Most people seem to hate getting up early. “I’m just not a morning person” they say. I won’t totally call bullshit on this one. It turns out, there appears to be some genetics involved when it comes to sleeping preferences. But, I will call bullshit on the fact that you can’t become a morning person. I’ve done it.
I’ve always been a bit of a night owl. I tend to gravitate toward staying up late and sleeping in. In college, I went through a three month period of never going to bed before 4 a.m. But then I decided I wanted to be a productive member of society.
Why would anyone want to be a morning person?
A few reasons.
Morning people rule the world. Christoph Randler, who studies this sort of stuff for a living, has found that morning people “tend to get better grades in school, which get them into better colleges, which then lead to better job opportunities. Morning people also anticipate problems and try to minimize them, my survey showed. They’re proactive. A number of studies have linked this trait, proactivity, with better job performance, greater career success, and higher wages.” This is not to disparage night owls: he also notes that other studies have shown that they are generally smarter, more creative, have a better sense of humor, and are more outgoing.
So… the people who are smarter, more creative, funnier, more outgoing people aren’t the ones running the world … because they don’t wake up early enough? This should be all the motivation you need (wake up earlier and you can dominate those early-bird rubes?), but let’s delve a little deeper. Why would waking up early matter?
People like Randler aren’t entirely sure. He’s found that early-risers are more proactive (“willing and able to take action to change a situation to one’s advantage“) than later-risers, but says nobody knows why. I do.
When you get up at 4 or 5 in the morning, your day seems much longer. Even if you fuck around for 7 or 8 hours, a full work day(!), it’s only noon. You still have half the day to accomplish things. But, if you wake up at noon, which means you’re ready to work at 1:00, and then fuck around for even an hour or two, your day is already over. I’ve found that, even when I wake up late, my mind still references the standard work day. When it’s 5 or 6 o’clock, it’s mentally quitting time. I don’t know why this is, but it is. Everyone else is going home, relaxing, playing, and not working. Psychologically, maybe it’s harder to be productive at this time when everyone else isn’t.
Additionally, getting up before everyone else does two more things: it lets you get a bunch of work done before you have any distractions, and unlike working at night, it sets a deadline. Deadlines are key. When people are coming into the office at 7 a.m., that’s when you know your alone time is over. Better get all your shit done, or it’s going to take ten times as long because you’ll be constantly interrupted.
Recap:
- Wake up early
- Win at life
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