Work hours should be flexible to cater for early birds, night owls

Waking up very early in the morning is not for everyone; rather it is only for the early risers’ club. Recently, I was travelling with my colleagues for a business trip to Eldoret, the home of champions, where we were to attend a meeting from 10am. Since Eldoret is roughly a six-hour drive from Nairobi, we had to wake up at 2am.

I thought we were the only early birds until we passed places such as Kamukunji, Muthurwa and Gikomba markets where businessmen and women were already braving the chilly wee hours to buy and sell goods. The central business district also had a few restaurants and clubs open with revellers enjoying the night away.

Apart from night shift medical professionals, it made me wonder how I would “survive” being up so early on a daily routine. Where would I gather so much zeal and enthusiasm that I witnessed in those businesspeople? The six-hour drive was not kind to me because I slept almost the whole journey, replenishing my sleep deficit.

Waking up for most people is usually a struggle but circumstances force one to let go of the sleep to either job-hunt, go to school or college and also go to work to put food on the table, especially in the rather-tough economic times.

Most mothers and guardians who have difficulties in waking up become early birds by default as soon as the parenting roles begin. Sacrificing sleep becomes the order of the day (and night) as one has to wake up to feed, change the baby and also prepare children to school.

Most early risers are very active, energetic and have better moods compared to night owls whose work productivity can be “better” delivered at night. On the other hand, most morning persons end up looking like zombies at work but given a chance to work throughout the night, they would bring out more results compared to their day’s work. Energy levels for both vary depending on whether one is a morning person or prefers to work during the evening hours when the environment is quiet and serene.

A research done by University of Surrey’s Sleep Research Centre in UK, concluded that morning people are simply “more conscientious” compared to the evening people. Psychologists from Cleveland State University in Ohio found “evidence” that your time of birth does play a part in when you like to function during the day, “proving” that morning persons were born in the morning hours, hence the energetic nature and are likely to perform better than those whose hour of birth was at night, thus the passion to be more active at night.

In his book, “The Miracle Morning, The not-so-obvious secret guaranteed to transform your life (Before 8 AM)”, Hal Elrod demystifies belief that morning persons are the only ones who can have a proof of quality output. He encourages all those who struggle waking up for their day’s errands to try out several tips such as doing your morning prayers, meditation and learning something new in a motivational book. Taking an early morning run or exercise also helps one rejuvenate and focus on the long day ahead. According to Elrod, beginning your work early transforms morning habits and the entire lifestyle.

Robert Kiyosaki in the ‘Miracle Morning’ foreword says: “Hal Elrod is a genius and his book ‘The Miracle Morning’ has been magical in my life. What Hal has done is taken the best practices, developed over centuries of human consciousness development, and condensed the ‘best of the best’ into a daily morning ritual. A ritual that is now part of my day.”

Listening to music or a radio morning show motivates me to get out of bed as soon as I am through with my daily prayers. Tuning in to watch television may delay one’s schedule depending on the expected time reporting to the day’s duty.

After reading ‘The Miracle Morning’, I have learnt to avoid pressing the snooze button on my alarm for 10 minutes as this may make one oversleep and end up getting late for that important meeting.

Human Resource executives should consider different traits of people depending on their strengths in their mode of productivity, whether for early birds or night owls, when outlining strict employee-report-to-work formula.

The rules could be outlined from 8-5 or 9-6 or 10-7 with the target results being service delivery and output of the individuals in their respective capacities. This could also play a part in reducing traffic snarl-ups especially in Nairobi with the change of 8-5 work patterns for the majority of workers.

While some have the perception that morning people are the most successful in terms of wealth, it all depends on the yield sown at the end of every one’s endeavour.

Ms Mathu is a communications consultant