For the last couple of months I have been experimenting with a variety of ways of getting more things done after spending the entire day in the office. By the time I got home after a long day at the office I usually was so exhausted and depleted of energy that I effectively went straight into autopilot mode in the evenings. Not a very good mode to be when you still want to do personal things.
The main part of my day which I can’t really control is are the 9 hours from 8 to 5 at the office. I can get there anywhere from 6:30 to 9 AM but at the end of the day I would get home around 5, make something to eat and have dinner until 6. After dinner I would end up watching a series or a movie and the day would be pretty much over. No time for working out, reading or anything that might be in any way good for me.
Waking up early
The first thing I tried was waking up 1h earlier to get earlier at the office, and then be able to leave earlier. I usually was one of the first in the office at 6:30 and left quite early at 4 or 3:45. While that extra hour I gained from 4 until 5 was useful, right after dinner I kept falling back into autopilot mode and lost it again. I did effectively gain an hour just for me where I could workout and it was good for a while.
After about a week or two, I still wasn’t satisfied by the fact that even though I was getting more productivity going, I was still going into autopilot mode right after dinner.
I knew that I needed to recover my energy levels at home somehow.
The second morning
I ended up reading about this idea of the second morning here.
Malan explains quite well that the 2 main available currencies are time and energy. I was suffering due to a lack of energy at the end of the day.
The idea behind the second morning is very simple, when you get home, you have a quick power nap and sleep for 20 min. You need to use a timer so not to oversleep. After this nap you get more energy and can focus on things again. The main thing to consider, is that you should follow the same routine you would in the morning right after waking up as a way of tricking your body into thinking it’s morning again.
It sort of worked for me. It was a slight improvement over the previous solution I attempted. I did have more energy and focus throughout the evening but it was mostly hit and miss. It was quite difficult actually falling asleep at 4 to 4:30PM in the afternoon when everybody was coming home and banging doors, throwing stuff on the floor. There also is plenty of light out that makes falling asleep that much more difficult.
When it did work it worked beautifully, but when it didn’t it just didn’t and I ended up having the same regular low energy evenings.
Doing things first thing
Because this method was mostly unreliable for me I decided to try and just move some of the things I wanted to do before actually going to the office and just leave home slightly later.
This seemed to work a whole lot better, I ended up getting 2 and a half hours of quiet, distraction free time to focus on my tasks. I got most of my reading done during the month before Christmas and went through 3 book in one month using this solution. My morning routine was starting to take a shape. I got 20 to 30minutes of meditation, 1h of reading, and 1h of writing and research. I would get in the office with a grate sense of accomplishment and with a good mood. It seem to be getting me to where I wanted to get.
The only thing still missing was a regular workout routine. I avoided working out during the early mornings because it usually requires more than 1 hour including showers(I’m a slow showerer). I kept trying to do it in the afternoon or evening.
While I did have enough energy and focus in the morning to dedicate to important tasks, I still had the same low energy levels at the end of the day. I couldn’t get myself to do mostly anything in the evenings as now my energy levels were even more depleted.
While I was still trying to optimize a combination of the second morning and waking up early the following interview showed up on InsideQuest:
Firas Zahabi reminded me, AGAIN, that willpower is a very limited resource among other things, and it should be used as efficiently as possible.
So I decided to just…
Turn the day upside down
I decided that if the office, with all its hassle was draining me so much that after I didn’t have any energy and willpower left to do anything productive, I should stop beating myself up about it and move those tasks to when I did have enough energy and willpower. I moved my entire evening before going to the office. I was going to end my day with the office.
Now this is where it gets scary for most people I tell this too. To do this you have to wake up in the middle of the night, while everyone is sleeping. You are almost working a night shift and when you tell anyone you are doing this of your free will, they usually look at you like you are crazy. The most common question is, how do you meet people this way? Well, let’s be honest, not many people actually meet during the week. Most meet-ups take place Friday and Saturday evening/night. So during the week there’s very little need for you to actually be awake late in the evenings. People taught me strange just waking up at 5AM in the previous month.
During the past 2 to 3 weeks I have been waking before sunrise, in the middle of the night at 3AM. Had a cup of coffee just to avoid getting sleepy and started doing my most important tasks. This way I am able to put in 4 to 5 hours of high energy and high focus work before getting in the office at 8-9AM.
At the same time, in the evenings, I don’t have to feel guilty for procrastinating, because I have already done everything I needed to do and just relax. During the weekends I usually end up staying late and it isn’t causing any problems so far.
My morning routine now includes the same 30min meditation, 1 hour reading, 1-2 hour writing and having a nice breakfast, but it also includes a 30 min. workout session. and another 15-20min of planning for the day/week.
With the increased productivity and achievement I am much happier and it seems to not interfere too much with social life.
Bare in mind that I’m a morning person, so this suites me quite well and it isn’t that difficult for me to actually wake up that early. I have just shown you 3 methods I have experimented with. If you are an evening person, maybe just getting home earlier, as in the first method, might be better for you. Try each one out and see which one best suites you.
