Finding the Groove

This has been a great month, schedule-wise! No travel, and I've generally been able to sleep and work on a cycle that works for me. Of course, I've still had the occasional setback - a lunch meeting, early teleconference, neighbors doing construction, Superman running sprints above my head, or some other pre-afternoon event. Overall though, it's been great and I've settled into a routine that's been very productive.

What I've noticed is that I basically flip my day upside down. "Normal" people get up, head to work, then come home and have a few hours of wind-down time before bed. I get up, have a few hours of wind-up time, work, then relax for a bit before bed. My morning is spent doing things most people do in the evening.

I've settled pretty consistently into a 2:00am to 10:30am sleep schedule. The first two or three hours of my day are spent sipping coffee, checking for important work e-mails, catching up on personal reading, the news, and of course, Facebook. Around 12:30 or 1:00, I eat breakfast, shower, and prepare to really dig into work around 2:00pm.

My peak time of productivity doesn't really come until around 7:00pm though. I spend the early afternoon doing organizational stuff, making phone calls to clients who work "regular" hours, catching up on job-related reading and news, and other things that don't take a whole lot of intense brainpower and focus. Around 6:00 or 7:00 though, I start writing. My best time to actually complete projects is from 7:00pm to 10:00pm. This is where I get in The Zone and don't even notice time passing. I'm always shocked when I look up and see how late it is, and I often work well past 10pm.

There's a downside (or two) to this schedule though. My social life suffers. In order to spend time with my friends - who get together in the evening after their work hours - I have to sacrifice my own productive work hours. I have to interact with clients during times my brain is toast. I don't get much relaxing "me" time either. Mornings are spent trying to gear up and so I do work-like things that prep my brain for work later in the day. I have a few hours between the time I stop working and bedtime - but everything in the world outside is closed, so I'm limited to relaxing in my own living room. Not really my style. I'd rather go out, walk down to the beach, have dinner somewhere, hear some music. Unfortunately, that's not gonna happen after 10pm on a weeknight where I live.

Still, the positive side outweighs the negative. I'm getting a lot more done now that I've accepted that my best time to be productive is long after everyone else has ended their day. My creativity is coming back, and my analysis is deeper and better than it's been since grad school - when I kept a similar schedule, oddly enough. My brain makes different types of connections at 7pm than it does at 2pm, and this has consequences for my work. Accepting that fact has been liberating, and has improved my life significantly.

I'm feeling healthy and alert, staying spiritually grounded - and I've even lost weight! It's like my whole being has clicked into place now that I'm honoring my own circadian rhythm. Mind, body and spirit are working together again rather than against one another. I've even found ways to maintain a social life by setting aside whole days for fun with friends rather than trying to fit them into a few hours that aren't the right hours. This means that I'm spending less time with some friends, but I've also made some new ones and that's been wonderful too!

I don't know how long this will last. Eventually, I'll be doing fieldwork again rather than analysis and library research. Many of my clients are still in a different time zone, which will sometimes affect my routine. But for now, I'm embracing my true rhythm and enjoying this rare chance to be ME!