One of the great things about writing a blog is that you are pretty much forced to read more material, especially blogs. I’ve also found myself listening to a lot more podcasts about a whole range of subjects, just to help spur my creativity. Honestly, these ideas have to come from somewhere…so why not from other people? Not as in stealing the ideas, but rather in thinking about tangential issues to what I’ve read and heard.
The other great thing about writing a blog is that there is a certain expectation that I’ve set for myself. Namely, I’ve created an editorial calendar to help guide me on when I’m writing and to help me keep track of what I’ve already written. Through the calendar and the use of Google Analytics, I came to the decision that Tu-Th-Weekend posts weren’t working for what I wanted to achieve. So I switched to M-W-F for posting.
The problem, I discovered, is that I’m not a M-W-F guy. And that led me to another discovery…I’m in the wrong time culture. If you’ve already read my post about the TMU, then you’ll get a bit of the sense that I was raised to be on time. More accurately, I was taught that “on time” meant that you were early and no one ever had to wait for you. Of course, that meant a lot of waiting around for other people. As I’ve gotten older I’ve striven to be more accurate on my arrivals, committing to times that I can actually make, and trying not to get there too early. I mean seriously, my time has some value. Not much, but some. So why sit around waiting for everybody else. Nevertheless, my upbringing causes me to be really anxious if I’m running late.
More importantly, I’ve also discovered that my productivity cycle is nothing like what American business’ culture expects. I was good at the 8am – 5pm job. I always arrived early (I didn’t have many kids then), I often worked through lunch (giving extra productivity for the time I was being paid for), and I often stayed late to wrap up the day’s work. Of course, I was a lot younger then (roughly half my age) and I never noticed a lack of energy or any slower times in my brain during the day.
I transitioned to small business technology consulting in 1990, then moved into healthcare technology consulting, and then to whatever I do now (don’t ask, it’s too hard to explain, but it deals with technology and productivity…sound familiar?).
Through that time, I’ve adapted my work life to fit my Hectic Dad schedule, and I’ve discovered that working for medical practices requires most technology work to be done when the office is closed. That means working at odd hours. I mean really odd hours.
But it’s ok. I’ve always been something of a night owl. I told a friend today that I would prefer to work from 8pm to 5am than during the more acceptable (for knowledge workers) 8am – 5pm.
Several of my kids also work on those weird hours. It’s funny how we’re all up well into the night working on our projects. I’ll jump on Facebook and see one or more of them logged in. We might have a quick chat, we might not. But it’s kind of nice to know that there are other people who share my predilection for working at odd times.
But the other side of the equation is that the world expects me to get things done on their schedule. Most businesses are open the 8a-5p timeframe. No matter the company size, there are a lot of people who are only available during “normal” business hours.
But that brings me to my dilemma. I have a really rough time from 2p – 3p every day. It doesn’t matter what timezone I’m in. It doesn’t matter what I’ve been doing during the day. It doesn’t matter what I’m doing at that time. Heck, I could be running (ok, “slogging” is the correct term, but let me just dream of “running”) another half-marathon. It doesn’t matter. My body decides that it’s time to sleep. Drooping eyelids. Yawns. Those weird pre-bedtime aches and their associated stretches. The whole package. My kids have always gotten out of school between 2p and 3:30p. I’m terrified that I’ll fall asleep at my desk (it wouldn’t be the first time) and I’ll miss picking up one or more of them. That doesn’t look good on the Hectic Dad resume (e.g. Left child at school until called), and you take a lot of heat for it. At least so I’ve heard.
So for years, I’ve worked to conquer this problem. I’ve pumped caffeine. I’ve tried exercise. I set alarms out my ears. I’ve used every trick in the book to keep myself engaged during that timeframe.
Most of all, I’ve beat myself up about it. I’ve berated myself for having such a weird internal clock. I’ve pummeled my ego to the point of near depression about it.
And while trying to work through that energy slump, I’ve had some of the most unproductive, unrewarding, rotten experiences imaginable. And to balance it out, I feel guilty when I’m doing productive work and the clock hits midnight. I figure “should” be in bed, so I often shut down my productive work and go to bed. I can fall asleep whenever, so that’s not a problem, but I know deep in my psyche that I’m wasting my most productive hours sleeping.
But a couple months back I was listening to a podcast by one of two podcasters that really changed my life. My Hectic Life won’t let me re-listen to all the episodes to find the segment. But I can guarantee that if you listen to the first year’s worth of podcasts from either Erik Fisher’s Beyond the ToDo List or Pat Flynn’s Smart Passive Income, you’ll hear what I heard.
And what I heard changed my life. I discovered that it’s OK to work on a different time schedule. It’s OK to have times that are creative and times that aren’t. I realized that it was “normal” to have a different rhythm to your life.
And it was liberating. You’d figure at 50 years of rolling around on the Earth that I wouldn’t need somebody else to tell me it’s OK to have a different time schedule. But I needed to discover through someone else’s words.
What it’s meant to me is that I embrace my level of creativity each day, and each hour. If I’m not getting content generated, doing good work, or whatever, then I find something else to do. It’s not like we lack dirty dishes or laundry to be folded. Why do those during my “good time”, when I can just as well do them in my “bad times”. I’ve also discovered that if I do something kinetic during the 2p – 3p window, then I’m not as likely to fall asleep and miss my school pickup. So it’s a win-win.
So after 50 years of battling my own circadian rhythm, I’ve come to terms with the fact that my internal clock doesn’t match the external clock of American business. And the funny thing is…I’m OK with that.
Sure took me a long time to get comfortable with this concept though!
