4 ms·

I find I can enter a flow state with work more easily when I feel like the world is asleep.

by reedf1 6y ago

matheusmoreira 6y ago
Same here. It's so relaxing when everyone else is sleeping. All other responsibilities fade away.
- zikzak 6y ago
  This is exactly how I feel. That 1.5 - 2 hours each night when I know no one wants or needs me to do anything is invaluable for me mental health. I know I should get more sleep but I need that time to not resent the fact that I get so little time for "me". I get to work at 4:30am (time zone thing) and do a lot of the primary child care and chores. It's often 8:30pm before I'm done and even then the dogs water bugging me to go out, etc. My wife needs sleep so she heads up early and I just putter or stretch, sometimes I write a little code, or watch part of a show. Feels good.
rektide 6y ago
Philip K Dick wrote about being out of the heat of God's light, not feeling the scorching heat of the palm tree garden upon us. I believe it was from one of the VALIS novels but I haven't gone back to dig it up, and could be wrong. Personally, I find I sometimes have trouble accepting good enough solutions. I want more structure, a better defined start. At night I can drop into a productive flow state with much less resistance, ignore many of the day-time wants. The hours run short; let's seize what we can from the waking hours. As well that "inspiration," I think there is probably a physiological barrier lowering that happens as we go into the night. As we recede from the gods' light, as it were.
- taisalie 6y ago
  This is part of why Daylight Saving Time is an actual crime against humanity.
bradstewart 6y ago
So much this. Specifically (for me), it's the simple understanding that I will not be disturbed for as long as I care to focus, so it's worth the "effort" to get in the zone. Which of course means it only takes 30 seconds to get there. But the screwed up sleep cycles from years and years of this are starting to take their toll, so I've been trying everything I can to replicate that peace of mind during daylight hours. No silver bullet yet.
- ashwoods 6y ago
  For a few months my wife had a baking job that required her getting up at 4. I’d get up with her and start to work after breakfast. I’d have the days work before 9:00 standup. More time for sport and cooking. Think it was a healthier lifestyle in total. Social life was impossible though, we couldn’t manage to stay awake long enough to meet up with friends. And impossible to maintain once she switched to another shift.
  - anyfoo 6y ago
    Being very much not a morning person, I get a taste of that too when I have jet lag traveling west. Even after the feeling of jetlag subsides after a few days, I tend still tend to wake up earlier for two more weeks or so. It's a different world and definitely has advantages. However, like you, I'm not sure it's worth the tradeoff of being horribly tired long before my usual bedtime. In total, I think I still prefer getting up late and sleeping late.
- Tade0 6y ago
  I've found that effective noise-cancelling headphones(e.g. Sony WH1000XM4) help somewhat.
  - frollo 6y ago
    In my experience they help a lot and that's why people (colleagues, family members, the mailman...) are so busy finding new ways to circumvent them.
grioghar 6y ago
I wonder what the science is behind this. If people are up, I can’t lock in; there’s a constant distraction somewhere in my mind. If I’m the only person awake in the house, I seem to hit flow state with ease.
- elliekelly 6y ago
  It’s definitely not science but, for me, time seems to flow more uniformly at night. I have pretty bad ADHD so I big time struggle with “time blindness” - have I been working for 40 minutes or 4 hours? I guess when it’s the middle of the night I don’t really need to worry about how long it’s been. I only need to know that I don’t have to be anywhere else at the moment and my only hard stop is when I can’t keep my eyes open.
plumsempy 6y ago
it has become such a preference for me: silence, dimmed lights, some synthwave music, surrounded by all my machines and a lot of fun.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
enobrev 6y ago
My favorite working hours, of all time, are 11pm-7am. I get more done in that 8-hour stretch than any other. There's less local news. There's nobody to call or text. There are no deliveries. Slack is quiet. My email is quiet. Our repos are quiet. The dev logs are quiet. My family is asleep so I know they're good. If I need a minute to think, I can sit on my front porch and not worry about being distracted. Now that I have a young kid, it's really hard (and generally selfish) to work those hours. I miss it.
- c7DJTLrn 6y ago
  The number of @here IM pings I get on company chat during the day is insane, and usually none of them apply to me. Sometimes I have to just secretly schedule work that requires my absolute focus to the night time behind my boss' back. I shouldn't really do that - I don't get paid enough to - but anyway.
  - enobrev 6y ago
    It might be time to just shut off slack for a few hours a day. It's probably frowned upon in some places, but when I _really_ need to focus (during daytime hours), I generally shut down slack, email, my phone, etc. Generally, the teams I've worked with over the years have been amenable to this. I try to promote it with my teams as well: actual time off (no popping in while on vacation or sick), good sleep, time for focus, shutting off slack - especially when not working. The last thing any of us need is to burn out because of notification overload. It makes us a stronger team if we're all healthy, well-rested, and able to get things done.
- pontifier 6y ago
  Seriously too many distractions make work impossible. I can't seem to get this into people's heads. I need them to leave me alone when I'm working. It's so bad that I've started to get anxiety every time I open my computer. I start to panic because I know a distraction is coming. It makes it so difficult.
  - moosebear847 6y ago
puddingnomeat 6y ago
anyone agreeing with the parent may find earplugs effective for focus in short (4 hour span) periods of work. After 6+ it gets eerily uncomfortable.

I find I can enter a flow state with work more easily when I feel like the world is asleep.

by reedf1 6y ago

I find I can enter a flow state with work more easily when I feel like the world is asleep.

matheusmoreira 6y ago

Same here. It's so relaxing when everyone else is sleeping. All other responsibilities fade away.

zikzak 6y ago
This is exactly how I feel. That 1.5 - 2 hours each night when I know no one wants or needs me to do anything is invaluable for me mental health. I know I should get more sleep but I need that time to not resent the fact that I get so little time for "me". I get to work at 4:30am (time zone thing) and do a lot of the primary child care and chores. It's often 8:30pm before I'm done and even then the dogs water bugging me to go out, etc. My wife needs sleep so she heads up early and I just putter or stretch, sometimes I write a little code, or watch part of a show. Feels good.

rektide 6y ago

Philip K Dick wrote about being out of the heat of God's light, not feeling the scorching heat of the palm tree garden upon us. I believe it was from one of the VALIS novels but I haven't gone back to dig it up, and could be wrong. Personally, I find I sometimes have trouble accepting good enough solutions. I want more structure, a better defined start. At night I can drop into a productive flow state with much less resistance, ignore many of the day-time wants. The hours run short; let's seize what we can from the waking hours. As well that "inspiration," I think there is probably a physiological barrier lowering that happens as we go into the night. As we recede from the gods' light, as it were.

taisalie 6y ago
This is part of why Daylight Saving Time is an actual crime against humanity.

bradstewart 6y ago

So much this. Specifically (for me), it's the simple understanding that I will not be disturbed for as long as I care to focus, so it's worth the "effort" to get in the zone. Which of course means it only takes 30 seconds to get there. But the screwed up sleep cycles from years and years of this are starting to take their toll, so I've been trying everything I can to replicate that peace of mind during daylight hours. No silver bullet yet.

ashwoods 6y ago
For a few months my wife had a baking job that required her getting up at 4. I’d get up with her and start to work after breakfast. I’d have the days work before 9:00 standup. More time for sport and cooking. Think it was a healthier lifestyle in total. Social life was impossible though, we couldn’t manage to stay awake long enough to meet up with friends. And impossible to maintain once she switched to another shift.
- anyfoo 6y ago
  Being very much not a morning person, I get a taste of that too when I have jet lag traveling west. Even after the feeling of jetlag subsides after a few days, I tend still tend to wake up earlier for two more weeks or so. It's a different world and definitely has advantages. However, like you, I'm not sure it's worth the tradeoff of being horribly tired long before my usual bedtime. In total, I think I still prefer getting up late and sleeping late.
Tade0 6y ago
I've found that effective noise-cancelling headphones(e.g. Sony WH1000XM4) help somewhat.
- frollo 6y ago
  In my experience they help a lot and that's why people (colleagues, family members, the mailman...) are so busy finding new ways to circumvent them.

grioghar 6y ago

I wonder what the science is behind this. If people are up, I can’t lock in; there’s a constant distraction somewhere in my mind. If I’m the only person awake in the house, I seem to hit flow state with ease.

elliekelly 6y ago
It’s definitely not science but, for me, time seems to flow more uniformly at night. I have pretty bad ADHD so I big time struggle with “time blindness” - have I been working for 40 minutes or 4 hours? I guess when it’s the middle of the night I don’t really need to worry about how long it’s been. I only need to know that I don’t have to be anywhere else at the moment and my only hard stop is when I can’t keep my eyes open.

plumsempy 6y ago

it has become such a preference for me: silence, dimmed lights, some synthwave music, surrounded by all my machines and a lot of fun.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

enobrev 6y ago

My favorite working hours, of all time, are 11pm-7am. I get more done in that 8-hour stretch than any other. There's less local news. There's nobody to call or text. There are no deliveries. Slack is quiet. My email is quiet. Our repos are quiet. The dev logs are quiet. My family is asleep so I know they're good. If I need a minute to think, I can sit on my front porch and not worry about being distracted. Now that I have a young kid, it's really hard (and generally selfish) to work those hours. I miss it.

c7DJTLrn 6y ago
The number of @here IM pings I get on company chat during the day is insane, and usually none of them apply to me. Sometimes I have to just secretly schedule work that requires my absolute focus to the night time behind my boss' back. I shouldn't really do that - I don't get paid enough to - but anyway.
- enobrev 6y ago
  It might be time to just shut off slack for a few hours a day. It's probably frowned upon in some places, but when I _really_ need to focus (during daytime hours), I generally shut down slack, email, my phone, etc. Generally, the teams I've worked with over the years have been amenable to this. I try to promote it with my teams as well: actual time off (no popping in while on vacation or sick), good sleep, time for focus, shutting off slack - especially when not working. The last thing any of us need is to burn out because of notification overload. It makes us a stronger team if we're all healthy, well-rested, and able to get things done.
pontifier 6y ago
Seriously too many distractions make work impossible. I can't seem to get this into people's heads. I need them to leave me alone when I'm working. It's so bad that I've started to get anxiety every time I open my computer. I start to panic because I know a distraction is coming. It makes it so difficult.
- moosebear847 6y ago

puddingnomeat 6y ago

anyone agreeing with the parent may find earplugs effective for focus in short (4 hour span) periods of work. After 6+ it gets eerily uncomfortable.