I am not sure whether I am a morning person or a night owl. I do tend to have more mental clarity in the mornings, but since I work from home for myself, I normally allow myself to wake up naturally in the morning and never set an alarm unless its completely necessary. However, that tends to mean I sleep in more often than not. Of course, that’s because I normally work later into the evening hours and don’t actually go to sleep until after midnight. But, the other day I had the most productive day ever, and it all took place in the span of 3 hours in the early morning.
A few Fridays ago, I woke up naturally at about 4 am. After tossing and turning for a while trying to get back to sleep, I decided that I should make the most of the situation and go to my office and get some things done, expecting that sleep would return to me after a half hour. Three hours later, I had completed all my writting and design work for the upcoming week, a chunk of work that would normally be broken up over a number of days! I was floored by my early morning productivity and wondered to myself why I wasn’t able to get this much done during normal business hours. This is what I realized:
The morning is a naturally productive time for me
I won’t go as far as to say that the morning is a naturally productive time for everyone, but for me, I do tend to have a lot of clarity and energy in the morning. After waking up naturally from a good nights rest, my mind is just fresher in the morning!
The morning is void of obligations
I loved sitting quietly in my office with a fresh cup of green tea, not having to worry about my husband or my dog. While I worked, the hubster and puppy were fast asleep in bed, and I didn’t have to deal with the normal worry of my family obligations.
The morning is great for deep focus
These three hours were so productive to me not just because I was energized, and not just because I had peace of mind that I had no obligations to worry about, but it was also so productive because I had none of my usual distractions. I wasn’t getting a barrage of text messages, I didn’t have to take calls from my clients, I wasn’t focused on checking my email! I was just able to sit in my office at my desk and deeply focus on my work. I always knew that my daily distractions were taking time away from my productivity, but until now, I hadn’t ever seen how much work I could do with zero distractions. It was eye opening!
So if you are looking to get more done in your day or knock out a project that has been lingering, I highly recommend this one tip of waking up early as a means to jumpstart your productivity. To be honest, I don’t think I will be forcing myself to wake up at 4:30 am everyday to get more work done, however, after seeing how much I was able to do in one morning, I am seriously planning to try this one day a week. One night a week I will get myself to bed early and set an alarm for a few hours earlier than I normally wake, and I will spend that time working on items that will help keep me ahead on my workload. Perhaps it will grow to twice or three times a week, perhaps it will just remain one, but all I know is that it will be worth it for me to keep up this habit and I’m excited to see how many more projects I will be able to take on during the week now thanks to the early morning productivity session that knocks out a good chunk of my workload!
If you give this tip a try, I want to know about it! Leave me a comment down below and let me know if this is something you already do or if it’s something you may want to try! I’d love to hear about your experiences and insights you gleaned from it!
xoxo,
That story resonated with me. I did exactly the same a couple of months ago and it’s crossed my mind to try it again. I prefer to work in the morning but there was something about that extra early morning and lack of distractions that allowed me to get much more work done.
Glad this could serve as a reminder for you!
I am a night owl so I prefer sleeping later into the morning. However, when I do get up earlier I have found the same thing you did. I am more productive and I greatly enjoy how quiet the world is at that time of day. I crave that quiet in this busy world we live in. I have been slowly working my rise time back because I love that peaceful feeling so much more than staying up late. 🙂
I think the late night/early morning thing is basically the same, it just comes down to if you are a night owl or early bird! Thanks for the comment lady!
I get a lot done at night when everyone is sleeping. I like to sleep in whenever I can. Which is not very long cause of my children. It’s amazing what you can get done with no distractions.
Distractions are the thief of productivity!
I too have found I work better very early in the morning and it’s simply due to the fact that’s there’s nothing going on around me, not online nor in the house. Starting super early in the day also allows me to get a good chunk of work done so I can finish at 3pm when I pick my son up from school. Although I often get stuck into craft project once he’s in bed 🙂
That’s a great schedule to be on! I love when I have my days tasks done by the afternoon with hours of daylight to spare!
I 100% second this. I’m a morning person and I’m more productive then because of the lack of distractions!
Thanks for the feedback Hollie!
The no distractions part is why my dad has woken up at 3-4 am for the past 20 years. He uses that time to get paperwork done and contracts written up because the rest of the family got up.
I usually shoot my YouTube videos and do my best blog work on Saturday and Sunday mornings before my Husband is awake.
I wish I was that dedicated! A girl can hope!!
Fantastic post Alexis! I’m always most productive in the mornings – my high time in the office is between 9-11am. I power through my to do list, ping off emails and make calls. Maybe it’s having a fab breakfast and lots of water that helps me get going.
Those are some great tips to remember! We need to be well nourished to have the energy to work effectively!
Saturday mornings are my best time. I think that knowing that I am off for the rest of the day really helps.
I love Saturday mornings too! So much possibility at the start of a weekend!
I actually just realised a couple of weeks ago that I was a morning person too. I agree that your mind just feels clearer at that time.
Sometimes its hard to figure out if you are or aren’t a morning person because most of us don’t wake up feeling super well rested, so it can be confusing!
I agree with Jennifer, you and others that it is so much easier to get work done when everyone else is fast asleep. I often find a burst of creativity and productivity at about midnight if I am not exhausted by the day. I think that knowing that I have 9 hours until I have to be to work in the morning (preferably with sleep, but hey sometimes you really have to hustle — with no sleep). I also find it so much easier to work when my boyfriend and pup are asleep too. It’s so hard to shoo Harley Quinn, my boston terrier, away when he’s brought me his favorite toy to play tug and I’m working. I also find that at about midnight my social media accounts are quiet so I have one less distraction. PS so glad to know I’m not the only one who regularly goes to bed after midnight!
Such a cute name for your dog!!
YAS! That first sentence really resonated with me. I have always been known as a night owl and someone that is more difficult to wake up in the mornings. However, recently I have started getting up much earlier and and get very productive those two hours before I even get into the lab either with work-work or my more neglected house-work. My system is so confused about the early morning productivity time that I still cannot really tell if this means I am a morning person lol
I’m glad you shared this tip. I did try to wake up every day at 6am, and I did for about a week. It was a very refreshing time and I had everything done within 3 hours. I was able to prep for dinner and I had everything done before 2pm. I normally start cooking around 2pm or 3pm but not later than that. Then, I started waking up at 9am; but it’s not the same. Today, I was telling myself that I needed to do this again and I came across your blog post. I think that’s a sign! Lol
I have had a similar experience but just with mornings in general, I tend to wake up pretty early naturally anyway (I often wake up when the sun starts coming out) – and I find that when I really have something (like one or 2 things) that I need to do I have these days where I wake up early and just knock them out in a few hours and normally these would take me the entire afternoon.
Loved this article – it completely affirms something I somewhat already knew 🙂 I hope it works out well for you 🙂