Early Bird vs. Night Owl: the Death of the Avian Myth

You've heard it, probably thought it, maybe even said it,

"I wish I could get up early and be productive, but, YAWN, I am such a night owl,

I just can't. You early birds are so lucky."

Well I'm here to tell you that is a myth, and its dead. I killed it, countless others have killed it, and you can kill it too.

Now, I have heard a lot of people talk about this recently, and I am not just jumping on the band wagon. I have something specific to say; many of those who have spoken on learning to get up early have attempted to soften their message by saying something along the lines that it isn't for everybody. Well I am here to take no prisoners.

It is for everybody.

You will find out why, but only if you try. 

The myth of "I'm more productive at night"

Sorry, but you're not, you may really, really, really, and I mean REALLY want to believe that, but it is not true. Why do I know this? Because I did it for years.

Both before and after my LDS mission, I was known to say, "I'm a night person, I work best at night." During my mission, however, I was on a schedule that forced me into being a morning person, and after a few months back home and trying my old scheme of being a night owl I figure out I would be more productive back on the early bird routine.

The problem with the prowl

If you are a self defined "night owl" then you know what I am talking about. Just like real owls they prowl. They think they are being productive but in fact they wanderer from task to task doing a few things here and a few things there; none of them well. At night you are always looking for an excuse to do something different than what you are suppose to be doing. You eat something, you call a friend, you just play a "couple minutes" of a video game.

Get the worm

The early bird really does get the worm. Maybe you think you'd rather have a mouse. That's fine, but just acknowledge that in the morning worms are sitting at the top of the soil and at night mice are hiding. Hunting mice will never be as productive as scratching for worms.

People who wake up early get things done, in the morning the things that need to be done are sitting on the surface, at night they are buried under the day.

The myth of "I'm born that way"

Maybe you are, but guess what, nobody cares. The "fair" fairy isn't going to come along, wave her wand and make it so everything is even and square, you've got to do that yourself.

And besides, you weren't actually born that way. Humans, by nature, are not nocturnal. They had no reason to be so until the industrial revolution and the invention of the night shift. You actually can and should wake up early and be productive. That is actually the way nature has wired you.

The power of changing today

You could wait till tomorrow, but you won't get the worm today. Why miss out on that? You can choose to change today and live better now.

How can you change today when the morning is already gone? A good morning begins the night before. I'll be talking more about this in a later post when I explain how I changed and am changing.

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Thanks for reading, and remember, live better.