Wednesday, January 04, 2006

The Early Bird Might Not Always Get The Worm

Allow me to rant. I have been reading several guys lately who love to talk about how early they get up in the morning and get to work. 5am is nothing to these guys. I have something to admit: I do not like the morning. Wait, that wasn't strong enough...I HATE mornings! My family knows not to ask me anything important before 10am. It will either be answered with a grunt, or by something that will be retracted immediately when I have found my senses.

I have tried to like the morning. I have tried to make peace with early people. I once heard a speaker that I respect - say that he does 90% of his creative thinking before 8am; so I resolved to start my work days by at least 7. That lasted 2 days. I ended up staring at my computer screen for 3 hours and wishing I was dead. The only creative thing that I did was to stop showing up at 7!

Don't get me wrong - I'm not lazy. In fact, I have a very difficult time with people who do not work hard. I think that was instilled in me by my dad. (God is working on my patience. :)) I just do it a different time than most people.

I am a musician. I really think that we are wired differently. I am most creative from about 9 - 12 at night. Maybe it's from so many late gigs and rehearsals through the years...I don't know. I just know that it's time to own it.

Am I wrong? Am I the only one? I can't be...speak up night people!!!

4 comments:

dljordan said...

I can't say anything either way. As long as I get a good nights sleep every so often, I can go a couple of days without a lot of sleep. This week has been a prime example. Those BCS games tend to run pretty late LOL
dj

danohlerking said...

contrary to my latest post, i am with you on the early-morning stuff being rough. every now and then i think it's good for me to have to get up and do something in the early AM, but in general i get more work (creative and otherwise) after 10pm than i do in the entire 8-5. and i'm with you, too, that this is not at all an indicator of being lazy - au contraire - it is we who continue to work when all others have laid their pretty little heads down.... i'd love to see a survey that adds up the hours worked (total) by those who work early versus those who work late - i'd bet the lateniters would have a higher average hands down. and if there were some way to quantify the value of those hours.... dang - they'd be changing the standard office hours to 8p-5a. but then i guess we'd start feeling like we need to start working at noon.

Anonymous said...

Ok, first of all, not being a really good morning person myself, I've thought about this quite a bit (usually out of guilt), and I've got a question: Who wants a worm, anyhow?
Second, one of my goals is to try to add quality to the hours before the late night hours arrive. I mean, I'm usually up fairly early anyhow, but unless I'm in a meeting with others, it's hard for me to get the creative, effective juices flowing, and I end up "staring at my computer screen for three hours", not necessarily wishing I was dead, but just wishing I could get something accomplished. My wife says I need to take a pill, but what does she know?
Oh well, thanks for confessing -- and speaking up -- for the rest of us.
Oh yeah... The Horns DID hook'em, didn't they?!!?
Doug

Rick said...

the early bird gets the worm - but the second mouse gets the cheese. just keepin' things in perspective.