Do Not Be an Early Bird Unless You Want To
A common theme among productivity enthusiasts seems to be the “waking up early” mentality.
There are countless recommendations like “Why I wake up at 5 a.m. every day” or “Start early for success”.
I don’t want to offend anyone, but I am sick of this mentality.
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| Photo by Chris Sabor on Unsplash |
These productivity wizards rise at the crack of dawn, and here I am struggling to carry myself to the kitchen table inhaling my first cup of coffee.
But waking up early isn’t the secret sauce to success after all. In this article, I want to show you what I’ve found out.
The early bird myth
I’ve asked myself where the myth originated from, but it is hard to identify. Today it seems that the “early bird catches the worm” philosophy is ingrained in our pop culture.
Some even account for the philosophy of Aristotle and also Benjamin Franklin is said to have been an early riser.
Why your personal chronotype matters
However, not all successful people are early birds.
For morning lark Michelle Obama there is night owl Barack Obama and for Benjamin Franklin, there is Winston Churchill using the quiet hours of the night to perfect his speeches.
This is because there are three types of chronotypes:
- Early birds: Those being most productive in the early hours of the day.
- Night owls: People (like) me who are more productive in the evening or at night.
- Mixed types: This is the middle-ground between both worlds.
Most importantly, chronotypes aren’t fixed. They change over our lifetime.
What now?
Don’t fall for the early riser productivity hacks if you are no morning lark (otherwise, please do so!), and shape your schedule to fit your energy levels throughout the day.
In the end, the early bird doesn’t always catch the worm.
Thank you for reading!
Some time ago I wrote a more in-depth article about the early-riser mentality. If you are interested, you can check it out here.