Productivity Myth: In Order To Be Productive, You Must Wake Up Early.

Today, I’m starting a series on the blog where I teach you about a few very common productivity tips I hear people talk about all the time that I actually believe don’t really affect your productivity. Now, what makes these tips a little complicated is that they do happen to touch on some real productivity truth, but it’s one of those situations where the true cause of the improvement is being masked by the myth. It’s like the concept of an old wives tale if you are familiar with those ideas that have been handed down through generations that sometimes work and sometimes don’t. The reason this happens is because the concept being shared touches on truth but the full understanding of the mechanism behind it isn’t fully realized. This is the case for the tips I want to share with you today. For simplicities sake, let’s call them productivity myths, because that is what they are, things people believe affect your productivity but they don’t. Instead, they touch on a truth that runs deeper, and I want to explain those truths to you as well!

Productivity Myth #1: In order to be productive, you need to wake up early.

Long time followers of mine will not be shocked that I am starting with this myth. I have shared my thoughts on this idea before; that we need to wake up earlier in the morning in order to get more done, in order to then be productive. It’s not only a complete farce, but I actually think this concept has some very dangerous implications for our society, which, at least speaking from my perspective in the U.S., is already highly sleep deprived! So let me deconstruct this idea a bit for you so I can explain exactly how it is supposed to work, why it is particularly insidious and what is really going on behind the scenes that can sometimes make it seem like it’s working when it’s not.

So, the idea behind waking up earlier to be more productive is that getting a jump start on the day, by waking up before others in your house hold or getting to work earlier than your co-workers, will essentially give you more time to do things, and perhaps more uninterrupted time if that’s something you struggle with. Sounds good, right? I can completely understand why we would believe this concept. I think most people probably feel guilty that they sleep in too long, or hit the snooze button too many times in the morning. I know a lot of people in my community have come to me and asked for tips on how to complete more work during the course of their days, and one seemingly easy way to achieve this would be to just be awake for more hours of the day. Yes, if you wake up earlier and get right to work, you can theoretically get more achieved in your day, but eventually cutting into your sleep will start to show negative affects.

One of the reasons soo many people sleep in often is because they aren’t getting the right amount of sleep to begin with. They either go to bed too late or have a hard time sleeping so the quality of your sleep is affected. Time is a construct people, waking up at a particular time doesn’t have any affect on your productivity, and waking up earlier and cutting into your sleep time will ultimately harm your productivity and your health. I find that those who try to wake up earlier in the morning and cut into their sleep might start their day successfully and productive, but then end up hitting a wall of exhaustion sooner than if they had just used that time for sleep. Unfortunately, most grown ups don’t have the luxury of taking naps during the day when this happens, so they end up having to push through the rest of their day exhausted, and likely much less productive, all because they cut into sleep time. Sleep deprivation not only makes you much less productive, but it has some terrible affects we shouldn’t ignore to our health and well being, as well as to our attention while driving or performing other tasks that require focus.

The truth behind this concept that often makes it seem like it’s working, is that waking up and getting straight down to business (not dilly dally-ing) does have a positive affect on your productivity. But it’s a mindset shift, not an alarm shift, that achieves this. Also, there is something to be said of having that time in your day when you can work uninterrupted, and so I can understand why parents might be drawn to this concept. If waking up earlier to get things done before your family or so you can get to work before others is beneficial to you, obviously keep doing it. My caution is that you don’t want to cut into sleep time, however. If you want to wake up earlier, you need to get to bed earlier. You need to structure your day in a way that you are taking advantage of patterns and routines you see in your life and not wasting those opportunities. But, you do also have the power to create opportunities for uninterrupted work in other ways as well. Most people don’t set enough boundaries or take the proper steps necessary to ensure they avoid interruptions during their day to begin with, so consider starting with things you can change during your day first before messing with something as important as your sleep.

Some ways you can create boundaries to avoid interruptions would be to work with your office door closed, or put up a sign on a cubicle letting people know you are focused on deep work. Turn off your phone or close out of email. I love and have used the idea of putting an out of office message on your email to let people know that you check your email only at specific points of your day to set expectations. I also am a big fan of finding an alternate place to work, even at your office (like in a conference room) so that you can get away from your desk. Not all of these strategies will work for everyone, but there is no harm in testing them out. One thing that has always worked for me that I think most people overlook, as well, is how powerful it can be if you just have an honest conversation with family or co-workers on how you can manage interruptions. You never really know what is possible until you ask people for their cooperation, and I firmly believe that certain problems in a formal work environment might be a mutual concern that your co-workers may also be eager to improve.

There are a lot of different strategies I can think of off the top of my head to help you set boundaries to minimize distractions or interruptions at work and at home, so next week I’ll go in depth sharing those with you and elaborate more on some of the strategies I’ve already shared above. For now, I just want you to understand that you do not need to wake up earlier to be more productive. You just need to start your day with a sense of purpose and intention as soon as you wake and find ways to avoid interruptions while doing your most important work and it will increase your productive output for the day.

I do hope you have enjoyed this first installment of this series. I have a handful of other myths at the moment that I can’t wait to share with you, but I’d also love for you to share suggestions of tips that haven’t worked for you in the past, and I would love to evaluate those and share my thoughts on why they do and do not work in certain situations. So, please do leave your thoughts or struggles in the comments for me to address!

xoxo,