Do you have to be a morning person to be productive?

It's not only the early bird that catches the worm.

- Mitali Shah
Jul 13, 2024

offline

Who decided that only early birds could catch worms? Or that the only people who are healthy, wealthy, and wise are those who wake up early? A universal, irrefutable fact is that there are two kinds of people—the first who wake up with the first rays of dawn and the second, whose systems don’t come on until the sun doesn’t go down. This debate of morning people vs night owls has been going on for what seems like decades with no conclusion in sight. Our entire lives, we’ve been told that in order to be successful and efficient, you have to wake up early and start your day. But this raises a question—are people who function better in the night not productive? This can’t be right, and believe us, it’s not. It all comes down to science.

It’s no secret that the world is structured around a 9-5 schedule, give or take a few hours. But sometimes this timeline doesn’t work with our body’s natural circadian rhythm, aka our waking and sleeping hours. If you go deeper, there are different types of circadian rhythms called chronotypes. These dictate the hours that we naturally feel sleepy, awake, or the most energised. Everyone’s chronotypes are based on different factors, but one of the most important ones is a person’s genes.

Yes, your genetics play a part in deciding whether you’re an early bird or a night owl. A study done on chronotypes found that certain genetic markers make people more alert at different times of the day. And despite what we’ve been taught, no one chronotype is better or has more potential than the other.

However, considering the way our world functions (and its favouritism towards morning people), the rest of us are constantly at a disadvantage. But there are ways to optimise your productivity even if you’re the type of person who can’t function before 10 am. How? By scheduling your day accordingly and getting enough sleep. Read on to know more in detail.

Regularise your sleeping patterns

The very first thing to understand (even though it’s not news) is that without quality sleep you will not be able to focus, whether you’re a morning person or not. A proper snooze schedule helps regulate your mood and boost your attention levels. So, instead of hitting that ‘one more episode,’ you should just turn off the lights and sleep when your body starts sending you signals.

We understand that this is easier said than done, especially when your energy levels peak in the night. But by regularising your sleep schedule, you can be productive at your time instead of forcing your mind and body into situations you don’t have the energy to be in.

Know when your energy peaks

Okay, this requires a little experimentation, but knowing yourself is a crucial step in being productive, especially if you’re not a morning person. To do this, you need to start asking the right questions. What time do you generally start to feel sluggish and sleepy? When do you naturally wake up? When do you feel the most energetic? Around what time do you start to develop brain fog?

Finding answers to these questions will let you know when your energy levels are at their peak. You’ll have to approach this strategically and try different things every couple of days or perhaps every week. Once you know when your energy levels are at their peak (and again, it’s not necessarily in the morning), you can schedule your tasks to work for you rather than you having to break your back to complete them. More on this in the next point.

Create a realistic schedule

Once you’ve had a good night’s sleep and figured out when you feel most focused in the day, you can start to carve out a schedule for yourself. The trick here is to tackle the toughest tasks during the period when your brain is working at 100 per cent. So if you typically function better in the night, say after 4 pm, this is when you’ll be the best at client meetings, presentations, and whatever other heavy lifting your job requires you to do. And during the first half of the day, you can schedule all your mindless administrative tasks or chores.

Now if you are someone who thrives during the night, you can remove some time to prepare for the next day before you hit the pillow. This way you can even out your next day’s load a little and fit right into your schedule.

Don’t use caffeine as a crutch

When someone who is not a morning person is forced to sit through a two-hour meeting (that could’ve been an email) at 9 am, what do you think powers them? That’s right, coffee. But here’s the thing about caffeine that most people don’t talk about—sure, it can keep you awake and be your driving force, but overdoing it can make you jittery, hyper, induce brain fog, and spike your anxiety levels. Not to mention, it’s a massive sleep disruptor.

Now before all you coffee lovers come at us with your pitchforks, we aren’t saying to forgo the beloved beverage. All we are saying is don’t overdo it and use it as a crutch to get through the day. So, unless you’re one of the Gilmore Girls, set that fourth cup of coffee down and slowly back away.

Get real with yourself

We don’t know who needs to hear this, but if you’re not someone who turns into an enthusiastic puppy in the morning, forcing yourself to wake up at 6 am to unlock some magical level of productivity, despite every fibre in your body staging a protest, doesn’t work. Whatever you do, you’ll do it half-heartedly because it’s too early for your brain to function. And that is okay; it doesn’t make you lazy or incompetent. So, get real with yourself and chart out your day in a way that suits you. No matter how unconventional it is. This way, you can get through the day with ease.

Feature image: Pexels

Also read: All the most helpful self-development books to read now

Also read: 5 Indian artists collaborate for ‘The UmbrellaArt Project’. And it's all for a good cause.