I Changed My Daily Rhythm. Early Morning Silence Is When I’m Most Productive

This morning—March 21—I woke up around 4 AM. Looking out over Prague, more than ten new blog post ideas rushed through my mind. I quickly reached for my phone and noted them down before they disappeared. That’s just how it works for me. Calm, silence, and a fresh morning mind have a big impact on my thinking and productivity.

Waking up in the very early morning—or basically at night—is nothing unusual for me. About half of the posts I’ve written this year started this way: I’d wake up around 3 or 4 AM, start thinking about something and tell myself, “Richard, your brain is already working—you’re not falling back asleep anyway.” So I’d start writing.

The view from my room before sunrise

But these early starts used to make my days pretty inconsistent—some days I showed up at work at 9:30, others at 6:00. One night I’d get eight hours of sleep, the next only three and a half. I started to feel the consequences. So I told myself: I need structure. I decided to fix my workday start at 7:30 AM. Since then—unless something truly unexpected comes up—I stick to it, arriving at the office between 7:20 and 7:40 every morning.

My mornings fall into two categories: I either wake up around 6:00 and just make it, or I wake up earlier, around 3:00 or 4:00. When that happens, thoughts start spinning, and I get into a productive focus mode that lasts until around 6:00.

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