You Don’t Have to Wake Up Early in Order to Be Productive
The Self-Help Advice that Harms More Than It Helps
A common myth within self-improvement is that you can become more productive by learning to wake up earlier.
The idea is admirable. While the world sleeps, you can choose to be awake, and you can work without distractions or give yourself some precious alone time. By waking up earlier, you get to be hours ahead of everyone else.
But even though the idea is nice, this piece of advice is flawed.
And that is for several reasons.
I credit the idea and message of this article to a close friend who wanted to remain nameless.
Reason 1: People have different bodies
People are inherently different.
Some are at their sharpest in the morning. Others work best late at night. Some people prefer to do work at different hours rather than at a set time of day.
To give an example, even the normal workday doesn’t work for everyone. Some employees thrive from 8 to 4, but others feel more alive and focused once the clock strikes 11 p.m. and would prefer to start work then. This is not a testament to their unproductiveness: people simply have different bodies and, therefore, different needs.
While the advice above does help many (myself included) on their way toward productivity, it can also stunt the productive progress of others.
Reason 2: People have different lives
Personal and professional routines vary from person to person.
In terms of employment, different jobs offer different schedules. Some people start work at 3 or 5 a.m. and others have shifts that start at 8 or 10. Adding to that, responsibilities and appointments also vary based on the person’s roles in life (for instance, a parent has very different demands than a student or retiree).
In terms of personal routines, people have different needs and desires based on their goals in life. One person might have a hobby or project that requires them to be awake late into the night, whereas another might want to wake up at exactly 8 a.m. to get the local gym to themselves. An earlier wake-up time might interfere with these pursuits and harm the overall output of the day.
After all, waking up early is not productive if it hinders actual productivity.
Reason 3: The advice is built on a flawed assumption
The wake-up-early myth implies that productivity is linked to a time point.
But productivity is not time-based. It is action-based. How productive you are boils down to one simple choice: you either do the thing or you don’t.
Of course, time does have huge implications for productivity — just not in the way that the myth implies. Time matters in the sense that you are more productive when you spend your time wisely: when you manage to achieve big results in less time. As my friend once said, it is not about when you wake up, but rather about what you do with your time once you are awake.
Thus, the deciding factor is not how late or early your alarm bell rings.
Instead, what makes you productive is that you schedule your work at a time that works for you. It does not matter when you show up. What does is that you actually do show up, with your mind and body ready to work.
In the end, the person who wakes up at 11 a.m. and reaches all their goals for the day is infinitely more productive than the person who wakes up at 6 only to feel productive, when in fact, their best time starts at 1 in the night.
So, think twice before you change your routines.
Because ultimately, if it doesn’t work for you, it won’t work for your work.
