Why 6AM Works For Me

[hhastings]

This morning: http://twitpic.com/8cb1rc

My typical habit up until 3 days ago was to wake up around 10-11AM and start working around 2-3PM, until I got tired or burned out.

After seeing several posts on Hacker News about waking up early, I thought about trying it, but never had the drive to follow through.

On Wednesday AM I woke up at 6 naturally for an unknown reason. I got my giant cup of coffee and watched the sunrise from the fire escape. As a designer mind, I found a unique sense of comfort in watching the morning unfold. From foggy, cool, quiet streets to warm(er), busy streets in under an hour. The colors, the sounds, and the smells are refreshing and inspiring.

I can honestly say that I've had some of the most lucid moments of my entire life the past few mornings. If you haven't given waking up early a fair shot, you definitely should. Of course, I doubt it's right for everyone. But I was shocked to find out that it was very right for me.

Thanks goes out to all of the HN members who have pushed this in several recent posts. Seriously, you've changed my life.

[joelmaat]

Its best (for most hackers) to work at night through to the early morning. Zen. 1am - 8am. Then you go to sleep, wake up after lunch and do it again.

Get your diet together so you don't need too much sleep :).

[hhastings → joelmaat]

Diet is HUGE, I agree. I'm surprised there aren't more "Hackers should eat more Spinach" posts on HN.

[robgough]

What time were you going to sleep before and now? I'd be interested to see a followup in 6 months or so to see if you manage to keep it up.

[hhastings → robgough]

I was going to bed around 12-4, waking up between 10 and 12. I found that my evenings were too distracting & busy, and it was hard for me (personally) to get back into the workflow.

[vinayan3]

Do you feel tired waking up at 6AM? For some reason, I feel very tired waking up at that hour these days. I use to wake up at 6AM for nearly 2 years because of commuting.

What are you doing with your time in the morning? Usually no one else is up and around. When I woke up early I found that I could always workout and never have to trade exercising with other activities in the evenings.

[hhastings → vinayan3]

"...because of commuting." makes me wonder how much you hated commuting. If your habit was to wake up at 6AM for something that you disliked, I'd say that's your answer right there.

I have my coffee out on the fire escape, maybe do a few pull-ups, and dive straight into work 10-15 minutes after I wake up. I then break for a late breakfast and a shower 2-3 hours later.

I guess I forgot to mention that I work from home, freelancing right now - I'm not sure I'd have the same motivation if I was working full-time.

[eduardordm]

Pretty Cool!

I used to wake up around 7:30AM and changed that to 5AM so I can work on a project I've been postponing for more than year. I decided to make that project an experience and will code only between 5AM and 7AM. Will post the results when the app is finished.

How about your evenings? I find it impossible to concentrate after 8PM