I’m a night owl. Always have been and always will be.
For whatever reason every night at about 10 or 11 I get a burst of energy. No explanation.
I was told that I would “grow out of it” and that I will “get used to mornings.” Nope. Not a morning person, never will be.
Despite being a night owl I get up at about 5:30am every morning and start work at about 7:00am. Working in corporate America – or any job with “regular” hours – will make it nearly impossible for night owls to do work when they have the most energy: late at night.
In a perfect world, everyone would be able to work when they have the most energy. Since we don’t live in a perfect world, we have to look for ways to be productive regardless of whether you are a morning person or a night owl.
Here’s some tips for all my fellow night owls out there:
Do everything you can at night instead of the morning
Night owls struggle in the morning. Make as many decisions and do as much prep work for the morning as possible the night before. Decide what clothes you are going to wear. Pack your work bag. Decide what you will have for breakfast. Pack your lunch. You get the point.
The more you can do the night before the better. This has the additional benefit of allowing you to wake up later in the day.
Caffeine. Lots of caffeine.
If you have a job that requires you to be up – and alert – early in the morning, you should seriously consider becoming a coffee drinker if you aren’t already.
I only mention this because I didn’t start drinking coffee until a year or so after I graduated college. I didn’t like coffee so my only source of caffeine was soda (or “pop” as we call it here in Minnesota) and energy drinks. While I still consume about a can of soda a day, it’s much easier to limit your soda intake when you are a coffee drinker. Coffee is better for your
Shift as much as you can at night
While night owls don’t always have schedules that allow them to do work at night, that doesn’t mean they can’t leverage the energy they have at night to get things done. Shifting tasks to the evening and leveraging night-time energy is something night owls should always be looking to do more of.
You can get creative with this and shift as many things as possible to night that you otherwise would do at other times of the day. For example, I used to comment on 10-30 blogs every morning. Now I comment on zero in the morning and simply reciprocate comments at night. It allows me to sleep later and get out the door faster. It also allows me to power through blog commenting when I have the most energy – at night.
Plan productive things you can do at night
The issue with night owls – and insomniacs – is that they typically end up wasting a lot of time at night. Whether it’s social media, late-night TV, video games, or something else, there’s always something that will eat up your time.
While most careers don’t lend themselves to working in the evening, there are many side hustles that you can do in the evenings and weekends that are conducive to “night owl” hours. For example, I once said that blogging is the ultimate side hustle. One reason I gave is that you can work your own schedule. Blogging certainly isn’t the only “night owl” friendly side hustle, but it’s a good example of how night owls can make the most of their night-time energy.
You don’t have to run a business in the evening to make productive use of your time, though. Having a to-do list of things you “never get around to” can make your evenings much more productive. There’s pretty much an endless number of productive things you can do at night such as cleaning, organizing, reading, writing, or learning a new skill.
Identifying these productive activities before the evening is important. Keep a list with you and add to it as you think of things.
To end I wanted to share a funny BuzzFeed list I saw. I don’t typically read BuzzFeed because it’s addicting, but I saw the most epic BuzzFeed ever: 23 Things Every Late-Night Person Will Know To Be True. Amazing!
Are you a night owl or a morning person? How do you make efficient use of your time?
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Photo by Alex Bellink
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I’m more a morning person, unless I have stayed up late the night before. Some days… like today, I predict, I hit the sack at 9 p.m., not able to keep my eyes open another second. It’s unusual for me to sleep in, although I try if I’m overtired. On the weekend I slept to 8:25 one day and went “Wow!”
Like Debs, I’m also definitely a morning person, and the earlier the better (5am is what I always aim for). There’s something about being up before the rest of the world, and getting important things done before some people are out of bed, that just makes you feel so satisfied for the rest of the day. But I guess you feel the same way at night DC – while us early birds are sleeping you’re powering ahead getting great things done before you fall asleep!
Perhaps we should team up and start a 24 hr, always-ready-to-respond business of some sort – although with the time zone difference between the US and Australia it’s probably not that hard anyway…
And I love your buzzfeed link – I’ve never come across this before! I love number 10 – equally applicable to getting up very early…
I’m a night owl but I have to work during the day because the kids are at school/daycare. What I’ve been doing lately is working 8-3 then a few hours each night after the kids go to bed. Sometimes I can be crazy productive during the 8-10pm hour!
I hate mornings, but I’ve found that I can be really productive. I have to be at work at 6am which forces me to wake up and drink coffee during my drive, and then no one really bothers me from 6-8, so I can actually get a lot done. But then, about 9 or 10 I can get a lot done too!
I used to be a bit of a night owl, but then one day the energy went away and didn’t reappear anywhere else in the day. Now I’m just tired all the time. :)
No, seriously, I do still have my most productive hours from 8 pm on. I am going to borrow your idea on when to read and comment on blogs (something that’s really hard to find the time to do lately).
I’m definitely a night owl, although if I had my pick I would be a morning person. Just never have been though. Of course, night time is when I get most of my work/studying done. I’m not concerned with going-ons in the outside world as everyone is sleeping, and I can focus uninterruptedly because my wife and dogs are, too. But it’s great for me to be able to squeeze a few extra minutes or hours of productivity out of the day.
I tend to have two periods where I’m most productive – which is during the morning. and then another surge of energy in the early evening. I like to be in bed by 11 p.m. but of late due to extra work, I end crashing after midnight!
I actually was never a night owl when I had my regular job because I had to be up at 4:45 am every morning to work out, catch the train and be on the trading floor by 7:30am. Now that I have more flexible hours, I have become more of a night owl, and I take advantage of my energy boosts whenever I get them. If I am up and could be working on something, I do it. If I wake up early and could be productive, I do that as well. I never seem to know exactly when I will get my boosts of energy, so I have taken to embracing them and exploiting them whenever they arise.
Oh no, not me. I’m sleepy at 10pm. On weekends, I force myself to stay up to at least midnight because I’m an adult! I’m also not a morning person. I don’t wake up too late (~7:30am weekdays and 8-9am on weekends) but I don’t like waking up at all. I guess I just love sleeping.
I need my beauty sleep.
I feel like I have enough time during the day to be productive, especially since I have a few hours of free time at work.
i have been working on changing this for years, DC.. But my nature is exactly the same. However, I always hear that the most successful people get started early and make use of those early morning hours.
debt debs You morning people…I can’t decide if I envy you or not haha. It’s funny how I can be tired for most of the day and get a sudden jolt of energy at 10-11pm and be super efficient.
Jason@Islands of Investing I’m fascinated by morning people. I do get up at about 5:30am each day, but I definitely do not feel great and do not feel efficient that early in the morning. I like getting to work before others, but honestly if I could shift some of my time to late at night it would be a net gain as far as productivity goes.
Holly at ClubThrifty We are similar, Holly, as I have to work during the day simply because that’s when people at my company work. Being a night owl does benefit my blog, though, because it means I can hit a second gear right when I’m working on blog-related stuff.
RetiredBy40 You raise an interesting point. I think if people do not bother you during the morning it can be a lot easier to be efficient and get things done. I can’t stand talking to people before 8 or 9am!
DonebyForty The blog commenting plan has worked well for me. I still get enough comments that I am commenting quite a bit, but none of it’s in the morning. I’ve been able to sleep a bit later and not have as rushed of mornings, which is perfect for a non-morning person.
ImpersonalFinance I would be a morning person if I had a choice, too. They have a natural advantage in life. Since I’m not a morning person I’m doing whatever I can to maximize the evenings.
Kassandra @ More Than Just Money That’s interesting, but it makes sense for a morning person. It’s crazy how companies and the world in general try to standardize work times even though everyone’s personality is different.
blonde_finance I get up about 5:30am for work and have been doing this for about 2-3 years. I can honestly say I’m still no more of a morning person. But sometimes shifting work schedules can cause you to change a bit, as it did in your case.
Aldo @ MDN Sounds like a good schedule for you! I love sleeping, but I hate going to bed. I just want to stay up later and later.
seedebtrun I’ve heard that about successful people as well, which is why I think morning people have an unfair advantage ;) But in all seriousness I think each person has to figure out how to best utilize – and conserve – their energy.
For me, it actually switches day by day. Some days I wake up at 5 a.m. and work like crazy. Other days I just cannot work in the morning and wait until night time to work. I am a weirdo!
I can so relate. I honestly wish I could be a morning person, but it’s never worked out. I get a little tired around 10, but if I don’t go to sleep, I get another burst of energy, which is annoying when I’m trying to get to sleep earlier! Most nights I’ve stopped fighting it, otherwise I’ll simply be laying in bed wide awake. That BuzzFeed list is totally accurate. Interestingly, coffee has never woken me up. It’s like I’m immune to caffeine (I don’t drink soda).
I’m a mixture of both. I can stay up until 1 – 1 30 am easily and be up by 7 the next morning. I absolutely hate having to get up anytime before 7 though. I don’t seem to have as much energy.
I’m a night owl as well, which is one of the reasons I’ve decided to take night classes while still working during the day. I’m more alert and ready to get things done in the afternoons/ early evenings. Also, getting everything I can done to prepare for the morning ( packing lunch, laying out my clothes, aligning my purse and work bag, etc) has really helped me being out the door by 7:30am.
I am such a night owl! When I was working FT and side hustling, I was getting 5-6 hours of sleep a night. It was awful and I was having about 4 cups of coffee a day. Now that I’m a freelancer, I sleep in and take care of admin work during the day and focus on content at night. Part of me feels guilty, because I feel like I should be doing something more substantial during the day (and sometimes do), but I really feel creative and productive at night.
This is an interesting one cause my energy levels tend to fluctuate between night and morning.. Sometimes I feel really energetic in the morning but then others I feel productive at night..
Never been a fan of a lot of caffine although I am very lucky to be still quite young and usually have crazy amounts of energy once I wake up in the morning..
I look to be most productive by planning activities and sticking to a schedule as much as possible :)
I think I’m more of an in the middle person. If I had my way, I’d go to bed at 11 or 12 and wake up at 7 or 8. As it stands, I have to get up around 4:45 or so to be able to work out and get all the rest of the stuff done that I have to do. As I get older, it’s also very likely that I will start nodding off around 10. I think having a kid threw everything out of wack and it might not ever go back. Just the other night we were up at 2AM because she needed to wash her hands!
SenseofCents You’re what we like to call “different”, Michelle. Haha just kidding ;) I imagine the fact you can make your own schedule allows you to listen to your body more so than others who are stuck in the same day-to-day routine.
JourneytoSaving Try an energy drink, that would wake you up ;) I’m kidding, though I may have gone through a stint where I have energy drinks fairly early in the morning…. :0 I’ve also stopped fighting it and embrace working and getting things done at 10pm.
Jason @ The Butler Journal Hmm that’s really interesting. If I stay up until 1 or 1:30, getting up at 7 would be killer. Then again I do stay up until about 11:30 and get up at 5:30 on a consistent basis.
AccordingToAthena I hear you! I always make sure that I have everything ready in the morning so that I can spend as little time and energy getting ready as possible.
deardebt Wow, you have the absolute best schedule in my opinion. I only get about 6 hours of sleep a night (sometimes just under) and it really can wear you down over time. It’s hard, though, because even if I wasn’t blogging I would still be staying up late. I’d be watching TV, reading, or doing something but I certainly wouldn’t be going to bed at 9pm.
mycareercrusade I try to stick to a schedule as well, but at night I typically will just listen to my body. If I don’t feel like going to bed at 11, I’ll stay up reading or working another half hour or hour. I don’t know what I would do without coffee, though.
Eyesonthedollar Oh boy, I wouldn’t be amused being up at 2am because my kid has to wash their hands! I can see how having a kid – or kids – would throw your sleep schedule out of whack. I think when I have kids I will be napping more throughout the day since they will wake me up early.
A great takeaway here is to get stuff done when you are your most productive. I wake up very early everyday and find that to be productive, but I think there is too much emphasis on waking up early to be productive. If you’re at your best in the late hours, do your work then.
I’m definitely a morning person. I respect you and your blog, DC, but I have to respectfully disagree with your caffeine endorsement. There are much healthier ways to get energy, such as “juicing”. My hubby is extremely addicted to caffeine, all sources, not just energy drinks. It is a monkey that I wish on no one’s back. The longer you do it, the more you will wish you hadn’t later in life. It causes a lot of physical damage. I am doing a future post on it. Take care of yourselves while you’re young and you’ll never get “old”.
kay ~ lifestylevoices.com Hmm definitely curious what your takeaways are, especially what research you have seen that argues against caffeine. All the research out there recently (that I’ve seen) has pointed towards coffee being very good for you and actually makes the scientific case that drinking coffee is better than not drinking coffee.