Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Slow Mornings May Be a Secret to Tech-Life Balance

elemental.medium.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 157 posts

Re: Slow Mornings May Be a Secret to Tech-Life Balance

#61

Post by gumby »

larrymyers wrote: post #50
pavel_lishin wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And you probably don't have young children.

I have young children and waking up at 5am every morning is a life saver for me. By the time I finish the bedtime routine at night I'm usually too drained to do much that's productive, but by waking up at least 90 minutes before the rest of the house it gives me valuable quiet time to after a decent night's sleep to get things done.

That was me too when I had a toddler at home. I got a lot done before the "work day" began and in the evening I was too fried to do much more than be a good member of the family.

Re: Slow Mornings May Be a Secret to Tech-Life Balance

#62

Post by abakker »

geekthattweaks wrote: post #49
abakker wrote: post #5

Alternative: slow afternoons? I mean, my routine usually has me start with tech/work at 6am, but I wrap up around 2:30 and put some hours outdoors or in my other hobbies. I think the important part is just not spending ALL DAY doing any one thing. My grandma has a saying - "Everything in moderation, including moderation"

I have always heard the saying attributed to Oscar Wilde.

Nice - then my grandmother has good taste :) thanks for the source.

Re: Slow Mornings May Be a Secret to Tech-Life Balance

#63

Post by yummypaint »

vharuck wrote: post #59
closetohome wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also could we maybe get an example of a person with a real job doing this? "Employee engagement" isn't exactly the kind of thing that requires, you know, faculties.

I get up at 5 am for morning me-time, even on the weekends. It was never a goal; I just tend to wake up after 6 hours. I'm sure it's not healthy.

You might just be lucky https://www.chronobiology.com/short-sleepers-1-percent-popul...

Re: Slow Mornings May Be a Secret to Tech-Life Balance

#64

Post by aidenn0 »

larrymyers wrote: post #50
pavel_lishin wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And you probably don't have young children.

I have young children and waking up at 5am every morning is a life saver for me. By the time I finish the bedtime routine at night I'm usually too drained to do much that's productive, but by waking up at least 90 minutes before the rest of the house it gives me valuable quiet time to after a decent night's sleep to get things done.

I do 6:15 instead I only get about an hour of time to myself (some of which is taken up by a quick shower), but it's amazing.

Re: Slow Mornings May Be a Secret to Tech-Life Balance

#65

Post by CapitalistCartr »

cybersnowflake wrote: post #42

If you can consistently wake up at 430AM in a standard workday and just carve out 5 hours of freetime in addition to the time others have you're either a savant, an inhuman monster who doesn't need sleep, or your job probably doesn't require you to do that much. Either way I'm not going to take your advice too seriously when it comes to universality.

Children. I get up about 4:45 AM. Thirty minutes for myself, then microwave my son's bottle. Twenty minutes to get him ready, if I'm lucky, then twenty more to get to a diner that opens at 6 for breakfast. Daycare opens at 6:30, at work at 7AM. Don't work more than 10 hours because daycare closes at 6PM.

Yeah, Before Children (BC) the World is your oyster.

Re: Slow Mornings May Be a Secret to Tech-Life Balance

#66

Post by aidenn0 »

pacaro wrote: post #16
peteradio wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What time do you think little children go to bed?

We currently aim for 7.30 on a school night but might need to push it a little earlier, it depends on how well I manage to get her to school in the morning. I work on the basis that younger children do better with about 10-11 hours sleep

If you go to bed at the same time as your kids you could get up at 4:30 and get 9 hours in bed. Really there's a slider for "free time at night" and "free time in the morning" that you can adjust; my wife is a evening person, so she gets up 30 minutes after the kids are up. I'm a morning person, so I get up an hour before the kids are up.

Re: Slow Mornings May Be a Secret to Tech-Life Balance

#67

Post by cheez »

cybersnowflake wrote: post #42

If you can consistently wake up at 430AM in a standard workday and just carve out 5 hours of freetime in addition to the time others have you're either a savant, an inhuman monster who doesn't need sleep, or your job probably doesn't require you to do that much. Either way I'm not going to take your advice too seriously when it comes to universality.

2 children (1 can no longer be classified as young) and I get up between 4-5 most days. Occasionally I have breaks where I sleep in till 10 am (lol - see aforementioned kids) but it's definitely doable. Just don't be dogmatic and listen to your body.

Re: Slow Mornings May Be a Secret to Tech-Life Balance

#68

Post by JohnFen »

vinceguidry wrote: post #57
JohnFen wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've yet to see a shortage of opportunities. However, I agree with you that if someone is coming to you with something that they're presenting as an opportunity, it most likely isn't. Actual opportunities rarely come that way.

Ok, now I get to trot out my framework for determining whether something is an opportunity or not. There are three basic ways to get ahead, a) to climb a ladder up a mountain, b) to build a ladder up a mountain that already exists, c) or to build a mountain. Only the first qualifies as an opportunity. Most 'opportunities' are really just directions to places on mountains to build ladders, or places where no mountain…

In my view, an opportunity (in a business sense) is when you find a need people have that isn't being adequately fulfilled. You capitalize on the opportunity by fulfilling it. 99% of the time, you don't need a few millions to do this.

I'm not talking about "getting ahead" in the sense that you seem to be. That's a different, and much more complicated, topic.

Re: Slow Mornings May Be a Secret to Tech-Life Balance

#69

Post by e40 »

For me, it's slow afternoons. I'm more productive on tech things in the morning, so I don't want to slow myself then. Around 3pm, though, I like to take off until around 6 or so. It really feels better to have a gotten a bunch of stuff done before I slow down.

Re: Slow Mornings May Be a Secret to Tech-Life Balance

#70

Post by mruts »

vinceguidry wrote: post #57
JohnFen wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've yet to see a shortage of opportunities. However, I agree with you that if someone is coming to you with something that they're presenting as an opportunity, it most likely isn't. Actual opportunities rarely come that way.

Ok, now I get to trot out my framework for determining whether something is an opportunity or not. There are three basic ways to get ahead, a) to climb a ladder up a mountain, b) to build a ladder up a mountain that already exists, c) or to build a mountain. Only the first qualifies as an opportunity. Most 'opportunities' are really just directions to places on mountains to build ladders, or places where no mountain…

I think what you’re talking about is arbitrage: finding $20 bucks on the ground is an opportunity, but building a whole new currency isn’t. I’m not sure it’s that simple, but it’s certainly an interesting idea.
Post reply on HN