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4 a.m. Is the Most Productive Hour

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

#101

Post by _asummers »

jharger wrote: post #69
riskable wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

You don't want a complete pushover, though, otherwise nothing ever gets done while your team is busy playing video games all week. What you want is a reasonable boss!

You want someone who makes you justify your estimates, so you don't run wild, but is also willing to be like "yeah that really is gonna take 3 weeks longer, go do good work, I'll get you the cover".

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

#102

Post by _asummers »

J5892 wrote: post #73
perseusprime11 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When do you sleep?

When I'm tired. (not OP, but we have the same mind-set.)

How does this manifest itself in practice? What hours do you generally keep? If they're odd, has it affected social/family life?

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

#103

Post by galdosdi »

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!

Not if you're only paying for 8 hours. If you want full control you have to pay for all 24.

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

#104

Post by kull »

flanfly wrote: post #87
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'…

Some years ago I started my day at 4 a.m. to exercise. While it worked, this kept me from having any social life outside from talking to coworkers. Getting a drink with friends in the afternoon is impossible if you want to keep this schedule, so I stopped. Being productive isn't everything in life. I'm only 30 but I doubt I will ever look back wishing I worked harder alone in my room instead of being with my friends.

No need to do it 7 days a week. You wake up at 4 few days a week and sleep longer when u had drinks a day before. Maybe my social life really sucks but I don't really have more lets go for a drink invites than once a week.

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

#105

Post by erikb »

Unpopular opinion here. I also don't think that 4 am is special in some kind. But I believe that getting up early increases productivity. The reason is that in the evening I at least do less productive stuff, sometimes nothing meaningful at all. But after I wake up I usually do my todo list. So focussing a longer part of the day on the morning hours makes me spend my time more reasonably. From my personal feeling getting up at 6am is the best. Earlier and it feels really painful (especially getting to bed before 10pm is hard). Later and I'm losing time.

PS: Right now I'm more on a late schedule, starting to get productive between 10 and 11 am. Trying hard to get back to a good morning routine though.

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

#106

Post by corobo »

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!

I hope your employees are mentioning this sort of thing on Glassdoor and the likes so we never accidentally get hired by you!

> As an employer I am paying you to put my work ahead of yours.

As an employer you're paying me because I have the skillset required to do whatever your thing is and the bills that require me to work.

I might enjoy the work, don't get me wrong, but I'm primarily here because you either can't or don't want to do what I've been brought on to do and I can and will do it in exchange for money. I'll even consider signing a non-compete if the money part is enough.

> I am paying you to be productive

Correct. Stop there. The rest is waffle.

> Wow, remind me not to hire you for a job then.

Gladly! What company was it you're hiring for?

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

#107

Post by Capt-RogerOver »

flanfly wrote: post #87
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'…

Some years ago I started my day at 4 a.m. to exercise. While it worked, this kept me from having any social life outside from talking to coworkers. Getting a drink with friends in the afternoon is impossible if you want to keep this schedule, so I stopped. Being productive isn't everything in life. I'm only 30 but I doubt I will ever look back wishing I worked harder alone in my room instead of being with my friends.

While it surely sounds like a perfectly valid choice for you, it's worth to mention that another option is to actually get friends who have (or convert them into) a more healthy or otherwise desirable lifestyle as yourself. Then you can be with your friends at almost any time you want.

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

#108

Post by findK »

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!

You should be working collectively with your team and "outmaneuvering" the competition, instead of posting 3rd grade managerial comments.

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

#109

Post by corobo »

Retric wrote: post #40
brightball wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you believe you are hiring him for that reason, then I see why you felt the need to use a throwaway. You're buying his time and experience for agreed upon hours. You don't have the ability to make him put your work ahead of his anymore than you have the ability to make him put your work ahead of his family, personal life, education or retirement savings. In discussions like this I tend to fall on sympathizing with…

Sir, you have clearly been trolled. Don't feed the trolls.

Sometimes a troll is worth replying to if it gets a discussion going. The troll no longer needs to be a part of the discussion.

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

#110

Post by sliverstorm »

tinco wrote: post #98
jff wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

I usually don't manage to fall asleep before 2am.

That would probably be why you don't wake up naturally at 4AM

Talking about waking up early puts the cart before the horse. It's really about going to sleep early, IMO.

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