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Working early beats working late

I used to stay up late and work on stuff. I convinced myself that it was better to work late because there was no looming deadline in front of me -- no time in which I'd have to pack up and head to the office. I could stay up as late as I needed to troubleshoot, research, create, or whatever else I was doing. I thought that working into the open-ended evening was best.

But then I tried working early, and I discovered that having that looming cut-off time at 8am forced me to be more efficient and more productive. So, now I go to bed early, get up early, and get a couple hours of work in before I'm in the office. That morning time is my time to tackle whatever personal or work projects I need to spend the most time on. And knowing I only have a couple of hours available makes me work more efficiently.

Having a deadline, and a routine, always improves productivity, don't you think?

Posted on Thu, March 6, 2008 by Tim Wall

6 comments (Add your own)

1. Brent Weaver wrote:
I'll have to give that a try. Nice post Tim.

Thu, March 6, 2008 @ 5:07 PM

2. Scott wrote:
Tried this last night and it didn't work. I ended up watching David Letterman instead of working. Then, I woke up at 9:30 just like every other day. Ah...the life of a freelancer.

Fri, March 7, 2008 @ 10:04 AM

3. Tim Wall wrote:
Haha, Scott. Yes, I've found (not surprisingly) that a critical element of getting up early is also going to sleep early. I, too, can easily get caught up in late night TV, but it's all about discipline, right? I just have to make myself shut it off.

Fri, March 7, 2008 @ 10:07 AM

4. Ryan wrote:
Early vs. late is something I struggle with also. It's nice in the evenings because it's quiet with no distractions and you feel the comfort of having the whole night ahead of you. But this usually only leads to tired, unproductive mornings. I struggle with working in the mornings because I'm not that much of a morning person to begin with. I usually spend the morning with a cup of coffee catching up on blogs, design articles, etc. But perhaps I should start looking at that morning deadline as a good thing, a motivator to get things done in a more timely manner.

Fri, March 7, 2008 @ 12:37 PM

5. Bill White wrote:
Is there a summary page on your site that I can find a price listing of the different products that includes both what it costs on the front end and what it costs to maintain? I've got people asking me about you guys (you host my site) but I can't give them any info because I don't have the hour it would take to try to piece together an intelligent summary from all the different parts of your site. Thanks - bill white www.erc.la

Fri, March 7, 2008 @ 6:18 PM

6. Tim Wall wrote:
Bill, it's tough to create one, single pricing sheet because we have multiple products and services. The best place to find a summary of our product offerings is on our products page: http://www.elementfusion.com/products. Each product's website gives a simple pricing grid. Our services are all custom quoted so we don't have pricing for those up on the web. I hope this helps. If you need more, please contact us.

Mon, March 10, 2008 @ 10:13 AM

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