Surprise sex is the best thing to wake up to.
…unless you’re in prison.
For 96.8% of my adult life I’ve been a night owl.
If I didn’t have to be up til 8am, I couldn’t get to bed before 2am.
My mind would apply “6 hours sleep”, and set a reverse alarm clock.
I’d work, browse aimlessly or rewatch something for the 7th time.
𝘈𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴.
There were two exceptions:
If there was a likelihood of waking up to either
1. 𝙃𝙤𝙧𝙞𝙯𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙡 𝙜𝙮𝙢𝙣𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙨
or
2. 𝘼 𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙚𝙠𝙮 𝙨𝙥𝙡𝙞𝙛𝙛 / 𝙬𝙚𝙚𝙙 𝙫𝙖𝙥𝙚
At uni I discovered doing either shortly after waking,
takes the experience to stratospheric heights.
Mind and body have a fresh slate;
impact and intensity skyrocket.
Many years later, I found a 3rd activity similarly transformed.
3. 𝘿𝙚𝙚𝙥 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠
This is partly due to “attention residue.”
Identified in 2009 by Dr. Sophie Leroy, AR describes how when you go from Task A to Task B, part of your attention stays with Task A.
AR reduces the cognitive capacity you have for new tasks.
The result? More time spent, for lower output quality.
Research shows it increases
❌ errors
❌ overlooked details
❌ subpar decision-making
Think of your mind as a whiteboard.
When you switch to a new task, you wipe it clean.
But never get it pristinely white again.
𝘖𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨.
👇
𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲’𝘀 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗜 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗶𝘁:
1. Prep everything the night before
✅ data, reference files and notes
✅ draft headline, subtitles, bullet points
✅ all necessary programs primed to open
2. Get up, do my ablutions, go straight to the iMac
✅ no phone calls or urgent Slacks
✅ dog and baby aren’t up yet
✅ all social media is muted
It’s rare that I don’t enter flow state within minutes.
6 hours of normal output in 2 hours is not uncommon.
Try it!
Let me know how you get on.
