I know this has been asked before but are there other people that focus better at night? Have you modified your sleep schedule to do this more? If so, how?
My best hours are between 12am and 4am. It seems that I have unfortunately fallen into a rhythm where my brain is ready to tackle programming around that time. All other times I find it hard to concentrate when I have opportunities to watch tv or walk around outside.
So my sleep schedule has adjusted to this. I sleep at 4am and wake up around 11am. You just have to be working late enough for so many nights for this to happen. I think my biggest problem is working from home.
I used to be just like this, (and still am in some ways) where I am most productive at night. I enjoy the peace and quiet when no one is around to bother you. During the day there are endless distractions but at night that all goes away. As I said, I used to be like this, now I have a baby and being a night owl is no longer an option. I have been progressively migrating towards starting my day at 7am, and I have to admit, I enjoy it. Yeah I've had some great late night hacking sessions, but being able to start working early and be done by 5 or 6 is very nice.
I find it much easier to separate work from home life when I start my day with work, as opposed to spending all day knowing that at some point I will in fact have to get to work. I've found that having things hang over my head like that really messes with my motivations, I prefer to take the approach of work or don't work, but nothing in between.
I also work from home, which is not only complicated by the fact that I have a baby at home, but also that my office is sitting off in a corner in the living room. The best solution I have found is to find a way to isolate yourself and convince your mind that you are in the same mode as if you were working late at night without anyone around. I have a nice pair of headphones that block out most noise, and I purchased standing paper room dividers so I can 'shut' my door and focus on work.
So while I've had a lot of fun being a night owl hacker, I find I live a more balanced productive life getting work done first and early. As they say, business before pleasure, with a personal corollary of don't combine the two.
