Waking up at 5 am

#1

Post by oscardelben » Wed, Mar 24, 2010, 12:45 PM UTC

Re: Waking up at 5 am

#2

Post by oscardelben » Wed, Mar 24, 2010, 12:52 PM UTC

I'm the author of the post. I posted it here because I think it can be relevant to programmers.

I understand many people like to work at night, but for those who are ok with getting up early, it's really something worth trying. In my (limited) experience it's not hard to study programming topics when you just woke up, instead it takes a good 30 minutes or more if you want to concentrate on a bright monitor (but you can use a dark color theme to solve that).

Regarding productivity, the reason I believe waking up early works is because you get a big amount of high quality, uninterrupted time, where you are fresh and not tired from the day.

Re: Waking up at 5 am

#3

Post by vital101 » Wed, Mar 24, 2010, 1:45 PM UTC

"embrace polyphasic sleep".

Not as easy as you would think. Also, most job schedules don't really allow for a polyphasic sleep schedule.

Re: Waking up at 5 am

#4

Post by duck » Wed, Mar 24, 2010, 1:53 PM UTC

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.

Re: Waking up at 5 am

#5

Post by loup-vaillant » Wed, Mar 24, 2010, 1:59 PM UTC

vital101 wrote: post #3

"embrace polyphasic sleep". Not as easy as you would think. Also, most job schedules don't really allow for a polyphasic sleep schedule.

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)?

Re: Waking up at 5 am

#6

Post by oscardelben » Wed, Mar 24, 2010, 2:01 PM UTC

loup-vaillant wrote: post #5

vital101 wrote: post #3

"embrace polyphasic sleep". Not as easy as you would think. Also, most job schedules don't really allow for a polyphasic sleep schedule.

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.

Re: Waking up at 5 am

#7

Post by vital101 » Wed, Mar 24, 2010, 2:05 PM UTC

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.

Re: Waking up at 5 am

#8

Post by jimfl » Wed, Mar 24, 2010, 2:10 PM UTC

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.

Re: Waking up at 5 am

#9

Post by swombat » Wed, Mar 24, 2010, 2:49 PM UTC

That's exactly what I did for about 9 months to start my first start-up - except I woke up at 4am, so I could fit in a one-hour nap before going to work (I was still inexperienced at napping back then).

It worked really well. I don't think I could have finished the product without working in the morning.

Re: Waking up at 5 am

#10

Post by SamAtt » Wed, Mar 24, 2010, 2:54 PM UTC

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.