In the last six or seven years I've been up regularly at 5am or so. I can get an hour of work done before the rest of the household wakes up. It's great.
My inspiration was Gene Wolfe, who wrote _The Book of the New Sun_ in the wee hours, and held down a day job as a technical magazine editor. [I'm not claiming my code is anywhere near as great as the wonderful writing that Wolfe did, but the early hours are definitely some of my most creative time]
A few rules I have:
- No email. This just starts the whole stress machine going. I'd rather not have /any/ human contact, and if something's fallen off and broken in the last eight hours, it can wait another two or three.
- No Reddit or other black-hole-of-surfing sites (though I do check HN -- this may change if HN becomes too Reddit-like).
- Coffee is ready to go (set up the prior evening).
> My inspiration was Gene Wolfe, who wrote _The Book of the New Sun_ in the wee hours, and held down a day job as a technical magazine editor.
Wow. That's really interesting. I was actually going to give this a try because of Robert Pirsig, who wrote Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Here's how he did it:
In a 1974 interview with National Public Radio, Pirsig stated that the book took him four years to write. During two of these years, Pirsig continued working at his job of writing computer manuals. This caused him to fall into an unorthodox schedule, waking up very early and writing Zen from 2 a.m. until 6 a.m., then eating and going to his day job. [1]
Funny he also writes technical literature (computer manuals versus technical magazine editor).
> the early hours are definitely some of my most creative time
This is something I've noticed too. When writing (usually essays, but sometimes code), I'm almost always more productive very late night/early morning. I don't know of any reasons (other than the obvious: you're not being distracted), nor do I know of any studies. Are there any out there?
I am missing the right words but one gets more creative in the evening. Many people can relate. A friend of mine worked from 1800 - 0300 for his master thesis, because the words "flowed" better.
random fact, but Thomas Pynchon also jobbed as a technical writer for a period of time shortly before publishing V. His fictional Yoyodyne company is loosely modeled after boeing, apparently.
I've been waking up at 5am for the past three years. I found that, by 9am when my colleagues started arriving at work, I had already managed to finish a large chunk of the work I had planned for that day.
I tend to do the actual work during these hours and reply to emails later on in the day. This helps me stay focused and I found it to be quite productive.
I don't drink coffee though, I have never felt the need for it.
My inspiration was Gene Wolfe, who wrote _The Book of the New Sun_ in the wee hours, and held down a day job as a technical magazine editor. [I'm not claiming my code is anywhere near as great as the wonderful writing that Wolfe did, but the early hours are definitely some of my most creative time]
A few rules I have:
- No email. This just starts the whole stress machine going. I'd rather not have /any/ human contact, and if something's fallen off and broken in the last eight hours, it can wait another two or three.
- No Reddit or other black-hole-of-surfing sites (though I do check HN -- this may change if HN becomes too Reddit-like).
- Coffee is ready to go (set up the prior evening).