Coping Strategies for Night Owls

by Graham Email

As a previous post explains, I am a night owl - I like to get up late, go to bed late, and I work best in the afternoon and early evening.
Accepting that this is a fundamental part of my DNA (and as this article in the New York Times explains, it is probably that this runs in families; my sister is also a night owl), I determined a while ago that rather than making myself miserable by trying and failing to address all of my weaknesses, I would instead focus on playing to my strengths. The NYT also has an amusing blog posting by a father who is a Night Owl, as he wrestles with the conflicts of dealing with small children who get up really really early...
Right now, I have some opportunity to play to the Night Owl part of my DNA, since my current client is headquartered in California, which is 2 hours behind Central Time, thus allowing me to commence work later in the morning. Murphys Law suggests that I will soon get a client working on EST, which will increase my stress and allow me to engage in a futile attempt at addressing one of my weaknesses...