[eddy_chan]

> I have had way too many evenings after I get the kids in bed where I think, "I'll just unwind on my phone for a few minutes and then work on something."

There's a hack for this which I find works, just go to sleep at 8pm or 8:30pm instead right after the kids. Wake up at 4pm-4:30pm (yes I need a full 8 hours every night, not negotiable), you'll have much more willpower to tackle your side project in the morning before your kids wake up.

Given the choice between reddit and side project, reddit will win. Given the choice between reddit and sleep...it's much easier to pick sleep even if reddit is more tempting.

In the morning you have 2 choices, reddit vs side project but you just invested effort in waking up at 4:30am, side project it is...

Edit: I actually see sleep as a precondition of productivity so sleeping is a 'productive activity' for me.

[tisdy]

> eddy_chan 1 hour ago | parent | on: Writer's Block, or the Wantrepreneur Blues

> I have had way too many evenings after I get the kids in bed where I think, "I'll just unwind on my phone for a few minutes and then work on something." There's a hack for this which I find works, just go to sleep at 8pm or 8:30pm instead right after the kids. Wake up at 4pm-4:30pm (yes I need a full 8 hours every night, not negotiable), you'll have much more willpower to tackle your side project in the morning before your kids wake up. Given the choice between reddit and side project, reddit will win. Given the choice between reddit and sleep...it's much easier to pick sleep even if reddit is more tempting.

That's a great way of thinking about it.

p.s I think you mean 4am.

[jansho]

> Wake up at 4pm-4:30pm (yes I need a full 8 hours every night, not negotiable), you'll have much more willpower to tackle your side project in the morning before your kids wake up.

This is the exact tactic used by a friend studying PhD with five young kids. She got the PhD in four years.

Also if you do a lot of manual labour - gardening, stacking shelves whatever - sleep becomes the obvious choice.

[munificent]

> There's a hack for this which I find works, just go to sleep at 8pm or 8:30pm instead right after the kids.

Yes!

I'm not consistent at remembering to do that, but fairly often I'll crash super early as soon as the kids are in bed. I get up at 6:00am specifically to give me an hour or so of me/project time in the morning. I could probably get up a little earlier, but it's hard.

The downside is that it means sacrificing evening time with my wife, which is also critical. And I try to exercise twice a week, usually in the evenings. And I work on my book every day, so if I didn't get any writing done in the morning, I have to stay up after the kids are in bed to do that.