I'm a lifetime night owl.<p>In funner days, I could stay up 2, almost 3 days without sleep or caffeine. It wasn't normal, healthy, or sustainable, and adding caffeine only prolonged the inevitability of these truths.<p>The feeling of being tuned into something so much that you can just do it sets some interesting bars of what a "productive" day is.<p>Paraphrased from my journal of experiments:<p>One (non deadline day), instead of working until 3 am because it was when I could finally concentrate, free of distraction, I took a little nyquil and went to sleep at 9:30 PM.<p>I woke up, naturally around 4:30, bright as a bell. Alarm had been set for about 6:30 AM. It seemed my brain was ready to go too. I sat down and got more done that morning than 2 late nights.<p>I had creative energy to put into something that was often by the end of the day.<p>Putting my time into the mornings now, just to learn, work on something for fun, or explore different ways to solve a problem has strangely added to my daily fuel.<p>....<p>Realization: My work, whether it's for myself, or others, didn't always need my highest and best creative energy, but my attention to detail and reliability, and oversight. I could get good at it and keep things moving well.<p>My focus now: the real skill in waking up early is first learning to do it, and more importantly, learning to get the habit going when the inevitable late night occurs.<p>I try to write myself a note to remind how waking up at 4:30 gave me the all night progress in less time, and with more concentrated productivity from having a rested and fresh mind. Some things, like waking up early, just need to be tried, honestly, a few times. I'm convinced, and converted.