[me_me_mu_mu]

Maybe it’s a numbers game. I’ve met maybe two people in my life who rise late who actually seem to get stuff done, compared to at least a dozen or more examples of early risers who are successful. I am not a morning person but I’ve trained myself to wake up around 6am and found it helps me get a lot done. Used to wake up around 9am and stumble into everything. I think most of the humans around wake up early so having to adjust to the majority schedule is probably the issue.

[lucideer]

This is at least in part down to societal structure.

Education runs on a "morning person" schedule from a young age, through early adulthood. After that, there's certainly more choice available in terms of life schedule, but the vast majority of people are corralled into a form of employment built on the same schedule. Even if not, all major services one interfaces with in one's life operate on that schedule.

Even if you managed against all odds to develop healthy daily habits during the 20-ish years of strict poorly suited scheduling that is the education system, applying those habits only becomes more difficult when you move into a more independent self-driven environment of providing for oneself financially. This absolutely kills any hope of developing productive habits for most people.

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Anecdata: I'd classify myself as "not a morning person", but I don't find difficult to get up early. e.g. I don't need an alarm-clock. What I find difficult is functioning after getting up.

I don't have kids but I've a pretty demanding large dog that had a strong preference for 5am walks when he first arrived, which I adapted to reasonably easily. Walking a dog isn't really a "significant accomplishment" in the commonly understood sense, and more-importantly, isn't a mentally challenging or "applied" activity. I'm completely unable to function in the mornings when it comes to doing anything even mildly complex.

Also, getting up at 5am means I'm severely less productive from 6pm onwards, which is my peak productive period when I operate on natural rhythm. I'm reasonably successful (I think) and I work a remote job from Ireland on a US tz schedule, so that's particularly tough.

[davidmanheim]

...it sounds like your dog is ruining your productivity. Are you doing anything to adjust your pet's schedule or otherwise deal with that?

[lucideer]

He was. When he was a puppy. A temporary and worthwhile disruption, mitigated by familiarity, socialising and a small bit of training.

[ISL]

I'm a late-riser by nature.

Being early, however, is a superpower. If you show up to a meeting prepared or get correspondence out to your counterparties early in the morning, everything goes better. So, early rising confers a number of advantages that tend to compound. These days, I'm an increasingly early-riser.

The thing that matters is your phase relative to the rest of humanity. Getting pre-work done for the following day in an evening may also work for a late riser, but it doesn't work for me.