Setting A Work Schedule
At 4:00am my alarm clock goes off, in Cambodia my day starts early. I dive into a fresh cup of coffee, open my laptop, and get ready for the day. It's two in the afternoon in Seattle and I need a couple hours of cross over to connect with clients and co-workers. I take two hours to make phone calls and catchup on my email. Then I have the rest of my day to be productive. I am more productive, I am a happier person, and I have more time than I ever imagined. For years I have been the typical "night owl". Working under the false assumption that creative people just work better at night. I have now developed myself into a morning person, but the journey there wasn't easy. It took a lot of testing, a lot of late nights, and lots of coffee.
Schedule Tests
I decided that trying a few different time schedule tests would be the best way to go about developing something that would work for me. The time frame had to be at least two months, which might see like a long time, but I needed something that I could stick to. You can do anything for a couple of weeks, but can you push yourself over a few months to maintain a major lifestyle change? The first time test I attempted was to work nights, starting around 10pm and finishing around 6am, it sucked, bad. For me, working nights is like being in a dream and never waking up. While I had plenty of time to do things, waking up at 2pm to 100+ degree weather is never fun. The heat also limited what I was able to do, anything outside was out of the question. I also hated my wife going to bed by herself and having to drag myself up to my office to work. It offered little to benefit our personal life. After that time experiment, I attempted trying to split my day up. Four hours in the morning and four hours in the evening. This also was rough, working from 9am to 1pm was good, but the 10pm to 2pm shift was hard. I noticed a huge decline in my productivity between 10pm and 2am. This time overlap was the morning in Seattle and I the interruptions came pouring in.
The Early Risers
Then I stumbled across something that convinced me that waking up early was the way to go. I came across a [blog about the daily routines of interesting people]( "Daily Routines"). The biggest thing I noticed was how many of these people were [early risers]( "Daily Routines - Early Risers"). It seemed like there was some direct correlation between being productive and people who got up early. Even though lifestyles varied, the biggest connection was their early waking habits. I mean you couldn't find two more different people than Fred Rodgers and John Grisham, but they both routinely woke early. So I wondered, could I fight my late night nature, get up early, and be productive?
My Ideal Work Week
The next part of this process was to create an ideal work week outline. I found the concept from [Michael Hyatt]( "Michael Hyatt - Ideal Week"), he provides a great Excel spreadsheet to help create an outline. From this I was able to identify a few things that I needed to work into my week. For example, the two phone conference calls I do each week. It's important that I needed time to cross over with the west coast. So now, I suck it up and get up at 4am. Over time this has become an enjoyable way for me to work. I am not at all a morning person, but being able to get all calls or support requests done by 9am is wonderful. Then I still have over half my work day left to focus and finish my work uninterrupted by calls or email. The hardest part of the process has been learning to shut down and leave at 2:30pm. For the first few months I was working until my wife got home at 6:00pm. This was great for productivity, but I realized why I was slowing growing fatigued and tired. I was working 13+ hours a day! A few things about setting your own work times:
- Set an end of day time. This was huge for me, creating an end of work time is a huge must. No matter what is going on, no matter where you are at, end your day and go home to your family. Work will still be around the next morning.
- Find the time of day you enjoy the most and don't work. I enjoy my evenings and going to bed with my wife the most. It was killing me to have to leave my wife at night to go to work. I was less productive during that time and I was grumpy about having to miss out on events, or going out.
- Test and Be Flexible. I never would have found the right work time if I wasn't willing to experiment. I spent 3 months working nights, 2 months attempting to split my shift, and 3 more months getting up early before I found a time and routine that fit my lifestyle.
- Create an ideal work day plan. Following Michael Hyatt's advice, creating an ideal work day outline was a great way to outline on how I wanted to work. It set priorities for certain days, and allowed me to adjust the time of my work days.