Ask HN: How to Stay Motivated in the Mornings? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How to Stay Motivated in the Mornings?

28 pointsvazirthrowaway14 comments

I have been struggling this problem since early 2020 (ever since WFH was enforced). I work as a software developer and I find it immensely difficult to get much work done in the mornings. I usually wake up around 8 and after coffee, moderate exercise, shower and breakfast I start my work around 10:00. Apart from the daily stand-up (which happens around 11:00) I find it extremely difficult to be energetic and focus on my work during the morning session. As day passes by and after a short nap around 12:30, I become energized and am able to focus and work in a productive manner. Till that time I find it harder to be energetic and do anything meaningful. I do sleep well (7-7.5 hours) and I wake-up without an alarm. The place I work from is well ventilated, gets abundant sunlight, and is quite silent.

I tried different things to keep myself engaged in the mornings like: skipping breakfast, taking a short walk after the breakfast, making an hourly plan of things to work on the previous night. But nothing helped.

Essentially I am not able to focus and work for a few hours in the mornings. However to keep up with my commitments I work late into the evenings, and end my work day somewhere around 8 or 9 p.m and on somedays end up working after dinner too . This essentially cuts me out of many things I enjoy (or like to do): learning new things, reading (tech, and non tech), watching a nice movie/episode etc. I don't think my initial inertia/tardiness in the mornings is because I find my work to be boring, as I like my work and in the afternoons I am able to do my job with a good focus. I also tried to do my readings, learnings etc. in the morning, but I find myself unable to feel enthusiastic about them in the mornings.

I am looking for any suggestions to help me do better. Have any of you find yourself in similar situations, and has any life hacks, tips helped you to do better ?

Thanks in Advance

Personally my life got much better when I just recognised heh my body clock worked and stopped trying to fight it. You should not try to work in the morning. Use the time for something else. Shopping, cooking, reading, tv...

I don't know how you will reconcile the 11am standup with your 1pm start time. Perhaps your team could move it. Perhaps you don't need to be there really. Maybe you can write your standup notes the night before.

You're an afternoon and evening worker. Embrace that and be good at it, and stop feeling like a failure.

This probably isn't helping, but I've learned to be super motivated to go outside even right after getting out of bed.

My solution was to not make coffee at home and instead getting it from somewhere outside. It's five minutes there and back. For coffee!

Then I've started buying groceries too and suddenly the day got much longer!

But that's me. I can power through things. You might be interested in a more "organic" approach, which puts you more into balance with nature.

Getting up at eight is far too late.

Instead get out of bed when the sun comes up, or a bit before that, and go to bed earlier than you did before ... of course. Go to bed either when you're tired, or when you want to set yourself a specific amount of hours of sleep.

You're welcome!

What helped me a lot was getting up very early.

I wake up around 04:30/05:00 (without alarm), make a coffee and work till 8 or 9. So i already worked a lot without getting notifications or emails from co-workers, they are still sleeping.

Around 9 i have a shower and make a little break. Around 10 i work again till 1pm and the rest of the day i'm still online for my co-workers, but not really working anymore. After 1pm i mostly work on my own projects or do groceries and so on.

What really helpmed me are Qbserve (https://qotoqot.com/qbserve/) to track my productivity and Flow (https://flowapp.info), a Pomodoro timer. I can block social media and other stuff with Flow to don't get distracted in the morning. I don't open social media (also HN) before 1pm.

That is brilliant. Can you share your sleeping habits? And do you use power naps? Just curious!!

Sometimes there are no more life hacks to try and you might just have to accept that you work best in the afternoons/evenings as opposed to the mornings.

Perhaps optimizing for this is better than changing your habits and working against your natural tendency?

I am the opposite - I can crank out work in the morning, but not so much after lunch. So I embrace it - I do deep work in the morning, and encourage meetings after lunch. I likewise encourage my team to figure out when they are effective, and work the hours that are best for them.

I'd encourage the same thing for you -- stop trying so hard to make mornings happen. Live your own life in the mornings, then work the hours that are best for you. Especially with WFH, why force yourself into someone else's schedule. Communicate with your team, pick some good meetings time where you'll all be available, and work whenever you like.

Don’t oppose - accept it and enjoy your free time in the morning, maybe doing something else. Why forcing yourself doing something, if it doesn’t work.

Remember you are not a machine, yet an architecture of balance, mental and physical.

Same, I'm typically an afternoon and an evening person instead of a morning one.

I think it actually makes sense for software developers since it is quieter in the afternoon and in the evening compared to the morning. It makes more sense to do deep work later in the day.

Ideally, if I had more control, I'd just spend the morning, touching base with people and evening for doing deep thinking and work.

My only practical tip is to get more Morning Sunlight.

It's recommended by Andrew Huberman and I think it does work to a certain extent. Just standing in morning light helps get more energized even if it is just a placebo effect.

If you start work at 10:00, then the block gets broken at 11:00 (again at 12:30) you don't have a meaningful block to do work as you do in the afternoon. Instead if you start to work early, and get a block of, say, 4 hours (uninterrupted by meetings, breakfast, etc...) you'll get much work done.

Is your problem getting started? You might try using a simple to-do list to pick up where you left off.

Otherwise, perhaps it makes more sense to work when you feel productive. Use that morning time for other tasks.

Thanks for your suggestion. I did try by making a TODO list (and even breaking down to the extent of what I should be working on at a given hour), but couldn't adhere to the scheme.

I tend to find that if I write down the exact last thing I was doing for the day before finishing it helps me not have to ramp up so steeply the next day.

I also factor in procrastination both into my planning, and in my self measures of progress. We can't always be the stick to motivate ourselves.

I set out to work and gradually become genuinely surprised and interested by the experience of silence. Within that moment resides my day’s potential.

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