Some of us are morning people and some of us are night owls. When I was young I would have thought that I would be a night owl forever. I can remember hanging out with friends after work until three or four in the morning. I even took overnight shifts, because I enjoyed being up late, or did I?
The truth is I first started realizing that I wasn’t really a night owl when I worked as an overnight maintenance worker at a local McDonalds. Shortly after taking the job I struggled getting enough sleep. I continued to believe since I liked hanging with friends I was a night person.
At twenty-five I started back to college. It was in a course about a year later that I had a professor explain what body rhythm was, and how we could learn to use it to our advantage. He taught us that we all have certain natural cycles and usually for most people they are roughly twelve hours for about four to six hours.
I went home and over the next week or so I look at my schedule. I didn’t change it, but looked at when I actually liked to study or write my papers. I looked at when I remembered things I was doing, and accomplished more. I found out that I was not a night owl after all. At the time I could stay up late, and often did, and then I’d get up and just get going. However, I realized quickly that it is not just about whether I can get up and function. It is truly about whether you are truly focused and productive.
My most productive time is really from about six-thirty in the morning until about twelve. I can get into a project and work and turn out multiple pages during that time. However after about one-thirty I struggle to stay as focused. If I don’t have something to keep me moving I will literally start to feel like I need a nap. Then about five or six in the evening I get another burst of energy and focus that last until about nine.
You may think it sounds like I’m just showing middle-aged slowing down. There may be some truth to this, because I don’t stay up until two in the morning; however, if I do I wake up about five-thirty without an alarm. It isn’t just middle age, because once I learned about body rhythm I started trying to use it to my advantage as much as possible.
When I worked full time in ministry I would study and do planning in the morning and visit people in the afternoon when my mind was less willing to focus on study tasks. When I worked bi-vocationally as a pastor and a teacher I still used my mornings for preparation, and always preferred to have my school prep time in the morning. Even now working as a part-time teacher and working with writing, coaching, and podcasting part-time I am finding my most productive time is in the morning. I often arrive to work before seven to get started. The real problem is that I’m at school every morning and the two days I work half days I have afternoons free. I’ve struggled to really get a whole lot of writing done until after three-thirty.
Find your best produive time and learn to use it.
Blessings on the journey,
Dan
Shippy Woods 
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