WHY ARE PEOPLE WHO GET UP EARLY SEEN AS MORE “PRODUCTIVE” THAN THOSE WHO STAY UP LATE?
How many productivity articles, memes, books, and YouTube videos tout the “wake up at 4 AM” mentality? Have you tried setting your alarm earlier and earlier to try to be one of those people? Or, have you even slept in and felt, “Well, there goes my day. I was going to get so much done, but my mojo is out of whack and I can’t be productive because I woke up at 10 AM.”
It’s happened to all of us.
Luckily, the time of day that you wake up doesn’t matter.
However, that’s not what our general societal belief is — and our culture may actually support that belief. Night owls have to adjust to a world of 9-to-5s, which isn’t natural for them. It’s much like lefties adjusting to a right-handed world.
I don’t like the idea that you have to wake up at a certain time to be productive. I think what truly matters is what you do in the 24 hours of the day that you’re given. That determines how productive you are.
Still — why is staying up late seen as less productive as getting up early?
The simple explanation — staying up late means you get less sleep in the early-riser world. When you get less sleep, you’re less productive. Your parents gave you a bedtime for a reason, and you’re a loser for not following it.
However, isn’t it in the evening when we get to pursue our life activities? When we socialize, follow our dreams after work, and create?
Staying up late does not mean you’re not productive. In fact, night owls can claim productive people like Winston Churchill and JRR Tolkien in their ranks.
Everyone has a circadian rhythm, and biologically, your circadian rhythm is going to be better adjusted to a particular time of the day. Do you work better at night or in the morning? It’s in your genes — literally. If you need to do your creative stuff in the evening after work, then that is your best time. Honor it.
Creating a routine does improve your productivity. Whatever you do to create your productivity routine, listen to your own body and do what benefits you, not what “productivity culture” says.
