I Can Get a Lot Done between 2am and 7am - Granite Grok

I Can Get a Lot Done between 2am and 7am

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I can get a lot done between 2 am and 7 am, but it isn’t always by conscious decision. Rather, it ends up as a “forcing” outside of me.  Sorta happens like this:

I’m writing this column at 4 a.m., but I need to level with you: It’s nowhere near as romantic as that sounds. I am not sitting in a hotel lobby, tuxedo bow tie unfurled, cigar smoldering in an ashtray, pecking at an old Underwood typewriter after a long night out with movie stars, rock gods and other assorted fabulous people.

The truth is I fell asleep last night right after reading to my kids. I passed out shortly before 9 p.m. …

I’m awake because over the past two years, I’ve joined a new club: the very, very early morning club. I know a lot of people have lives and jobs that require them to wake up extremely early, but this is a new lifestyle for me. It took two small children and one pandemic that kept us all home to figure out that if I was going to continue to be productive, and write nonsense humor columns like this one, I was going to need to be productive at an uncommon hour, sitting alone in the dark.

Staying up late is out of the question. Sure, I used to be able to do it when I was younger, have a cup of Dunkin’ at 9 p.m. and slug it out, but these days, asking me to stay up to watch the 11 p.m. news is like asking me to climb K2. “Saturday Night Live” actually live, on Saturday night? That’s something that hellions do.

Plus, my brain is fried by midafternoon. Honestly: Tell me anything after 3 p.m. and you should make me scribble it on my arm. As for my writing, everything I write after 1 p.m. looks like a ransom note written by miniature horses. I mean, more than it usually does. But 4 a.m.? At that hour, I’m sharper. …

The benefits are obvious: My home is quieter, as is the world, and my head. Nobody’s reaching out to me at 4 a.m. Email has slowed to a halt. Texts are nonexistent. Emergencies are waiting until 8 a.m. …

There are drawbacks, of course. My body has fully reset itself. By midmorning I’m looking for lunch. Midafternoon, I’m ready for dinner. … If my wife wants to plan a dinner with friends, I have to prepare my body like an astronaut.

It’s worth it. Lately, I’ve begun to wonder: Do I dare join the 3 a.m. club?

3 am on a regular basis?  That’s a big NO. In fact, I think that sleeping, and sleeping in, is one of life’s guilty pleasures. I like being in bed, in the dark before morning, where under the comforter I am at that just-right temperature and all is well with the world. At least for a while. Having the Grandson now for six years, I treasure it even more because, well, young children don’t sleep in.

That’s why God gives babies and young children to the young.  We were just bizarre enough to do it all over again 30 years down the line (and yes, wouldn’t have it any other way). But if I look at Paul Caron, he seems to be a lot younger than I so reading to his kids make sense and then falling asleep makes a bit of sense.  Over the last few years, it happens for me primarily by:

  • The Grandson wakes up early morning with nightmares and I have to run to his room to keep him from stumbling towards the stairs going downstairs (and not, toddler safety gates don’t work).  After that, I crawl back to bed, lay there for about an hour, I KNOW that I might as well get up as my mind, over the protestations of the bod, is racing.  So, between 2 and 4am, I go to my office and start in. Fortunately, with some medications, he and I are BOTH sleeping better.
  • And because I am older, I sometimes fall asleep on the couch after dinner. Then I can’t get to sleep, so I stay up until mid-wee hours of the morn.

These are sufficient for illustration as there are a few others.  I get up, do some of my morning tasks, and then settle into my chair in front of my laptop and start to get productive.  And it really is!

It IS a conducive time to do this!  The dogs stay in our bedroom and leave me alone (e.g., no sitting in front of me or pawing for attention, belly rubs, treats, water, food, or to go out. The Grandson is asleep (finally) and is quietly in bed – no interruptions. And yes, TMEW is sleeping. The TV is also off, so that distraction (mostly news) is off the air.  And I haven’t had a phone call yet (except school cancelations due to weather which would also wake me up too much to go back to sleep.

The house is dark and quiet and I know that there will be NO disturbances. I can think, I can write, I can plan, I can organize.  It can be nice, indeed.

But I don’t want to do it on a regular basis.

After all, I really do like sleeping.

(H/T: TaxProf Blog)

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