I’ve read quite a lot of articles lately that try to convince people to be a “morning person” per se.

Looking at my own workflow and having watched it closely for the last five years, this is a really interesting topic to me that deserves more in-depth study.

A look at research

Current research concludes that

• genetics between “morningness” and “eveningness” isn’t as straightforward as some authors of the blogosphere suggest.¹
• Also morning types are relatively rare among young adults according to a recent study.⁴
• Defining factors are the
  • solar-clock (light & temperature)
  • your social-clock (appointments)
  • and your biological-clock.¹

Findings also suggest that

• on workdays the timespan to fully feel awake increases with later chronotypes
• where women qualify themselves as slightly earlier chronotypes than men.¹⁺³

In addition to endogenous factors that affect morningness/eveningness, research suggests that the dissipation of sleep pressure (in terms of increasing Adenosine-levels during the awake-period and decreasing levels during the sleep-period) may result in preferences for an early or late sleep schedule.² Adenosine is best known in combination with coffee, where [simplified] the caffeine blocks the adenosine from binding to specific cells, what would normally tell the brain “to slow down”.

Regarding my observations over the last 5 years I experimented with different settings over time:

• University (2 1/2 years) & Startup (simplora.de, 8 months)

- Schedule: all-nighter

- Working-time approx. 10am/11am to 6am/7am.

Positive

- Got a lot done while working long hours with excellent results

Negative

- Productivity plunges after some time, especially in the afternoon

- overall happiness plunges as well

• Client projects / Single founder – Part 1 (6 months)

Being the “evening-person” for a long time, I tried the early-bird-approach for over half a year.

Schedule:

- 7am – get up, grab something to eat and run to the gym (approx. 2,5km)

- 7.30 at gym till 8.30

- 9.00 till 9.30 breakfast

- 9.30 to 8pm working (with breaks/lunch)

- 8pm to 11.30pm relaxing

- 12pm bed

Positive:

- you feel good once up early

- in harmony with “normal” working hours (e.g. girlfriend/boyfriend, wife/husband, friends )

- gym’s empty

To me, being a morning-person is really tempting. Over the course of 6 months I always met my goal to get up early, even if it was still hard in the end.

Results matter

There is a really important point though, that I realized after 6 months. It’s not about “being able” to be a morning-person in terms of the act of getting-up. If you have enough self-discipline, that shouldn’t be a problem.

It is really about if you can profit from being a morning-person. Be it productivity for example. I got up early every single morning that 6 months, did my routine, sat down really disciplined to start working… and the ideas just didn’t start flowing, everything needed more time than normally, etc.

More than that, I have my best ideas and productivity peak after 6pm every single day. Finishing with work “early” kind of killed my creative-process since executing on these thoughts was always postponed to the next day, when half of the original idea was forgotten and every enthusiasm gone.

• Client projects / Single founder – Part 2

Realizing the above I found the schedule that fits my needs best.

 Schedule:

10am – get up, breakfast, preparing lunch

10.30 – 12am – work (typical to-do tasks that distract you from “real” work)

12am to 2pm – gym & lunch (1/2 hour run, 1 hour workout)

2pm to 5pm – relax (read, social, museum, coffee, etc.)

5pm to 3am – work (with breaks)

Deploying this schedule has had a major influence on my overall productivity and happiness. Productivity has at least doubled. Compared to the all-nighter-approach this is a sustainable strategy.

Nevertheless there are some important points to pay attention to in order to make this work:

• Brakes

e.g. gym, grabbing a coffee outside (something more than a “quick 1-minute break”). Those will split your day in smaller chunks and really help to keep your productivity on a high level.

• Regularity

go to bed at your specified time. Good sleep is priceless. Sticking to this will ensure you don’t end up pulling all-nighters for no reason.

• Reflection

inspired by Buffer-founder Joel Gascoigne I started to take a walk just before going to bed. It is one of the best things I ever started doing. It gives you time to reflect on the past day and clears your head before going to bed.

• Commitment

to your schedule. Don’t feel bad because other people do it differently. Results matter.

• Structure

I have started working out when I was 14 (crunches 3 times a week back then) and never stopped doing it ever since. Now hitting the gym 7 days a week. It gives you something you come back to every single day, be it a good day or not. It gives you structure. Find something that does that for you.

As research indicates there is a difference between morning- and evening-persons. It is not just about saying “be an early-bird or be a night-owl”. If you want to maximize your output it is important to take the time and find out what type you are so you can profit the most from it. A couple of hours of complete focus on work trump almost everything in terms of getting things done.

This post covers a topic I really care about and experiment with a lot. Have you made similiar experience regarding your workflow? What type of morning-/evening-person are you? I’d love to here your thoughts on this!

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References:

1. Till Roenneberg, Anna Wirz-Justice and Martha Merrow (2003) – Life between Clocks: Daily Temporal Patterns of Human Chronotypes – Journal of Biological Rhythms, Vol. 18 No. 1, P. 80-90 – Link to PDF
2. V. Mongrain, J. Carrier and M. Dumont (2006) – Circadian and homeostatic sleep regulation in morningness–eveningness – Journal of Sleep Research, Vol. 15, P. 162–166 – Link to PDF
3. Antoine U. Viola, Simon N. Archer, Lynette M. James, John A. Groeger, June C.Y. Lo, Debra J. Skene, Malcolm von Schantz and Derk-Jan Dijk (2007) – PER3 Polymorphism Predicts Sleep Structure and Waking Performance – Current Biology, Vol. 17, P. 613–618 – Link to PDF
4. Rene´e K. Biss and Lynn Hasher (2012) – Happy as a Lark: Morning-Type Younger and Older Adults Are Higher in Positive Affect – Emotion 2012, Vol. 12, No. 3, P. 437–441 – Link to PDF

Photo credit: Robert Deutsch - USA TODAY Sports