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Ask HN: Do you feel more focused at night?

10 points by quantumpotato_ ↗ HN
I've been having trouble focusing in the day. I think part of this is having to deal with so much non-work stuff-to-do, plus organizing work, plus managing e-mails. At night places are quiet. People don't e-mail. I can focus.

Thoughts?

13 comments

[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 23.1 ms ] thread
doubt_me
I don't let it get that far. I focus regardless or try my hardest so long as I got some good rest I am fine
timhargis
I work far better at night when I'm alone for obvious reasons like you mentioned - phone isn't ringing, people aren't texting, emails for the most part are far, far less, etc. etc. Definitely a night owl...
anish_t
Nod in agreement. I guess its about getting that loooooooong stretch of uninterrupted time. The day is good for getting the usual things done and brainstorming. But yes, when I am working on something new and exciting, i start at about 11:00 pm and my thought process peaks between 3 and 4 am
kbart
Definitely. I was doing all my assignments and exam preparations at university only at nights. It looks like my productivity triples then - no noise, no phone calls/IM's and you can always take a break and just gaze at the stars for a moments to relax. Sadly I have a day job now and can't stay with that life style anymore.
jlengrand
I do focus better at night, but realized it was a bad trade off because you have to get early later afterwards. I switched my schedule instead and work really early in the morning now. I love it because you don't have the "oh f* it's 4am already" if you wake up at 4.
vonseel
I work nights, and I do feel like I get more done. I also feel sort of guilty for staying up so late (maybe because I have roommates who work regular hours in offices).

Regardless, I'm interested in trying out your method...

jlengrand
I have switched for money reasons at first (train costs less if you take it before 6am here). I now get up at 5, and am forcing myself to get productive right away.

I was blown when I realized after a few days that I roughly get as much stuff done between 5 and 10am that in the whole day before. Just because there is no one else in the office. No phone call, nothing... Nothing would make me change anymore.

The only difficult point is to force yourself to go to bed quite early too. For me, it was also a win in fact. My GF goes to bed at 10pm and I used to let her go to bed and code for 4 hours after. Now we go to bed together, which is also better for my relationship :).

Win win like ever :)

jayrobin
I used to be a serious night owl: in university I commonly stayed up till 6-7am working thinking I was at my best. However, since getting into the real world and having a 9-5 I obviously couldn't keep this up, so recently I tried to switch to becoming a morning person.

It wasn't easy (especially those first few days), but slowly I managed to push my weekday alarm back to 6am (from 8am: I live just round the corner from where I work) and on weekends to 8-9am. The biggest things that worked for me were:

1. Make the alarm annoying and put it somewhere that forces you to get out of bed

2. Have a good routine that you can follow in your zombified state (e.g. get up, head straight for the shower, get dressed, have breakfast while not browsing HN/reddit, sit down to work)

3. Give yourself a good reason for getting out of bed. For me, this was only allowing myself to work on an exciting new project in the morning before work

I still lapse occasionally, but it has made me realise that being a night owl or a morning person is entirely my choice.

japhyr
I fell victim to the snooze button for years. I'd set my alarm early, and then hit snooze for literally two hours every morning.

I finally started getting up early by ditching my alarm clock altogether. Once I did that, I just started getting up the first time I woke up each morning.

I think this approach works because you always wake up at the end of a sleep cycle. I haven't used an alarm clock in over 10 years, and I am way more productive because of that.

jlengrand
A simple way to get rid of the snooze problem is simply to put your phone in a location not accessible from your bed. My alarm clock is in my bathroom. I have to get up to stop it.

Once it´s done, I am 30 cms away from a hot shower :)

I used not to have an alarm clock in the past. The problem I had is that it definitely means that you cannot stay up late the day before, not to wake up too late.

meerita
Totally. I love when you work and you hear only the rain, no cars, no cabs, no buses, no salesman, no childrens going to school.
mattm
Well for one thing, your body is trying to prepare yourself for sleep. So naturally, you feel more relaxed and don't get as energized by the distractions that are available to you.

If you're having trouble focusing during the day, you might want to work on being more present while you work and training your mind to not give into those distractions. Yes, it can be trained just like anything else.

I have a course that addresses this issue and other issues that programmers face if you're interested. It's available at https://www.programmingspiritually.com/

ghostdiver
On the other hand, at the morning(and that means MORNING :)) I am super effective for first 2 hours. So if I can go vampire until 1am and sleep until 8am or I can go sleep at 11pm and wake up at 6am, I choose the second one.

6am-8am >>>>>> 11pm-1am (in terms of effectiveness)