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Late Night vs. Early Morning

#1
Simple question: if you have to do a lot of work, do you find it more productive to go to bed at a routine time and get up early, or work for much of the night and sleep in? And if you can, try to explain why :)

The reason I ask is because I'm having trouble figuring out which works better for me. Generally coders do the "all-night" thing, but one runs the risk of working too late and being extremely groggy upon waking the next day. I've been told that morning people tend to be more productive (not that anyone really knows...), and have been trying to adjust my sleep pattern accordingly. But man, it really pains me to go to bed right after submitting the dev log...it seems like I've been logging fewer hours with the morning approach, but that may just be because I'm not acclimated yet.

Would love to hear thoughts on this odd topic :D
“Whether you think you can, or you think you can't--you're right.” ~ Henry Ford
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Re: Late Night vs. Early Morning

#2
Depends on the project. As a PM if it is monotonous work I can pretty much trudge through anything anytime of the day or night. Complex issues I have to tackle in the morning with my aging brain, I seem to be more 'on' in the AM for complex theories and abstract idea connecting.

But there have been many times where if I can't figure something out, i'll take a nap or go to bed with a notebook and pen within reach. I've figured out a lot of things in that moment right before you actually go to sleep, it's amazing.
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Re: Late Night vs. Early Morning

#3
No simple answer. =)
Depends what you do and how you work.

My most creative time is generally 1-4 hours after getting up but that has nothing to do with the time of day. =)
The mind is not yet on a fixed track, concentrating on getting stuff done within a certain framework.

Coding/implementing stuff when I already have a complete design doesn't count. That's work and more dependent on tuning out distractions and hitting the right groove. Then time doesn't get a vote any more. Dark & quiet helps me there so if I intend to write something, it doesn't hurt getting up very late and just switching night and day.

I try to get the most out of a creative streak when it hits but that's easy to say - because I can't control that, either. =)
When the mind is in "play" mode, that's a good time to plan ahead. What other problems those shields of yours might cause, how they are supposed to interact with blah and flop...
There is no "I" in Tea. That would be gross.
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Re: Late Night vs. Early Morning

#4
I'd work late and sleep in, I think. But then, I hate mornings.... Grrrrrr. :x

I always find i need a little time to get myself with it and motivated before actually doing stuff at work. And once I'm done for the day, that's it. Rest, have fun, chase squirrels around the park etc etc, whatever, but stop working once you've put in enough time.
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Re: Late Night vs. Early Morning

#5
For me late night is the time when I'm most creative (it is night here in China.) I want to give my crazy opinion on this one I think late night is my best time because it is after my best, and largest meal so I have all my energy an nutrients my brain needs for creative thinking. Because a lot of people have large breakfasts filled with potassium there brain is turned on which is probably what started the " Morning people are more productive myth." I would suggest you do what you feel is better. The trick is if you want a good morning, eat a great breakfast, use some of the 280,000 you wee blessed with, same if you are pulling a late-nighter (just with dinner... not breakfast.)
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Re: Late Night vs. Early Morning

#6
Over here I don't think morning-versus-night makes much particular overall difference, as long as you set up a routine and then stick to it.

I am personally a nighttime person, I suppose in part because of all of the time I spend in dance clubs that don't close 'till 6am. I set my 'target start time' (work from home and atm have no other employees) at 9am and 'target finish time' at 6pm. Then - if I want to do a late night - I can by just extending that 6pm to whenever.

Whilst I don't think one of the two times is inherently better than the other, I do think that my behaviour changes through the day though. In the mornings I am better at boring tasks (writing already-planned method bodies, UI work, binders, mappers etc etc). In the evenings I tend to feel more creative and tend towards modelling, refactoring and architecture. If I'm doing the wrong task at the wrong time I tend to find myself more susceptible to distraction (FB, reading LT forums, RSS feeds, StumbleUpon etc).
Nobody suspects a Toreador …
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Re: Late Night vs. Early Morning

#9
I've worked pretty much all shifts and have slept all times at some point. It really depends on the person. When I worked graveyard (11pm-7:30am) I had more issues than when I worked swing (7pm-3:30am). I had more problems when I worked early morning (5am-1:30pm) than anything else.

However, I did do some freelance work for about a year, and I realized my best sleep schedule was a sporadic one. I would be awake a few hours before catching an hour long power nap. I was only sleeping about 6 hours a day, and my sleep/wake schedule was split up into 6hrs wake and 2hrs sleep every 8 hours and I always felt refreshed regardless of the time. Check out a polyphasic sleep schedule if you really want to try to shake things up. ;)

But in the end, it's up to the person. My sister is a complete morning person and I'm more of a night person (now that I'm on a stable work schedule). Just experiment and see what works for you. If you want to code into the wee hours of the morning, and then sleep in extra long (like an 18hr wake + 10hr sleep, repeat), as long as you're getting done what you need to without compromising yourself, it really doesn't matter.

With more and more stores being 24/7, having a rotating sleep schedule really isn't much of an issue anymore. The biggest thing is that you're getting enough sleep. You're a freelancer at this point after all.
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Early Spring - 1055: Well, I made it to Boatmurdered, and my initial impressions can be set forth in three words: What. The. F*ck.
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Re: Late Night vs. Early Morning

#10
I'm an early bird when it comes to work, definitely. For me, night (11 PM onwards) is leisure time, and I have a really, really hard time trying to be productive at those hours. Funnily enough I feel something that I can only describe as guilt... And it''s quite stupid because I wouldn't feel it playing a game or reading a novel.

my productivity through the whole day is directly proportional to how early I wake up and start working. I might have to work on being more flexible, but I'm sure what I prefer.
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Re: Late Night vs. Early Morning

#11
Thanks for the advice everyone!
DWMagus wrote:However, I did do some freelance work for about a year, and I realized my best sleep schedule was a sporadic one. I would be awake a few hours before catching an hour long power nap. I was only sleeping about 6 hours a day, and my sleep/wake schedule was split up into 6hrs wake and 2hrs sleep every 8 hours and I always felt refreshed regardless of the time. Check out a polyphasic sleep schedule if you really want to try to shake things up. ;)
This sounds really interesting, thanks for bringing that up...I am actually going to try it! :) I'm going to try the notorious "uberman" 3:30 / 30 cycle...seems incredibly intense, but if it doesn't work, I figure I can just push that 30 minutes up as necessary, or revert to your 6 / 2. Glad you mentioned this though, it had never occurred to me, but it the obvious logical thing to do!
“Whether you think you can, or you think you can't--you're right.” ~ Henry Ford
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Re: Late Night vs. Early Morning

#13
I usually try to stay up as long as i can and then sleep as long as comes natural - but having a day job doesn't make that work so well x3

As for time of day, i'm not plussed about it really, i usually tend to prefer sleeping through the morning, waking up between noon and 3 or so, and going to bed anywhere from 4-7am.
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Re: Late Night vs. Early Morning

#14
Seems like you got the answers you needed.
Still, I'll share my usual schedule:

I work well when I first wake up, and I gradually get less productive throughout the day. This means I usually have brain storms and such in the morning, I can carry on my work into the afternoon, but in the evening I become tired both mentally and physically. So I slow down until I'm not doing anything productive at all. This is why I'm an early morning worker.

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