A better way is stop doing stupid things. Many of us need to sleep in because we play around on our phones/games for hours before bed. I get up between 5-6 am every morning and go workout. Then I have super productive time for a few hours without interruptions. Come 9-10 pm I go to bed and am sleep in minutes from a full day.

I realized that when I used to stay up later I wasn’t very productive, and just wasted a lot of time.

Do you not find you need some "stupid time" else all you do is sleep and work?

Actually no. I end up with more free time to do the things I want to do.

Many of us (maybe not you specifically) just do things without really thinking about them. Watching TV, playing video games, etc... we do out of boredom or habit. Not because we really want to do them. I think PG has written about cutting out the bullshit that doesn't matter [1]. Those are the things I talk about being stupid. Does looking at FB for an hour before bed matter? How about some phone game? Or binging a whole Netflix series in one night?

I get so much more done through the early parts of the day, I end up with more time to spend with my wife doing things we want to do.

[1] http://www.paulgraham.com/vb.html

Everyone is different, but I found it is down to allocating the time you are most productive effectively.

If you want to get work done and you work best in the morning with no distractions, get up early and go to sleep early.

If you work best at night, stay up late and maximise your time in those productive hours.

If you are comfortable with your day job and want to maximise life enjoyment it's pretty much the same thing, except you're picking the time best suited for what makes you happy. No surprise that active people like to get up and excercise early, lots of daylight and that fresh morning air is invigorating. It's also no surprise that people who like to game or veg out tend to do it at night when they are slowing down from the day.

It is a concious choice though, and I feel many just accidentally fall into a pattern and forget they usually have the agency to choose.

> Everyone is different, but I found it is down to allocating the time you are most productive effectively.

I agree, and I used to be one of those who stayed up later. I found though with myself and some others I personally know that making the move to an early wake up was still better.

It's silly, but when you get a mental discipline win as the first thing you do in the morning (getting up) it builds on itself. The next step is, "I'm up, so of course I'm going to the gym". From there, "I got up early to hit the gym, of course I'm skipping that donut". And so on. Like I said, it's silly in some way, but it also builds this discipline. For me personally, it completely got rid of my procrastination habit.

Avoiding rush hour and hiring help when practical has been absolutely key for me. I was in a bad loop of insufficient sleep --> poor functioning ---> need to work more to compensate ----> insufficient sleep for years before I started taking this stuff more seriously. Sometimes still fale to get enough, but these two relatively minor changes have been really beneficial.

#4 will kill your mental health over time - would not recommend. Take 15 minutes to close your laptop and sit somewhere else. The other suggestions are really good.

I'd say that really depends on what your work environment is like. I've worked places where I'd much rather eat at my desk, quietly reading a book or newspaper, than go into a loud, crowded breakroom/cafeteria where I was either ignored or expected to talk to people I couldn't be myself around.

We don’t disagree, my point is to treat lunch as a complete break (even if it’s just to read at your desk) rather than powering through every day to try and leave a few minutes earlier.

Agreed. I make it a point to never discuss work related stuff during lunch time.

* Read and comment on Hacker News less