wrote: post #7
duck wrote: post #4

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.

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.

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.

Re: Waking up at 5 am

#12

Post by isleyaardvark »

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.

Re: Waking up at 5 am

#13

Post by defenestrator »

SamAtt wrote: post #10

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.

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)

Re: Waking up at 5 am

#14

Post by leftnode »

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.

Re: Waking up at 5 am

#15

Post by loup-vaillant »

oscardelben wrote: post #6
loup-vaillant wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)?

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.

I don't know for sure if you are wrong. Just that according to this article[1], our circadian rhythm makes us sleepy twice a day: at night, and, to a lesser extent, around midday. So it make sense to sleep at both times. Real polyphasic sleep goes again that cycle, and that makes it fundamentally different from biphasic sleep.

Now, real polyphasic sleepers don't agree "real" polyphasic sleep is actually harmful. At this point, I am not so sure, and therefore tend to be conservative. I would love to see systematic, long experiments (not just experiences) about polyphasic sleep.

[1]: http://www.supermemo.com/articles/sleep.htm

Re: Waking up at 5 am

#16

Post by orblivion »

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.

Re: Waking up at 5 am

#17

Post by greyman »

SamAtt wrote: post #11
vital101 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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 th…

I don't understand. In your off day, you are not in the office, are you?

Re: Waking up at 5 am

#18

Post by duck »

SamAtt wrote: post #11
vital101 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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 th…

If you allow people to contact you on your off day (and it could Sat/Sun too, not just Friday), people will contact you... but if set the precedence that you won't reply/answer then those same things will be asked on Thursday. I've worked a 4/40 for three years now and never had this issue.

In regards to being productive, that really depends the person and the work they do. I tend to do half development and a mixture of sysadmin and PM work the other half, so the day flies by. Plus, how I see it a lot of people work 9-10+ hour days on a regular schedule. I use to do that and I still do, but now I get an extra day off.

Re: Waking up at 5 am

#19

Post by msluyter »

jimfl wrote: post #8

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.

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.

Re: Waking up at 5 am

#20

Post by aphyr »

SamAtt wrote: post #10

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.

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