I always hate this piece of advice, if i wake up early, even if I am able to struggle through getting 'something significant done' before 8am i'm going to feel terrible for the rest of the day since i got up early, it's not worth it at all. This advice is nonsense and not universal, yet the same nonsense is constantly repeated. I understand it can work for some, but that is because you are following your own rhythms and really that is what you should be doing and that should be the advice

or maybe taking your own advice more generally "Crave out a block of time for yourself dedicated to doing something significant, finding the time that works best for you in your schedule'

I’m a “morning person.” My wife is definitely not.

For me, I enjoy getting up at 5 (actually, it takes a while to get to the “enjoy” part). I walk a couple of miles, take a shower, and often fix a number of issues before 8.

One of the most productive developers I ever knew (a former employee) was a “non-morning person.” He would amble into the office at noon. Drove HR crazy, but all attempts to get him to come in earlier, met with failure. He would often stay in past 2AM.

As his manager, I got flak for his schedule, but I put my own job in jeopardy, and did not enforce corporate policy on him. We worked together for almost 27 years. Japan loved him (so my job wasn’t actually in jeopardy). His schedule worked for them.

We tend to have a habit of projecting what works for us, onto others.

I wish more people would understand this when giving advice -- what works for one case or one person is guaranteed to have many exceptions when you try to apply it to a larger population.

I'm a relatively new parent, and I've gotten to the point to where I hate when other parents give advice. Something that worked for your kid won't necessarily work for mine, and don't treat that case like it's my fault -- instead, qualify that your advice is based on your experience and your situation, not necessarily something universal.

When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing https://www.amazon.com/dp/0735210632/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_FM...

This describes me, exactly.

I enjoyed his A Whole New Mind book.

Education runs on a "morning person" schedule from a young age, through early adulthood. After that, there's certainly more choice available in terms of life schedule, but the vast majority of people are corralled into a form of employment built on the same schedule. Even if not, all major services one interfaces with in one's life operate on that schedule.

Even if you managed against all odds to develop healthy daily habits during the 20-ish years of strict poorly suited scheduling that is the education system, applying those habits only becomes more difficult when you move into a more independent self-driven environment of providing for oneself financially. This absolutely kills any hope of developing productive habits for most people.

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Anecdata: I'd classify myself as "not a morning person", but I don't find difficult to get up early. e.g. I don't need an alarm-clock. What I find difficult is functioning after getting up.

I don't have kids but I've a pretty demanding large dog that had a strong preference for 5am walks when he first arrived, which I adapted to reasonably easily. Walking a dog isn't really a "significant accomplishment" in the commonly understood sense, and more-importantly, isn't a mentally challenging or "applied" activity. I'm completely unable to function in the mornings when it comes to doing anything even mildly complex.

Also, getting up at 5am means I'm severely less productive from 6pm onwards, which is my peak productive period when I operate on natural rhythm. I'm reasonably successful (I think) and I work a remote job from Ireland on a US tz schedule, so that's particularly tough.

Being early, however, is a superpower. If you show up to a meeting prepared or get correspondence out to your counterparties early in the morning, everything goes better. So, early rising confers a number of advantages that tend to compound. These days, I'm an increasingly early-riser.

The thing that matters is your phase relative to the rest of humanity. Getting pre-work done for the following day in an evening may also work for a late riser, but it doesn't work for me.

My job allows me to work whenever I want.

So, I wake up early and start work so that I'll be done by early afternoon. That leaves me plenty of time to get useful things done.

Because it's work, I'm kind of motivated to get up early. Had I decided to do some other activity in the morning — non-work coding, exercise, reading etc — I wouldn't get out of bed.

I don't think they're saying, "get up early tomorrow after staying up late tonight" What they mean is "get into a habit of getting enough sleep and waking up early." Yes, I get it, many people claim to be night owls. But honestly many of them just get terrible sleep and won't put the effort into developing healthy routines and instead write it off as something they can't change.

After you get in the habit of it, the time available in a day feels almost doubled.

And there's (I suppose) the benefit of working fasted which generally enhances focus.

That doesn’t invalidate it, though.

if you feel terrible waking up that early - go to bed earlier as well. you need that sleep.

I get it though, it's what works for you. So you should do that, but it's not universal advice, people that find it works just think others should go to bed earlier and follow what they do and poof! like magic everything is amazing

Also it depends on your age. I remember seeing some research on why we shouldn't be waking up teenagers in early morning. So if you had a bad time waking up early as a kid, it might not be true as an adult.

While definitely a shift from what I do today, maybe going back to that style of internet usage would not, in fact, be so intolerable!

There are plenty of options beyond social media. Take a walk. Do some hobby, read something physical, etc. The issue with social media is that compared to most alternatives, it's easier to lose track of time, and easier to get addicted.

Not sure how old you are, but as another commenter pointed out, many of us spent a good chunk of our life - even adult life - without constant-on Internet. The quality of life was not at all worse.

The internet and video games didn't even exist for almost all of human history, and people didn't burn out merely for lack of access to them.

Unplug and enjoy the world.

Just because we have a socially enforced style guide and no infinite scroll doesn't mean it's not social media.

I'm guessing you don't have young children?

Focus mode during the day time on weekdays, to prevent stuff while trying to be productive. And timers on a few apps.

I used to scroll through far too much twitter, but putting an hour cap on my phone helped with that a lot. It helped break the habit, and depending on what is happening in the world, I may not even hit the cap many days.

1. Video games, in moderation can be beneficial for focus in much the same way reading a book can. You have to concentrate on a single task for an extended period of time, and lack of concentration is often punished. Obviously playing for 8 hours a day is a problem, but an hour or two here and there is nothing to worry about.

2. I'm a morning person, so getting up early and doing something useful before 8am totally works for me. But a lot of people just can't function that early or don't have the luxury of being able to get up that early (shift workers, for example). I'd suggest instead of targeting 8am specifically, just target the first wakeful hour of your day as the time to get something done by. If that's 8am - great, if that's 6pm - that's cool to.

I would feel more focused and productive than usual if I spent a day on a video game. Games are usually focused time, whereas social media is a low level misery but not being able to stop, hoping between sites, looking for something entertaining but not finding it.

Deliberately act. If someone casually asks "whatcha doing?", you should never answer "nothing". Deliberately playing a game isn't doing nothing, taking a nap isn't doing nothing. Social media isn't necessarily doing nothing, but for me it usually is.

Ask yourself, did I decide to do this? What is my goal? If your goal is passing time, stop.

I was doing really good with all of these until Elden Ring came out. Now my side project hasn't seen a commit in a few weeks :)

You just need to start, and get yourself to do something different to really see a difference with yourself. (seems redundant, but your actions have a direct relationship to your life experience)