Productivity Times May Vary

photo credit: allspice1

I was having a discussion with a colleague the other day about the possibility of people being at their productive and creative peaks at different times of the day. Without going into great detail about Circadian rhythms and genetics (the suggestion of which maintains that some gene mutations are responsible for extreme versions of the Morning Lark and the Night Owl), productivity peaks are certainly as varied as people’s preferences.

The office environment presents a limited sandbox with which to examine the probability of some people being more keen on day job schedules than others. You’ll always have the officemate who’s the first to come in and gets all his or her work done before lunch, as well as the officemate who’s perennially late and manages to get away with it by getting all tasks done right before it’s time to head on home.

Discussed in this comprehensive post, scientists suggest that though day and night cycles dictate one’s body clock, a gene mutation allows for certain people to be awake at night and asleep during the day. Termed Delayed Sleep Phase, this condition affecting the sleep clock pattern hPer makes for an individual who stays up ‘till the wee hours of the morning and sleeps until night time. The perfect genetic mutation for hardcore clubbers!

Of course, you really won’t have a choice in a 9-5 job: it’s either you be productive in that time frame or you don’t (the traditional ritual of employee firing follows shortly afterwards). The beauty of freelance is working during the hours that you feel your most productive, for one reason or another!

I personally believe that freelance occupations are journeys into self-discovery. As one becomes more and more responsible for her work output schedule, financial income and network of relationships, the more she becomes in charge of her life and her circumstances. After freelancing for a while, one tends to realize the potential for certain hours of the day to be dedicated entirely to work. Whether it be for social reasons (you like to wake up at 11am and get work done before 7pm so you could go out late at night), creative (you just can’t stand writing copy beyond 11pm), or entirely personal ones (5pm onwards is restricted to the wife/beautiful girl), freelancing makes for a glove that fits snugly around your preferred working lifestyle.

Your personal life affects your work, as much as we’d like to deny it. Getting stuck in a rut or finding yourself drowning in a quarter life crisis would definitely influence your demeanor towards fulfilling the demands of your job and the tasks at hand. Freelance is such a powerful vehicle for income generation because it satisfies both your desire for personal requirements to be met, such as time and recreation, and it also provides for you financially, given the idea that you’ve invested enough effort into procuring freelance work and a steady build of that all important nest egg. With the entire world working on a 24-hour basis thanks to globalization and the Internet, there finally exists an acceptable reason for not conforming to 20th century office norms and being a morning person.