The alarm clock is my friend

The alarm clock is my friend.
There are times, when I am able to make it without its help, but it is invaluable when it calls upon me to do the things that I have prioritized to do, with a priority so high that I cannot allow myself to be late for them.
Some would think that these are the things that my surroundings have prioritized to make me do, with a priority so high that they cannot allow me to be late for them, but deep down inside, the choice is mine. And thereby, I have made it my priority.

Therefore, I should be grateful for the friendship of the alarm clock - because it helps me to fulfill my priorities. 

And yes, naturally: there are days, when I wish I could have stayed in bed a little longer. But most often, the reason is that I have been too busy the night before, doing things that I maybe should have prioritized a little less. Because it is an important ability to master: the art of saying no. Not least to say no to myself.

(Translated from Vækkeuret er min ven)

The battle against sleepless nights

I think most of us know the feeling of going to bed to (try to) sleep, with a head heavy from a mix of sadness, hopelessness and worries about something we've been working with during the day that we have not been able to bring to the point to which we would like to have it brought - just to wake up in the morning (after having finally fallen asleep far into the night) with a much more positive view of life. At least I, personally, have sometimes suffered quite a bit from it.

In fact, at one point, the feeling became so familiar that it allowed me to shake it off by calming myself with a simple "Do not worry about it - you know that you will wake up with a much lighter perspective in the morning". Although I know it's a strange meta argument, it has actually proven to be effective - and correct - in quite a large number of situations.

However, my dear friend from my Twitter tribe, Wendy Woolfork, mad eme understand that I ought to modify this large number of situations a bit. So I must underline that at least for me, it has proven to be effective. I am not able to say, that it is a silver bullet for anyone to use - and I recognize that there are worries with such an impact that they will not magically be gone at the break of dawn.

(Translated from Til kamp mod søvnløse nætter)

Early bird...? ...or?

There are people who suggest that if you want to get more done, you should simply leave bed an hour earlier - in that way, you would worst case get 365 additional hours a year.
However, I am convinced that it is not a universal - for early birds is certainly excellent, for they can just go an hour earlier to bed at night, at which time they are not as effective. But for the night owls, I doubt that there will be any outcome - except perhaps the negative one that they will get one less hour of productive time at the end of the day.
So although I'm an early bird (at least in the morning), I am not blind to the fact that the advice is given by early birds to early birds without taking night owl habits much into account.
If I were to give the advice, I think that I would state it as

Expand your productive time by one waking hour instead of sleeping. 

Early birds can get up even earlier, Night owls go to bed later, and either can where necessary gain back the sleep on the time of day, where they are less productive.
But in any case it's a bad idea to unconditionally accept advice that lumps all recipients together in one barrel.
(Translated from Tidligt op og...? eller?, originally published March 30th, 2017)