Productivity Agenda of a Midnight Owl
It’s a hard world out there for people whose productivity shoots, as the day ends.
Always felt that waking up in the morning would be better, if the morning started around noon? Because, same. Before my first cup of coffee, loud people and the prospect of the rest of the day looming ahead of me, makes me want to shoot myself. A lot of multitasking gurus and billionaires may advise you otherwise. The first tip in their self help columns ask you to get up before sunrise and pack a lot of working hours before the rest of the world has risen. As someone who has struggled all her life with waking up in the morning, here are a few tips and tricks to help boost your productivity.
The first step should obviously be acceptance. Rather than trying to adjust your internal clock, embrace the way it’s naturally wired. For a long time, I refused to accept that I simply cannot wake up, at say, 5 in the morning and get work done. I tried waking up early, felt groggy in the middle of the day, was cranky all day long, and slept earlier than my usual bedtime. What a total waste of the day. Once I accepted this, I stopped trying to do that, and rather focused on making the most of my waking hours.
Plan ahead. Once we come to terms with the fact that we simply aren’t one of those early risers, there’s only one thing left to do. Seize the day! I mean what’s left of it :) Listing out your tasks for the day, works wonders. It helps in creating both, a visual path for your day, as well as a sense of satisfaction, when everything has been crossed off at the end of a productive day. Since you tend to work late in the night, creating a list of questions for your peers, or sending out emails which others will get to, first thing in the morning, is a huge advantage.
Coffee sure helps! Not sure how I would survive, if this miracle didn’t exist. However much I would like my office to start at around 2 in the afternoon, it doesn’t. So the 4 hours that I spend in zombie mode, are fuelled by coffee. Instantly wakes me up, and protects people around me by taking care of my morning crankiness!
Un-clutter. A clean and organised work space helps in increasing your productivity. It also acts as a reflection of the state of your mind. If your desk is cluttered, your mind is more prone to wander. The messier your work setting, the less time you would want to spend there. So get cleaning, and set yourself down to get work done.
Self-imposed deadlines. Science and plenty of research has shown that (most) people work well under pressure. If I didn’t have a set date for exams, I think I’d never study. Apart from the deadlines that we already have, it’s considered fruitful to have deadlines of your own. If a particular work takes 3 hours to do, try finishing it in 2, or within a specific time or date. Finishing tasks according to your mental clock, boosts confidence and curbs anxiety. At the same time, you finished your work, what’s better than that!
Post lunch slump — what’s that? Us midnight owls take so long to wake up and haul ourselves to work, that by the time we are actually awake and functioning, it’s post noon. While most people would have crammed in around 4–5 hours of work by then, we are only getting started. However, this is the ideal nap-time for them. Feeling a little drowsy after a full lunch, is extremely common in work places. The amount of work done, is said to be the least around this time. But not for us. We are raging with enthusiasm and at our peak productivity. Finally wide-eyed and ready to roll, we get so much work done in the afternoon.
Enough peace and quiet at night. Another advantage is the additional 3–4 hours we get after dusk. People who work till around 2 at night, get enough peace and quiet to boost productivity, and this is the same that early risers rave about at 5 in the morning. I did not get up early, but I stayed up late, and got the same work done. At the end, it’s all that matters right?
Not enough common working window. Due to variations in start and end of your work time, you may not have a huge common working window, with the rest of your colleagues. So all meetings, updates and team activities, need to be done when everyone is present. Of course, this eats into your already limited time, but that’s the price you pay for sleeping in. Nevertheless, since you stay up till late, you can more than make up for lost time, without compromising on productivity.
Don’t let the early birds get you down. I have heard plenty of lectures all my life, on the importance of waking up early. But that’s not how I am wired, so what the hell!! I won’t let these early birds dampen my spirit. I get roughly the same number of working hours, by starting late and finishing later in the day. I make sure that I utilise my time efficiently, take fewer breaks, and stay energised for as long as I work, and hence multiply my productivity.
At the end of the day, all that matters is whether you deliver quality work, before the deadline. And if you do, what’s there to worry about? Flexible working hours is the future. Everybody works at a different pace. You choose how to get your work done. Just get shit done!
