Productivity literature on the internet is filled with reasons why you should "become a morning person" and references to all the famous people who woke up early - people like Benjamin Franklin and Dracula. Yeah, that's awesome, but it doesn't help me one bit.

Morning Enthusiasm

The realization I've come to recently is this: When I get to work in the morning, the first thing I do is check my Arch-related email, and respond/solve some of the issues therein, or delegate them for later in the day. In my head, I have this idea that "I will get to it when I get home from work." A noble goal, to say the least, but it usually doesn't work out that way. Work is stressful, and when I get home, I want to relax, or watch a movie, or read a book, or do anything but sit on a computer for a little bit longer.

But it's that initial burst in the morning that keeps niggling at me from the back of my brain. Why can't I replicate that after a long day at work? The simple fact is that I cannot. For this very reason, I am attempting an experiment.

The Experiment

This week I am going to attempt to "become a morning person."

Most geeks are known for their late hours. We stay up until 3am playing video games, writing python code to do something inane, tweaking code we use to manage our blogs, or even just fiddling with our config files. We all do it.

Sadly, late hours don't mesh to well with the rest of the world. We all still have to be at work or school at some point in the morning, and we rectify this by getting very little sleep. Any perusing of health literature will tell you that it's all sorts of bad for you to get such little sleep.

So, for the next few days, I will be making sure I don't touch my computer after 9pm, and will be getting in bed fairly early. Getting enough sleep will help me wake up early, and I will be able to do Arch-related work before I shower and go to work.

Status

This morning, in fact, I woke up 1.5 hours before I usually do, answered some emails, did some dishes, and took out the trash. It actually felt good to do simple chores when I woke up, rather than being rushed to shower and get to work.

Look for updates later and in the comments as to how my experiment goes. Advice and questions appreciated.