Traded my 5 am alarm for a 9 am start and stopped hating my work

Used to wake up at 5 to get a jump on emails before the kids woke up, but after 3 years I realized I was just burning out by noon and stress-eating through lunch. Last month I pushed everything back to 9 am and now I finish the same amount of work without crying into my coffee. Has anyone else tried a later start time and actually seen their stress drop?

3 comments

3 Comments

charlie1981mo ago

Swapped my 5 am start to 8:30 after realizing I was just drinking coffee to function instead of actually being productive. Turns out I get more done in 6 hours of focused time than 9 hours of zombie mode. The key was blocking my calendar from 8:30 to noon with no meetings so I can actually dig into work instead of hunting notifications. What's your first hour look like now that you've moved your start time?

the_john1mo ago

I mean, yeah, that makes total sense. Waking up at 5 just to stare at emails before anyone else is up sounds like a fast track to hating everything. I tried the whole early bird thing for a month and it just made me grumpy and tired by 2pm. Pushing back to a normal human time probably saved your sanity more than it cost you. Sometimes the old advice about early mornings is just wrong for some people.

bell.jessica1mo ago

Honestly, I have to push back a little - shifting to 9 am just feels like you're robbing your mornings of that quiet head start. @charlie198 nailed it with blocking time for deep work, but isn't that possible at 5 am too before the chaos kicks in?

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