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Not All “Highly Effective” People Get Up at 5am

Nichola Scurry
6 min readApr 18, 2021

It’s okay not to be a morning person

Business woman asleep at a table
Photo by Philip Justin Mamelic from Pexels

Whenever you read a productivity, wellness, motivational or healthy habits article they all suggest that an early start to the day can only lead to success. It’s assumed that the “highly effective” people we all admire are early risers. And following their example, we structure our lives around the 9 to 5 timetable (or 8 to 6, in many cases).

But what about the night owls? Early mornings are a struggle for them, so you probably won’t see them at 8am. But, despite what the common social discourse says, they are still productive, inspirational people. They are not lazy and irresponsible. It’s high time society gave night owls a break.

I’m not a morning person

I am not a morning person. No matter how early I go to bed, getting up early the next day is difficult. If it’s really early, like before 7am, I feel as though I have a hangover. The night before I’m anxious at the thought of the early start and can’t relax and enjoy my evening. I need to sleep with my curtains open or else I’ll never wake up. This is a nuisance when sharing the room with someone else as most people insist on closed curtains. And when my alarm goes off, I make noises that sound like an animal in distress. Well, I am an animal in distress when I have to get up early…

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Nichola Scurry
Nichola Scurry

Written by Nichola Scurry

Not a data scientist. If you like my writing, I like coffee. ko-fi.com/nicscurry

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