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Waking up at 5am to code

mattgreer.org

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Re: Waking up at 5am to code

#71

Post by akurilin »

alexwolfe wrote: post #64

I've tried this approach and others. I'm sure for some it can work but ultimately I found you can't cheat time. If you wake up at 5am by 2pm you toast (mentally at least). I've found no real secret to gain extra real hours. The reality is that your mind can only function productively for so long each day. The productivity you feel at 5am is the same you'd feel at 8:00am it just seems more amazing because it's happeni…

My personal experience is somewhat analogous to yours. As someone who's working full-time and doing part-time graduate school, I have to ensure that I get at least 8-10 hours of sleep daily to stay sharp throughout the day (haven't quite figured out the whole nap thing yet). It also really helps if you do something like lifting 2-3 days a week so that you're able to endure these 60-80 hour weeks better.

I'd say the big advantage of 5am is that nobody's there to bother you, but you could probably pull off the same 2 hours of personal work / day if you were to work after 6pm.

Re: Waking up at 5am to code

#72

Post by GigabyteCoin »

I have been doing the exact opposite of this strategy for some time now. Going to bed at 5am. Those 6 hours of coding between 11pm and 5am are some of the quietest you will ever experience in Toronto where I live at least.

If I woke up at 5am, I would bHORNe consHORNtaHORNntly distrubeHORNNNNNNNNd.

Re: Waking up at 5am to code

#73

Post by pknerd »

dmragone wrote: post #47

I would love to see a simple service that groups people who are willing to commit to getting up at the same time each day in order to hold each other accountable. There doesn't need to be anything significant - maybe it's just a matching service, letting people figure out for themselves how they can "check in" to confirm they are up and working at 6am (or whatever time is chosen). I know that I definitely can commit…

Sounds interesting! Who's going to make it? if none then I make and ask,"Who is going to finance me?" :-)

Re: Waking up at 5am to code

#74

Post by loopdoend »

GigabyteCoin wrote: post #72

I have been doing the exact opposite of this strategy for some time now. Going to bed at 5am. Those 6 hours of coding between 11pm and 5am are some of the quietest you will ever experience in Toronto where I live at least. If I woke up at 5am, I would b HORN e cons HORN ta HORN ntly distrube HORNNNNNNNN d.

The noise pollution in Toronto is obscene and I am thinking I should move somewhere else. I live by the Gardiner, and I also code at night, it is bliss, there are virtually no cars on the road. No noisy neighbours or horns or traffic or street cars.

Re: Waking up at 5am to code

#75

Post by jacalata »

Selvik wrote: post #65
dmragone wrote: post #47

I would love to see a simple service that groups people who are willing to commit to getting up at the same time each day in order to hold each other accountable. There doesn't need to be anything significant - maybe it's just a matching service, letting people figure out for themselves how they can "check in" to confirm they are up and working at 6am (or whatever time is chosen). I know that I definitely can commit…

This is a great idea. Probably doesn't require any groundbreaking technology either. Dear internet, please make this. EDIT: An iphone app that let's people call and text each other as their profile name (anonymously) would probably lower the barrier to sign up for something like this.

Maybe even a combination of this with the idea of pledging money if you don't achieve something? How much more motivated would you be to roll out of bed at 6am if you knew that skipping it would cost your buddy cash?

Re: Waking up at 5am to code

#76

Post by peteretep »

alexwolfe wrote: post #64

I've tried this approach and others. I'm sure for some it can work but ultimately I found you can't cheat time. If you wake up at 5am by 2pm you toast (mentally at least). I've found no real secret to gain extra real hours. The reality is that your mind can only function productively for so long each day. The productivity you feel at 5am is the same you'd feel at 8:00am it just seems more amazing because it's happeni…

I dunno, I've found I can make it work with progress. I get up at 6am, generally do 30 minutes of waking up admin (usually with an Anki/SuperMemo session thrown in), and then try and get a good two hours of work in, before heading to the day job.

You can't do this if you're not willing to go to bed early and eat well, too, though. And if you're still drinking alcohol during the week ... well, you have too much free time :-) I find a heavy workout at lunch time keeps me going after lunch.

What amazed me most about the OP was he updates his todos ... while watching TV? And squeezes his reading time for that? How do you find time to cook healthy food? See friends? Spend quality time with the girlfriend? Watching TV isn't inherently bad, but if you're doing it regularly, you've got waaay too much free time.

Re: Waking up at 5am to code

#77

Post by dmragone »

dmragone wrote: post #47

I would love to see a simple service that groups people who are willing to commit to getting up at the same time each day in order to hold each other accountable. There doesn't need to be anything significant - maybe it's just a matching service, letting people figure out for themselves how they can "check in" to confirm they are up and working at 6am (or whatever time is chosen). I know that I definitely can commit…

Love that people are responding positively to this. I shared the idea with my brother, and we're going to try to throw something together in our spare time over the next week.

If anyone's interested in helping out (I'd say we're most in need of someone with good web design skills, though will update later once we've fleshed it out some), feel free to contact me at [my HN user name] at gmail

Re: Waking up at 5am to code

#78

Post by nodemaker »

alexwolfe wrote: post #64

I've tried this approach and others. I'm sure for some it can work but ultimately I found you can't cheat time. If you wake up at 5am by 2pm you toast (mentally at least). I've found no real secret to gain extra real hours. The reality is that your mind can only function productively for so long each day. The productivity you feel at 5am is the same you'd feel at 8:00am it just seems more amazing because it's happeni…

The point is that the hours between 5 am to 9 am should be more productive for the majority of people (assuming everyone else you know is sleeping at that time) than say the hours between 9 pm to 1 am when most of us can hardly get anything done.

But I agree with your premise that maximum productivity is achieved when one finds his/her best schedule and sticks to it.

Re: Waking up at 5am to code

#79

Post by freshhawk »

k-mcgrady wrote: post #48

Interesting post. I used to do this myself but eventually found it difficult to get up so early. I've recently been trying out something similar though. I find it difficult to get to sleep often lying awake for up to 5 hours before falling asleep. As I am a freelancer I then tend to make up for it by sleeping in late (as I don't have a job to go to). I have recently been following a schedule of sleeping 2 nights and…

I've been in this cycle before. I still almost fall into it naturally, but less so than when I was in my early twenties.

My experience was that it isn't sustainable, the day after you stay up all night just gets worse and worse the longer you are on that schedule. After a short time, for me, that day was so unproductive that it more than destroyed any gains made in those extra hours or the encouraging "reset" to my ability to sleep at regular hours.

I have to admit that the early night and long sleep after that day was the best sleep I could get at the time.

The rest of it was pretty shitty, I slept like a dead person and woke groggy. Good sleep habits and a regular schedule have a domino effect, improving all sorts of stuff, definitely worth trying to stay off that sleep 2, stay up for 1 cycle in my experience.

Re: Waking up at 5am to code

#80

Post by k-mcgrady »

freshhawk wrote: post #79
k-mcgrady wrote: post #48

Interesting post. I used to do this myself but eventually found it difficult to get up so early. I've recently been trying out something similar though. I find it difficult to get to sleep often lying awake for up to 5 hours before falling asleep. As I am a freelancer I then tend to make up for it by sleeping in late (as I don't have a job to go to). I have recently been following a schedule of sleeping 2 nights and…

I've been in this cycle before. I still almost fall into it naturally, but less so than when I was in my early twenties. My experience was that it isn't sustainable, the day after you stay up all night just gets worse and worse the longer you are on that schedule. After a short time, for me, that day was so unproductive that it more than destroyed any gains made in those extra hours or the encouraging "reset" to my a…

It's been working for me so far but I can see how it would be hard to maintain. I don't expect to keep it up forever. Although it's working now I doubt it will last more than a month. Good to hear someone else experiences this sort of cycle naturally. Sleep is a big problem for me and really hurts my productivity so I'm always trying to figure out new patterns that might help, at least short term.
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