I read a lot of time management books and articles. I teach classes in time management, so it’s important for me to stay on top of the latest ideas and strategies. And frankly, I’m unimpressed with much of what I read. I see the same tips repeated by many self-described time management gurus, and I feel most of them don’t work in the real world. One of my least favorite tips is to get up earlier, add an extra hour at the start of the day so you can get some additional work done.
Craig Jarrow, author of Time Management Ninja and the ninja behind the site, timemanagementninja.com, list 10 reasons why you should get up early. 10 reasons! He lists things like, “Those who get up early get a head start before everyone else.” “It’s quiet in the morning.” “Getting a head start on everyone else just feels great.”
Laura Vanderkam, author of Off the Clock: Feel Less Busy While Getting More Done, states that, “Most people feel more productive in the morning, so turning the TV off earlier turns unproductive evening hours into productive morning hours.” But what if you actually want a little unproductive down time in your life? Late evening is a great time to have that, if you ask me.
I’m not a morning person. There’s nothing about getting up earlier than everyone else that would feel great to me. Instead of working by myself, in the dark, when it’s cold and lonely, I could be cozy asleep in my bed – now that would feel great!
The fallacy behind the concept of getting up early, in my mind, is that there are still only 24 hours in the day. I can get up an hour earlier, and either sacrifice sleep that I need to stay healthy, or I go to bed an hour earlier in the evening. What does that accomplish? Nothing but a time shift. I don’t have any extra time by shifting that hour from the evening to the morning.
Yes, it’s possible I would work during that hour in the morning whereas I’m usually relaxing in the evening hours, but frankly, I like having that relaxing time in my life too. If the concept is that I take away an hour of fun, or an hour of sleep, in order to work (when it’s dark and cold and lonely) – I’m just not feeling it.
If I truly need an extra hour to add to my work day, I do it during the work day. I work an hour later at the end of the work day, or I skip a lunch or fitness break (who am I kidding – fitness break?).
But the better method is to streamline my tasks so that I’ve got the time needed to do that extra work that the ninjas want to do at 5 in the morning. I teach many of these methods in my classes – skills I’ve honed from many years of taking on too many projects at once, losing important papers in the snake pit of my desktop, staring into space while I postpone starting a task, and employing many more procrastination techniques that I have mastered.
I’ll share one of my hacks with you, and it goes directly to the idea of waking up way too early. (Morning people might think this is absurd, but for those of us who find mornings brutal, here’s a simple solution.) Decide in advance what you’re going to do tomorrow (I typically plan my week ahead on Sunday, noting on which days I’ll do each task). Make a to-do list, schedule it on your calendar, write it on the back of your hand – whatever works for you. Then, before the end of each work day, do that first thing on the next day’s list. There you go! You’ve got a head start on tomorrow, and you can sleep comfortably, knowing that you don’t have to wake up pre-dawn because that first task is already finished.
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Tags: Firm Management
