I’m a night owl, so I am most productive at night. In the morning, I’m pretty much useless. The earlier I get up the more useless I am.
In the morning, everything distracts me. I’m all over the place, skipping from one blog to the next, trying to decide whether I want to use cinnamon or peppermint creamer in my next cup of coffee, opening new browser windows only to forget what it was I was going to look up. I’m a real mess until I’ve had at least three cups of coffee, and even then I’m not as productive as I’d like to be.
I get more done between 10pm and midnight than I get done all day. Part of this can be attributed to fewer distractions at home, such as email, client phone calls, etc. Still, I really do feel better at night, and that’s when I’m more focused.
I had an email conversation with Katharine a few weeks ago, and one of the things we chatted about was how we’d both experimented with our work schedules so we could stay up later and wake up later. I truly get more accomplished that way.
My groovy sleep-late schedule got ruined recently, because I now have two daily jobs I have to deliver before noon. Because of the nature of these jobs, I can’t do them the night before the way I’d hoped I could when I took the jobs. The situation’s really bumming me out on one hand. On the other, I’m holding out hope that I’ll adjust to the new schedule and eventually get more productive during my extra morning hours.
I’m curious, when do you work best? When would you choose to work if you had the option? Are you already working at the time of day you’re the most productive, or are you stuck adjusting like I am?
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
I work best from about 8AM til noon. It is the hardest to work then, but if the TV is off and my daughter will play, this is the time I get the most work done. I do not work very well after dinner.
I do my best writing during “owl hours” like you. I am also very klutzy early in the morning. It’s like my mind and body don’t meet until I’m overflowing with coffee and midnight strikes!
Smiles,
Michele
Writing the Cyber Highway
I usually work all night and sleep during the day. Since most of my editing clients are self-publishing authors who have day jobs, they like having me available in the evenings. When I need to be available to business clients, I either get up in the late afternoon or stay up until mid-morning.
Being able to work this schedule is one of the best things about being a freelancer.
My first action of the day is to turn on my laptop, then I make coffee — and I do email and research for my blog from 7-10 a.m. Sometimes there’s a break from 10-2, then I write til 5, mostly on my blog, sometimes on my book. BUT often my best writing happens from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Thank goodness for those periodic breaks!
Like Lillie, I work all night and sleep of a day. There’s too much activity going on during the day to concentrate. Therefore, I’m more productive when it’s quiet. My hours are usually 10pm until 7am, and when I have lots to do: 10pm until 8 or 9 in the morning. I’ve NEVER been a morning person.
My weekends are spent with the children and hubby. If I have a pressing deadline, I will sometimes work during the afternoon or at night on weekends, but not all night. We have to make time for the family, too.
You all make me feel better about my own crazy work hours. At least I know I’m not alone in my 3am endeavors.
Janis,
My hat’s off to you for being able to work with a child at home. I don’t know how all of you writing moms do it. I’m so easily distracted!!
I tend to get tired after I eat, so I’m not very productive after a meal either.
Michele,
I knew you were a fellow night owl, but I didn’t know you were a fellow morning klutz. Maybe we should get matching t-shirts.
Lilli and Misti,
A few years ago, my schedule was to sleep from about 10am-3pm, then work from about 5pm-9am. I really liked being nocturnal!
Tom,
Your blog Becoming a Writer Seriously is quickly becoming one of my favorites. I found your blog through Michael’s contest and have been lurking around during my coffee breaks.
Like you, I also take breaks. I usually quit from 4pm or 5pm until about 7pm or 8pm. On nights when I work until 3am or later, those breaks really help keep me from getting burnt out.
Amy,
I tend to become inspired very late at night and often stay up all or most of the night writing, blogging, doing research, and/or visiting other blogs. I’ve always been a night owl, though I also enjoy being up early in the morning with the rest of the world. (Of course, the two don’t go together very well!)
At this point, I’m in the process of adjusting to an earlier schedule (though it isn’t easy). With some of my current commitments, as well as others that I plan to take on in the near future, this will simply work better for me.
It also feels like an accomplishment, since I’ve always felt that my tendency to stay up late was due to a simple lack of self-discipline (though I only speak for myself here). Come to think of it, it probably has just as much to do with the fact that I hate to go to bed at all, because there are simply too many fascinating things to read, write, study, and do!
One problem I have with a late schedule, though, is that, no matter how late I go to bed, I generally can’t sleep beyond a certain point in the morning, because I wake up thinking about all the things I need to do that day and how I should be up working, and consequently I end up perpetually sleep-deprived.
For those of you who can sleep late enough to make up for the late hour you turn in–without that being disruptive to your day–that schedule obviously works, and that’s great!
Jeanne
Jeanne,
I can completely relate to what you’re saying. Although it’s more a case of taking on too much work than just wanting to stay up late in my case, I have been trying to force myself to go to bed earlier.
Unlike you, though, I have trouble waking up in the morning. I always have, even as a kid. I’ve broken many alarm clocks since those childhood elementary school days.
My mistake is often once I’m up late working to meet deadlines, I’m too jazzed up to go to sleep. I’ll browse blogs or watch television until I get tired enough to go to sleep, but with my insomnia my habits don’t work out so well.
I’ve been trying to force myself to get more done earlier, so I can go to bed earlier. My discipline issues are spending too much time during the day on unrelated things (like reading blogs) and taking on too much extra work.
For example, a few weeks ago I had a break between one big client I lost and a new big project I’d be taking on this week. Rather enjoy the extra few hours, I filled the time up with two more smaller projects. I’m really stupid sometimes.
Wish I could work at night but I seem to be more of a morning person, at least I am after a couple cups of coffee. I generally piddle with the email, blogging, reading etc…between 6am and 9am and then really get down to work at 9. I’m able to focus until around 1 or 2 and then I can pick it back up after an hour of rest. The nights are reserved for editing and research, though my head usually hits the pillow before 10:00. Not much fun at my house!
I’m a 4am to 8am kind of gal. No phone ringing, no neighbors mowing, no kids yelling, just the soft tap of fingers hitting keys. Of course, by 7pm, I am a zombie.
People tend to praise me for getting up before dawn to write, yet they fail to consider I am asleep soon after the sun sets!
Annette and Shelly,
I envy you both. I wish I could be more of a morning person. I don’t think I could handle going to bed that early though.
I guess what I’d like is to stay up late and still be able to get up early. Too bad my body won’t cooperate!!
Evidently this is a topic every writer has something to say about. Good choice, Amy. :o)
I wake up earlier than I used to, but sometimes I think I’m actually less productive this way. I, too, am easily distracted during the day. Between midnight and 3am (sometimes later) used to be my golden time: I’d sit in my rocker covered with my laptop on my lap, and work like my a$$ was on fire.
Now that I’ve “graduated” to more regular daytime hours, I just can’t seem to produce the same effect. Which is why I’m here at 2:45 in the afternoon, instead of working.
The problem is that by the time I finished diddling around and get into “work mode,” my husband is coming home from work. Sometimes I really envy you single writers… and wonder how on earth I’ll be able to handle it when I add children to the daytime distractions.
Writing late at night is what works for me. As a single mother I almost have to write when the children are fast asleep. Of course, I try to squeeze in writing spurts during the day, too. Flexibility is key in my writing life…
I do enjoy being single, though, because that leaves more time for my real love (other than my children, of course!). If I were married or dating I’d lose a lot of my time to building and/or maintaining that relationship–not to mention all the time with the in-laws!
If it worn for the seizures Id work any time.Now I’m just a stay at home slug at least that is ehat I feel like
I think I operate best in the afternoon and evening. Unfortunately, my schedule doesn’t allow for writing at that time, but I’m working on it.
Happy New Year Amy!!
Thank you for being such a valuable resource in 2007!!!
You ROCK!!
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