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!
A few cool people in the Enigin office have started ordering ‘Graze’ boxes through the post. The Graze box contains four varieties of nut, fruit or seed and helps combat 3pm trips to the Enigin snack box! The natural goodness also helps maintenance a stable blood-sugar level and helps you concerntrate.
