I’ve never really set New Year’s Resolutions before but here’s one of my personal goals for 2010 which, as of writing this article, i’ve already broken!
- Become a Morning Person -
Yes, really!
I hate mornings. I really hate mornings. I’m very much a ‘night’ person. I find that I am my most productive between the hours of 10pm - 3am. There’s no interruptions, nothing on TV and for some reason I find it easy to do the tasks which i’ve put off the day before. My mind works differently at night and it’s easy to think through problems I may have had with work during the day.
The Problem with ‘Night’ people
Although this late night working produces great productivity, it has many downsides…
- Struggling to wake up in the morning - I usually wake around 8am and get into the office about 9:30-9:45 which is fine, but is at least 45 minutes after everyone else. It’s not a huge problem as Enigin Directors know that I work late so they don’t mind me coming in late in the morning (I also tend to make up the hours at the end of the day anyway)
- Skipping breakfast - As an aside to rising late in the morning I don’t have time for breakfast so end up leaving home without. This leaves me hungry in the mornings which can affect concentration levels.
- Lack of sleep - By the time I finish work and get to sleep, I usually only get a maximum of 4-6 hours rest every night. Which is below the 7/8 hours each night recommended by Doctors. I tend to make up these ‘lost’ hours on Saturday morning! There’s a medical term for this, which is ‘delayed sleep phase’. Chronic sleep deprivation has been linked to a range of risks, from obesity to depression both of which I struggle with badly.
Studies have shown that being a ‘Night Owl’ can be partly genetic and is not easy for some people to combat. But i’m going to try by taking the following steps:
- No computer work after 9:30pm
- In bed by 11pm every day (even weekends to start with, apart from gig nights of course!)
- Buy an alarm clock!
- Wake up at 7am every morning and get out of bed as soon as my alarm clock goes off, not hitting ’snooze’ for another 5 minutes under the duvet! Once i’ve done 3 months at 7am, i’ll then try 6:30…. then 6:00.
- Have breakfast!
- Still get into work at 9:30… it’s actually quite convenient as I live 60 minutes drive away from Enigin in St Austell and the traffic has died down at this time in the morning. I will use the extra time in the morning to have a nice breakfast and make lunch for the day.
So, that’s it. That’s my challenge. Wish me luck!
