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This is how I did it: this is about two things: mornings and evenings and both need attention. Set a new wake up time. Deduct 7 hours from it. Deduct one more f

by iammjm 1mo ago

This is how I did it: this is about two things: mornings and evenings and both need attention. Set a new wake up time. Deduct 7 hours from it. Deduct one more for buffer. This tells you when you need to be in bed with lights out and trying to fall asleep to then get the mandatory 7h of sleep to be a functional human being in the morning. If your new wake target is 5:45, you need to be in bed lights out at 22:45 and since 21:45 with no screens. So you need to deduct another hour to cut off screens early, and in optimal case like -3 more to cut food intake and -6 more to cut caffeine intake. I got some reminders on my phone which let me know the time comes, so I spend the last hour before nights out reading or writing or whatever. So that’s evenings. In the morning my phone rings and to turn it off I need to scan a QR code in my bathroom (alarmy app). This forces me out of bed and then I drink about 500ml of water. I also have a smart plug with a LED light on it which go on together with the alarm clock and goes on for 20 mins. Once wake, I spend 15 minutes in front of it getting light in my face which signals the body the day starts. Then I get dressed and go out for a short quick walk/run outside (aka powerwalk) which gets my heart working. Then I come back, make coffee and start work. This way I get enough good quality sleep + each morning physical signals (water, light, movement) that signal my body it is action time. I was very surprised that already after a week my body started waking up minutes before the alarm clock! And that’s after decades of irregular late sleep! But consistency is key: early sleep and early wake up on as many days as possible. It is totally doable and you can streamline in into a simple process which doesn’t take much time or effort.

phil21 1mo ago
I have done all this and more. Done all the stupid advice you get from everyone who was simply a morning person living an irresponsible life but then grew up, hired professionals, and even tried prescription drugs for a period of time. It is not totally doable. It just makes fitting into the economic world slightly less shitty. I yearn for retirement not so I can stop working, but so I can finally get a full “night” worth of sleep and wake up with a clear mind for the first time since my 20s when I worked a night shift. It’s been decades of being rather miserable. Not everyone is built for the current world, and the gatekeepers all apparently seem to be morning people who despise night folks. Waking up is the easy part. Having your brain engage to full power is the hard bit. I will get 8-9 hours of sleep and still spend the whole day groggy until the evening, and then my mental energy and motivation really kicks in around 9pm or so. But then it’s time to wind down. Vacations for me are just taking a week off so I can go back to my natural sleeping patterns and do personal projects at 4am.
- wnolens 1mo ago
  In all software jobs I've had (small, medium, and big tech), there's been no question about my start time. This has allowed me to sleep until 9-10am, and start work at 11. Huge help for getting any amount of good work out of me.
  - nunez 1mo ago
    Unless your team has "core hours" which basically align with US school hours and standup is at the top of that block... But, yeah, generally this is true and is something that I miss from my FTE days. (I'm in tech sales now, and our hours are whatever fits into our customers' calendars...sometimes that means I start at 11, other times I'm going to be on an 08:00 zoom and like it!)
    - phil21 1mo ago
      Yeah, this is the problem for me. Society is orientated around morning hours, and kids are the big one here. When I had a job I rarely had to interact with others, it was pretty easy. I could wake up early on the one day a week or less I needed to do some silly meeting, handle it, and go pass out for a couple hours and come back refreshed. When it's your daily routine, it's effectively impossible. I can try to sleep in on the weekends, but that's really about it to catch up on decent sleep. The days I can sleep in until 10-11am I am markedly more productive and just generally happy. But those are very rare now. Just the hours from 6am when my wife wakes up and gets out of bed until 9-10am are crazy in terms of how much better sleep I get overall. The previous 5-6 hours almost are immaterial. I could go to bed at 4am those nights and not notice a difference between going to bed at 11pm.

by iammjm 1mo ago

phil21 1mo ago

I have done all this and more. Done all the stupid advice you get from everyone who was simply a morning person living an irresponsible life but then grew up, hired professionals, and even tried prescription drugs for a period of time. It is not totally doable. It just makes fitting into the economic world slightly less shitty. I yearn for retirement not so I can stop working, but so I can finally get a full “night” worth of sleep and wake up with a clear mind for the first time since my 20s when I worked a night shift. It’s been decades of being rather miserable. Not everyone is built for the current world, and the gatekeepers all apparently seem to be morning people who despise night folks. Waking up is the easy part. Having your brain engage to full power is the hard bit. I will get 8-9 hours of sleep and still spend the whole day groggy until the evening, and then my mental energy and motivation really kicks in around 9pm or so. But then it’s time to wind down. Vacations for me are just taking a week off so I can go back to my natural sleeping patterns and do personal projects at 4am.

wnolens 1mo ago
In all software jobs I've had (small, medium, and big tech), there's been no question about my start time. This has allowed me to sleep until 9-10am, and start work at 11. Huge help for getting any amount of good work out of me.
- nunez 1mo ago
  Unless your team has "core hours" which basically align with US school hours and standup is at the top of that block... But, yeah, generally this is true and is something that I miss from my FTE days. (I'm in tech sales now, and our hours are whatever fits into our customers' calendars...sometimes that means I start at 11, other times I'm going to be on an 08:00 zoom and like it!)
  - phil21 1mo ago
    Yeah, this is the problem for me. Society is orientated around morning hours, and kids are the big one here. When I had a job I rarely had to interact with others, it was pretty easy. I could wake up early on the one day a week or less I needed to do some silly meeting, handle it, and go pass out for a couple hours and come back refreshed. When it's your daily routine, it's effectively impossible. I can try to sleep in on the weekends, but that's really about it to catch up on decent sleep. The days I can sleep in until 10-11am I am markedly more productive and just generally happy. But those are very rare now. Just the hours from 6am when my wife wakes up and gets out of bed until 9-10am are crazy in terms of how much better sleep I get overall. The previous 5-6 hours almost are immaterial. I could go to bed at 4am those nights and not notice a difference between going to bed at 11pm.