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4 a.m. Is the Most Productive Hour

wsj.com

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Re: 4 a.m. Is the Most Productive Hour

#91

Post by maxxxxx »

shripadk wrote: post #46

Interesting article! The Rishi's and Yogi's in India always woke up at 4 in the morning. In the Hindu Yogic philosophy this time period is also called the Brahma Muhurta. If anyone is interested, you can read more about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmamuhurtha and http://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/537/what-is-the-...

I have spent weeks in yoga ashrams and meditation centers. It's pretty easy to get up at 4 if you don't have a commute and no work at all or limited work. At home it's much more difficult and not really sustainable unless you go to bed at 8 or earlier.

Re: 4 a.m. Is the Most Productive Hour

#92

Post by rhizome »

randyrand wrote: post #76
praptak wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"If you are being paid specifically to put work in front of your hobbies" ...then it is most probably illegal in quite a lot of countries. Labor codes exist for a good reason. Most people are a) employees b) not willing to put life ahead of work and c) not willing to be forced to by competition from desperate/workaholic co-workers. Database uptime employees work shifts, so even they should not be forced to put life b…

I suspect you are wrong about legality, but lets put that aside. Do you think it's reasonable to expect a CEO to put work in front of hobbies?

By whose authority are you imagining that expectation is enforced?

Re: 4 a.m. Is the Most Productive Hour

#93

Post by elorant »

throwaway26960 wrote: post #13

I recently started waking up at 4 a.m and go to bed at 8-9pm. It has done wonders for my life. I realized I was confusing my personal task list with my work task list - the two should not be confused. I complete all my personal tasks in the morning, such as, studying a new language, practicing a musical instrument, learning to draw, and a couple other skills I want to learn and improve. Then when I'm worn out and it'…

I’ve tried something similar for a while. On the plus side the day seems to last longer because you get a lot of productive work early in the morning when everyone is asleep. On the other hand it seriously fucked up my social life. When everyone is out having a drink or whatnot you’re heading home to get some sleep. The only way I could make it work is to sleep during midday so I can stay up a bit longer in the evening. But even that doesn’t seem to work that good because by 11pm you’re already dead meat. Nowadays I only use it in urgent situations when I have to get a lot of work done and never for more than two months.

Re: 4 a.m. Is the Most Productive Hour

#94

Post by carlisle_ »

throwaway991199 wrote: post #16

Wow, remind me not to hire you for a job then. As an employer I am paying you to put my work ahead of yours. I am paying you to be productive so that with the collective production of the employees, the company can outmaneuver the competition. This lackadaisical approach and work-ethic means that, of course the mile high task list will always be there. It'll never ever get done!

Just to pile on to the hate you're getting, you're the type of manager that couldn't earn my respect in a game of checkers, let alone at work.

Re: 4 a.m. Is the Most Productive Hour

#95

Post by rhizome »

mgr86 wrote: post #29
throwaway991199 wrote: post #16

Wow, remind me not to hire you for a job then. As an employer I am paying you to put my work ahead of yours. I am paying you to be productive so that with the collective production of the employees, the company can outmaneuver the competition. This lackadaisical approach and work-ethic means that, of course the mile high task list will always be there. It'll never ever get done!

on one hand this feels like sarcasm, on the other hand he used an account with the name throwaway.

It's a bit telling about the median sensibilities here that so many responded earnestly.

Re: 4 a.m. Is the Most Productive Hour

#96

Post by nostrademons »

Here I thought I'd be getting some validation for being a night owl.

4 AM is my most productive hour. It's just that I haven't gone to bed yet then. What's this "up before the sun rises" stuff? It's productive because the day is just coming to a close.

Re: 4 a.m. Is the Most Productive Hour

#98

Post by tinco »

jff wrote: post #9
Hydraulix989 wrote: post #5

This was obviously written by a "morning person." Like most engineers and other creatives, 4 AM is when I'm just starting to get my deep sleep (which peaks at 6-7 AM). 12-2 AM is the most productive time of the day for me.

> Like most engineers and other creatives Free yourself of culturally-assigned norms ("engineers and creative people work best at midnight, with lots of coffee") and consider a wider breadth of experience. The most productive and effective person I know, a computer engineer, typically starts working before I'm even awake. The premise of the article is that 4 a.m. is both outside most of society's normal waking period…

I've never in my life drank even a sip of coffee, energy drink only a few times mostly during college. I have also never woken naturally before 9am. Literally as long as I remember even as a child before high school in the weekends I would sleep in when my younger siblings would rummage through the house the entire morning, much to my parents surprise.

I don't doubt that it would be possible to be conditioned to wake up at 5am every day, but don't just brush it off as a culturally-assigned norm, I didn't even meet another computer nerd until I was 13 years old.

A solid nights sleep for me is over 9 hours. I rarely get that as I have to set an alarm clock to work up to be able to coordinate with the team effectively and I usually don't manage to fall asleep before 2am.

Re: 4 a.m. Is the Most Productive Hour

#99

Post by sbuttgereit »

riskable wrote: post #53
gingerrr wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a good indicator of your management style that you won't even publically forward your opinion without a throwaway. Nobody wants to work for a coward.

> Nobody wants to work for a coward. I dunno. There's advantages to having a boss that's a huge pushover... Boss: "We need this done by the end of the week!" Employee: "That's just not possible. These sorts of things take research and most importantly, time ." Boss: "Oh. I see. Two weeks OK?" Employee: "At least a month. Maybe two." Boss: "But that's too long!" Employee: "Nine women can't make a baby in a month!" Bos…

Right... then later when "the Boss" talks to his boss...

Big Boss: "Why haven't you delivered the product yet? I was expecting it midweek?"

Boss: "Well, uh, the team you see... well, they don't think they can deliver... and... "

Big Boss: "If your team can't get this done on the timeline this company needs, get a new team. If you can't do that, then I guess I need a new manager."

Boss: "Yes sir, I see your point."

[Later, with employee]

Boss: "I thought I could give you till the end of the quarter, but we need it tomorrow. Oh yeah, and there's extra requirements now."

Employee: "But you...."

Boss: "I've been overruled and just couldn't push back. You know how it is. Have a good... productive night."

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