Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Why does it seem like all sucessful people get up early?

roachboy · 07-01-2008, 05:22 AM

i've gradually shifted from being awake at night to being up in the morning, but mostly because i felt like doing it. over time, i figured out that i like writing in the morning more than at other times of day. there's nothing moral about it.

obviously, it all depends on what you do with your days.

i don't do the "being productive" thing because i think it's limiting---if you are doing stuff of any complexity, you need to not do it as much as you need to do it--time away is often more important than time spent at a task--so long as you get to it sooner or later. at the same time, i'm very disciplined about my work---and most artists that stay artists past their early 20s are disciplined---and being disciplined entails letting yourself sit around, be idle, think about stuff, tinker, etc.

in general, idleness is radically undervalued in america. it's infested with the protestant compulsion to appear busy. there really should be a 12=step program folk can attend to break them of this compulsion. it's not good.

anyway, i don't think when you get outta bed has any meaning.
it's a preference.
my step father was one of these people who sprung out of bed at like 4:30 in the morning.
he liked to extol his virtue by extolling the virtue of not being able to sleep past 4:30 in the morning.
he liked to talk about how productive it made him.
i never really saw what production he was talking about---so i think he liked it because he could space out, do other things, sit around without being bothered by any demands to be busy.
so maybe we were talking about the same thing and it just bothered him aesthetically that i would get out of bed at 2 pm.

in terms of net productivity at the time, i'd say it was about a wash between us.

07-01-2008, 05:22 AM	#16 (permalink)
roachboy Super Moderator Location: essex ma	i've gradually shifted from being awake at night to being up in the morning, but mostly because i felt like doing it. over time, i figured out that i like writing in the morning more than at other times of day. there's nothing moral about it. obviously, it all depends on what you do with your days. i don't do the "being productive" thing because i think it's limiting---if you are doing stuff of any complexity, you need to not do it as much as you need to do it--time away is often more important than time spent at a task--so long as you get to it sooner or later. at the same time, i'm very disciplined about my work---and most artists that stay artists past their early 20s are disciplined---and being disciplined entails letting yourself sit around, be idle, think about stuff, tinker, etc. in general, idleness is radically undervalued in america. it's infested with the protestant compulsion to appear busy. there really should be a 12=step program folk can attend to break them of this compulsion. it's not good. anyway, i don't think when you get outta bed has any meaning. it's a preference. my step father was one of these people who sprung out of bed at like 4:30 in the morning. he liked to extol his virtue by extolling the virtue of not being able to sleep past 4:30 in the morning. he liked to talk about how productive it made him. i never really saw what production he was talking about---so i think he liked it because he could space out, do other things, sit around without being bothered by any demands to be busy. so maybe we were talking about the same thing and it just bothered him aesthetically that i would get out of bed at 2 pm. in terms of net productivity at the time, i'd say it was about a wash between us. __________________ a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear it make you sick. -kamau brathwaite Last edited by roachboy; 07-01-2008 at 05:25 AM..