Introduction to Night-Time Productivity
So, you want to be productive? Cool. Time to wake up at 5 AM right? How’s 4 am? 3 am? What’s the matter? Haven’t you heard that CEO’s and other “successful” people all wake up early? Time to get a jump on the day and get so much done before the rest of humanity wakes up, right?
Or, here’s a thought. What if instead, we don’t?
Honestly, why should only mornings be productive? I have NEVER done my best work first thing in the morning. In fact, I usually focus more on locating my will to live. Eventually I discover the will to live is contained within a substance known as caffeine.
Why is that? It’s because I’m a night owl. Maybe you are too.
What’s a Night Owl?
A night owl isn’t just an eerie bird with an uncanny ability to twist its neck. It’s a person who’s energized during the late hours of the night. If you find your mind becoming alert and active around 11 PM or later, you could be a night owl.
Productivity and success are not exclusive to “early birds”, despite every mainstream book on productivity, and pesky Benjamin Franklin. Night owls can excel. Embracing your natural period of high performance is not a curse. It’s a blessing.
Night Owls in the Traditional Work Environment
It’s no secret that traditional work environments don’t favor night owls. 9 AM to 5 PM makes the world of business go around. So, what do we do? We just struggle through feeling gross all the time.
This can have worse consequences than you might think. What’s to stop a night owl from developing a negative relationship to their work? It’s easy to associate work with horrible, nasty, struggle.
I wondered for years if there was something wrong with me. Maybe I just didn’t want to work? It was so easy to blame myself and assume I was just lazy. I thought that work was awful and was never going to be the “fun” in my life.
Now I understand, I love to work. I just need to do it at the right time.
Optimizing Career for Being a Night-Owl
What do you mean, I can’t just uproot my whole life to be nocturnal? That’s weak sauce.
Kidding, obviously. Okay for real though, it’s hard and not everyone can do it. It’s a big decision. At the end of the day, I just want to encourage you to consider that not every career begins at 5 AM. For example, I am writing this at 9:10 PM right now, allegedly for money.
I get it if this is not an option for you. Just consider what changes you can make to at least optimize the situation you already have. Here’s how:
Setting the Right Environment
A Dedicated Workspace
To get started, you need to prep your very own dedicated workspace. Carve out a space where you focus on being productive. It’s best to make sure you always work from the same area. Even more important, you need to make sure you entertain yourself, eat, and sleep somewhere else.
Why? Well, your brain associates things automatically when done together. I know, it doesn’t even ask your permission. So rude. Pretty soon, one activity triggers the other.
Normally, this might not matter, but there is a solid chance you will be working from home as a night owl. At home, working, eating, entertainment, and sleeping have a way of all blending together into pure and refined chaos.
Minimize Distractions and Noise
You might be thinking, what distractions? It’s the middle of the night. That’s just what the night-time wants you to think, so it can ambush you with movies, social media, and a Donner Party level of Oreo lust.
On the plus side, everyone’s asleep, including people that annoy you.
If you already carved out a dedicated workspace for yourself, you have nipped most of this in the bud. The key is to plan in advance to be working in your dedicated workspace, far away from the siren’s call of the TV and kitchen cabinets.
If you enjoy music or podcasts while you work, that isn’t necessarily a sin. The important thing is, do they actually help you focus? For example, I can’t do music with lyrics. I start focusing too much on the words in the song, rather than what I’m writing.
Time-Management Strategies
Take the Time to Plan Your Tasks
Being a night owl can feel like you have all the time in the world stretched out in front of you. You can take your time and ponder the heat-death of the universe, or taxes, or whatever normal people think about.
Take advantage of this and teach yourself to go slowly, taking your time, especially when you are planning out your tasks. Let all the daytime people suffer from an endless stream of useless meetings. You have real stuff to do.
If that sounds backwards, consider how much of an anxious ball of stress you become when you feel rushed. Taking the time to clear your head will save you so much hassle in the long run.
Choose a Productivity App that Has Dark Mode
I use “Notion” as an all-in-one solution software to manage my life. In fact, I wrote this article in Notion. There’s also Evernote, Obsidian, Trello, and Asana just to name a few. It’s not important which one you select. What’s important is, does it have a dark mode?
What can I say? It’s soothing, helpful, and just downright cool looking. Night owls need software for their night-eyes after all. No need to expose your retinas to the raw energy of that classic white UI. Might as well keep your eyes open in a tanning booth.
Divide Up Your Evening Hours in Advance
I recommend the Pomodoro technique, developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s, to help you to block out your time effectively in advance.
The Pomodoro technique is all about working in short intense intervals, usually around 25 minutes. After each intense work session of 25 minutes, take a very short break, generally around 5 minutes or so. Once you have completed this cycle 4 or 5 times, take a much longer break, around 30 minutes or so.
Try to avoid or anticipate interruptions and resolve them quickly. Over time, you will be able to learn from experience roughly how many intervals will be needed to complete a given task. You can then plan this out in advance when you take on new projects. You can also then consider yourself a true nerd.
It can be tempting to skip the breaks. Just be aware, that’s like pulling an all-nighter. Sounds awesome, but very much isn’t. It has diminishing returns with time and age.
Health and Wellbeing
Keep a Consistent Sleep Schedule
Sleep? Yeah, it’s a big deal for everyone’s health. Everyone has heard it all before. So, when should a night owl sleep?
It turns out, who cares? What really matters is sticking to a regular sleep schedule each day and trying to get your head on the pillow and feet on the floor around the same time. That’s why they call it a “circadian rhythm,” not a “circadian circus.”
When you do finally go to bed, unplug everything. No phones, no screens, and no distractions. Sleep will come more easily with time, even if this is something you struggle with.
Midnight Snacking
There’s just something about a trip to the fridge in the middle of the night. It’s darkly delicious. It ignites a sense of freedom or even juvenile rebellion that can influence your choice of snacks for the worse. Who’s making a salad at 2 AM? Definitely, not me.
I always felt as if no one was watching, judging, or that it somehow didn’t matter. Or at least, that’s what I told myself while I scavenged for loose cheesy snacks.
Just recognize that eating healthy isn’t going to be any easier at night. In fact, it’s harder for most people. It’s vital that night owls inventory their eating habits. Your energy levels directly affect your productivity. The food you put in your body determines those energy levels.
Exercise
This is your chance to get bragging rights for always taking a run at 5 AM. No one needs to know it’s actually the end of your day.
If the gym is more your speed, lots of gyms cater to very late, or very early hours. Who knew, those guys are masochists, right? Some of them close up very briefly in the middle of the night, so you might need to coordinate with their hours.
Ultimately, how you want to move your body isn’t that important. It’s about keeping a consistent habit that you will actually continue with. The best plan is the one you will actually do.
Leveraging Technology and Tools
Hidden-Gem Apps
I strongly suggest using “www.focusatwill.com“, a service that offers background music. When combined with the Pomodoro technique, you can set the sessions to match the duration of your intense intervals, so you can qualify for maximum nerd synergy.
I also highly recommend using “www.pi.ai”. “Pi” is an AI. It was developed by Inflection AI, a company that believes that AI technology should be available to the whole world for free. If you have ever imagined what life would be like with your own personal free Jarvis, you will love Pi. He even has a voice!
Active Noise Cancellation
I highly recommend investing in “active” noise cancellation over “passive” noise cancellation. Why? Because it’s easy to justify tech expenses as work-related.
It consistently monitors surrounding sound waves and generates an equal and opposite series of sound waves. This process effectively “cancels” the perceived noises, creating a calming silence.
This will free you up to think even more deeply about why Capybara’s seem to be oddly friendly with predators, or to possibly get some work done.
Blackout Methods
Important newsflash, light makes sleeping suck. As a night owl, you are going to need to sleep when it’s light outside.
Black trash bags and gaffers’ tape are ideally suited for this task. Use the bags to cover areas where light can penetrate, securing them with the tape. Unlike duct tape, gaffers’ tape doesn’t leave any residue or cause damage. No need to worry if you find yourself in a hotel room, or you are a renter with strict rules about what you can secure to a wall or window.
Conclusion
So, being a night owl isn’t all bad, right? With the right tricks up your sleeve and some cool apps and tools, you can really make it work in your favor. Don’t forget to look after your health too. Premature death can really lower your productivity.
I really believe that being a night owl is a superpower! Embrace it and use it to absolutely smash whatever you’re passionate about.
