Over the last 9 months I changed by work hours from 1000-1800 to 1100-1900. I use to get up out of bed at 0800, giving myself 2 hours to wake up, shower, have breakfast and get to work on the bike. Generally I would be a sleep about 0100 meaning 6.5-7 hours of sleep.
If you feel like you heard this stuff before, you most likely have, here and here and even here.
Now with the change in work time, I’m sleeping by 0200 and awake just after 1000. Meaning 8 hours of sleep.
I can’t tell you how much better I feel!
Some have asked what if I slept 8 hours but shifted your hours towards the morning?
They misunderstand what it means to be a night owl vs a morning lark. As explained in this business insider. There are big differences.
Staying awake well into the night and having to wake up early for work can be problematic for people who identify as night owls. As the AsapSCIENCE team points out, most societal activities occur between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., putting night owls at risk of sleep deprivation.Its not something you can not just simply switch. Even more importantly is the direct effect of the time.
At the very beginning of a workday, the difference between morning and night people can be obvious; morning people seem to be getting everything done, while night owls are slow to get going. But that difference may not last. One hour after waking, early birds and night owls perform equally well in reaction time tests, AsapSCIENCE reports. Ten hours after waking, however, night owls perform significantly better than morning people in similar tests.I mentioned to colleagues I was recording and editing podcasts at midnight without too much of a problem. Heck I’m writing this blog at midnight right now.I scheduling blogs, microblogs, emails and texts (before I switched back to Google Messages) has been a great way to going unnoticed. Not that I really need to but people always worry when there is a email sent at 0100. Simple as this, 8 hours of sleep starting at 0130, for me is better quality sleep than going to bed earlier at 000 and waking up earlier at 0800. I have 5 years of sleep data which also points in the same direction. I’m a night owl and theres little at this stage which is going to change. The pandemic has been good to me on this front.
The new normal, mask, umbrella and coat2020 has been one heck of a year for me and pretty much every single person on earth. The Covid19 pandemic effected so many peoples lives from people dying to people having to operate around nationwide lock downs. People I know have had covid19 and a couple people are still suffering with the long covid19. From memory no one I know has died but I’m not certain.
The thing about the pandemic is its like background radiation. Its always there and it affects everything. Even if its small things.
Then in the middle of everything the police in American murdered a bunch of black people and the whole thing was captured. May 2020, was a turning point for many, finally we could talk about systematic racism and people were listening. Not to say they did a lot about it but in some places the light was shone and people finally understood what it means to be an anti-racist.
Remembering George floyd on xmas nightSo with all that how was my year from the Quantified Self data point of view?
My average sleep duration has increased from 7 hrs 20mins to 7hours 50mins. Average deep sleep was 4.03 hrs now its 4.35hrs.
This year I started moving away from Gmail, so the numbers make sense. I had 32,601 conversations, have 20718 emails in my inbox and sent 7841 emails this year.
Have 114,564 photos and 4,269 photos albums in Google photos.
Tasks wise I have 304 open tasks and completed 3,315 over the year
Been on all of 6 trips including Manchester, Warrington, Lancaster, London, Alton towers, Blackpool this year.
According to Trakt, my most played show is Dave and film was Tenet, Most listened to podcast is the Daily Tech News Show.
I spent 742 hours watching films (61.8hrs a month) and 1221 hours watching TV series (101.8hrs a month) – that is a lot, but understandable with being locked down.
Here’s my review of my new years resolutions from 2019.
Head further a field with the scooter
Even with Covid19, there was a brief chance to go on holiday to the Netherlands in August. I had planned to take the scooter across from either Hull or Felixstowe. I checked out the pricing got the emergency kit, arranged my stay with a friend in the Netherlands. But then Greater Manchester went into a tier where leaving become problematic. I push on but then suddenly the Netherlands become a country when I could need to isolate for 14 days after returning. At that point I decided its all too much.
Its a shame as I also considered Ireland too but the season had changed and didn’t fancy driving in Ireland in the rain.
Visit another new countryThis never happened for obvious Covid19 reasons. Maybe next year will be better?
Make some changes to the flatLots of changes to the flat, from a new desk, a network attached storage, reconfiguration of some basic things. I still have a number of tasks related to this to go through for 2021.
Host film nights at mineThis didn’t happen for obvious Covid19 reasons. Although my bubble might break this somewhat.
Spend less time in the UK / Live in a new countryYeah Covid19 killed this but who knows what might happen next year
Find the others and connect themThis has started to happen, but theres more work needed on this front.
Play a new sport somewhat regularlyAnother Covid19 killer, but I did spend a lot of time with the Diabolo.
Drink more fizzy water
This happened, maybe too much and I had to stop drinking copious amounts of fizzy water late at night. I’m not drinking so much that I needed a subscription but I’m getting through a bottle of gas every 3 weeks?
Look after myself betterI believe this one happen starting with my focus on my sleep patterns. Being able to make that decision about working later has made a massive difference to the quality of my sleep, even with the background humm of the pandemic.
Be even more aware of the environment and what I can do to helpThis believe it or not had happened, from spending much more time sorting out what I can recycle. Tesco also have been delivering my shopping with bags so been using them for many things for recycling.
Put my money/resources where my values are, with platforms like PatreonThis happened, I signed up to Pateon as there is a number of podcasts I regularly enjoy and gave them small amounts of hard cash to help support them. I also donated time and some money to other places like anti-racist, feminist, neurodiverse organisations.
Change my email signature with important informationDone, my signature now includes my pronoun, my user manual and status. I keep thinking about adding my free/busy time but don’t really like the fact google calendar reveals your email address when doing so.