Bootstrapping: How I Doubled My Workweek Productivity
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I do not contend that the early morning is the most productive hours of the day. I usually take an hours or so to really warm up, get some coffee in me and start working well. Another common mistake I'll make is spending the hour+ time on checking emails, reading up on news, checking fantasy football & stock prices... all things that I'd normally do in my "personal time," yet do not have anything to do with my projects.
This idea definitely works, but requires discipline :)
I also force myself to plan exactly which task I'm going to work on in the morning the day before, that helps me A LOT in becoming productive as fast as possible.
It does set your priorities in order though, my side project deserves my most awake hours & my most productive hours too.
Sending your e-mails first thing means responses come back by the time you're home. It speeds things up so much it results in more than double productivity!
I have tried what the OP suggests; set the alarm for a couple hours earlier. But getting up at 6am (need to be in the office at 8am) is also hard - it is too easy to turn off the alarm when nothing "bad" will happen (i.e. nobody will get fired) and get a little bit more sleep.
Does anyone have any particular techniques ("hacks" in HN parlance) for making an early wake-up+coding session a habit?
I absolutely loathe getting up early, but after 2 weeks or so 5:30am begins to feel more... possible.
The usual pattern is work -> personal time -> sleep. Why not reverse personal time and sleep? So when you come home from work, you sleep (thus getting an 8-hour rest), wake up around 2am fully charged and then work on your bootstrapped business during your personal time. You'll get more than 2 hours. Finally, work time comes last.
This way, your business gets your best energy and effort for that day, you get more rest, and work won't notice the difference.
Anecdotally, lot of people need to 'wind down' after finishing work, so that they get a good sleep; hence the sleep-work-personal ordering.
On a related point, is it bad to set out to shortchange 'work' by giving them your least productive hours? Wouldn't it be better to try negotiate a 6 hour working day with them, on the basis that you weren't going to be productive for the last 2 hours, anyway?
I figure, if you're bootstrapping a business on the side, you're probably looking to get out of working for your employer anyway. If your employer can't tell the difference between when you're giving them your most productive hours and your least, I wouldn't consider it to be shortchanging.
I can only add that the comment that inspired me was from someone who woke up at 4 am and did exercises immediately, to really wake up. I told myself that if he could do it at 4, I AT LEAST had to wake up at 6!