Pulling off an all-nighter
It’s 5:50 AM right now, and it’s not that I woke up early. I just put in a few hours of work on a website, and wrote another blog post with the development of the site. It’s a great post, so I time-stamped it to come up in a few hours from now.
I had been living a bit of a lazy lifestyle - I’d go to bed at around 2 ish every night, and wake up at 9 or 10. I sort of felt inspired to do the whole waking up earlier thing reading this blog. Yesterday I got out of bed at 11 or so - there is no way I’m going to be able to fall asleep earlier. So I simply stayed up all night so far doing work. Tonight I will go to bed early - around 11 or so, and try to wake up at 7 or earlier the next day.
I’m self-employed, and the more I make out of each day, the more money I can make eventually, so it’s an important habit for me to establish. Let’s see how well I do.. I do feel a bit sleepy, but once it’s 6 AM, I will take a shower, get out of my apartment, and go to the cafe to grab a breakfast and some tea (not a coffee drinker). Wish me luck!
You know what? I just told my roommate to pull an all-nighter to reset her system. She’s a student right now and has been going to sleep later and later, thereby waking up later and later . . . she doesn’t want to waste the day, but she also doesn’t want to suffer through the pains of the all nighter and the day after . . maybe you should write a followup on what you did to fight through the struggles
The best way to soften the blows of an all-nighter is a good balance, and crucial naps.
Do NOT eat too much - this kills.
I just took a 1 hr nap to keep me charged. Just 1 hour, nothing more… even that may have been too long - if you dont’ want to fall asleep, do not nap that long. Also try napping at your desk instead of your couch or bed..
Good luck Jeff! I’m glad if Zen Habits has inspired you. Interesting idea to try an all-nighter.
Ya it’s a drastic way but it worked the last few times.
I know how you how feel Jeff. My sleeptime hovers around 2 am and 1 pm. A majority of my eBay auctions end in the evening, so I’m stucking doing invoicing, packing etc.
I just pulled an all nighter the other day as well. Sleep is so over rated. Donald Trump says 8 hours of sleep a night is for losers. Thats if it matters what big shots like Trump recommend.
With computer work like I’m doing now, I’m good with 4-5 hours of sleep.
When I’m roofing, all that physical work leaves me almost dead. Then I need 8-10 hours.
I want my main source of income to come from online, if you know what I’m saying.
Hey Jeff,
Hmmm… we started doing the earlier riser thing after reading the Steve Pavlina article a few months ago. It’s been working great for us.
We get up around 4:30a every morning, and go to bed when we’re tired - usually 10:30 or so. So generally 6 hours.
We also meditate for an hour every day after lunch. Then we’re nice and refreshed the rest of the day.
We’ve found our best work time by far to be 6a to noon. That when we’re both most focused and do our best writing, etc.
Have an awesome day!
Dan