How to be a Productive Night Owl
Tags: productivity
Published: 2020-01-13 06:03:43

All my life I've been a night owl. As a child I would study deep into the night and nod off at my desk in the daytime.  Both my parents had professions where they worked nights, my mom was a Neonatal Intensive Care Nurse, and my step-father ran a security company.  Since being a night owl seems to run in my blood, when I decided to teach myself to learn how to code, I started studying late into the night.  I've developed a few habits that have given me a lot of success at getting things done while the world sleeps.

One of the things that inspired me to change was an essay I read by Paul Graham titled ["Maker's Schedule, Manager's Schedule."](http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html).  I think as a creative (before learning to code I was a circus performer/artist/model) I think the notion of using my days in half days like Paul speaks about inherently is the reason I like to code at night.  The world is quiet, and there are so few things that can switch me out of "makers mode."  The small things that can ruin the flow of creation don't exist at night.  The multitude of choices that can lead to 10-15 minutes of mental contortion don't exist. 

In Paul's essay, he speaks about a time when he was starting his startup where he would code from dinner until 3am everyday and then sleep until 11am.  This schedule enabled him to have two workdays in one which doubled his productivity. 

Another reason I started coding at night is that during my 20s before I became a circus performer, I had a period of time where I became a bit of a hermit.  At the time I was living in Manhattan, Kansas during the Bush Jr presidency, and I developed a fear of being in public spaces.  I am a liberal Black woman and my neighbors were staunchly Republican. Leaving the apartment often resulted in heckles telling me to go back to where I came from, I'd gone outside to slashed tires more than once, and I wanted a way to be able to study and live my life to the fullest in safety.  I switched to the nightshift, took online classes and learned to live during the times when the world was sleeping.

I love the nighttime, it feels like there's more space for my brain.  My nightly schedule is very simple.

I start my first task at around 5:00-5:30PM after a cup of matcha tea.
Next, I take a break around 6:30-7:00PM where I spend some time on Twitter/FB/IG.
I get back to whatever task I was on until around 9:00-9:30PM to eat dinner.  After dinner I try to either gather my thoughts for a blog post or watch a tutorial, just something to give my stomach time to digest.

I try to keep it simple, take breaks when I need to.  The biggest reason for this  is because of my time at Lambda School. The 3 hour lectures never seemed to help things click, and I felt my attention slipping after 30 minutes to an hour. When I began my self-taught journey, I wanted to do it differently than my time at Lambda. I use their curriculum, but I wanted to do it in a way that was conducive to my lifestyle.

At the end of my night I like to sit quietly, no TV music or anything.  It gives my brain time to relax after everything I put it through during the night.