How many of you have convinced yourself you need to be a morning person in order to get everything done? That the true winners out there are the ones who are getting up extra early and getting after that to-do list while the world is still sleeping?

Today, I hope to offer an alternative perspective to the shame you might feel not being a “morning person”. 

This is a conversation I have with creatives often. When I was still coaching, one of my students was not a fan of mornings. She kept trying to wake up really early thinking she’d be able to finally work on all these creative projects, all of these dreams, and all of these ideas. Somehow, if she just got up earlier, she’d get more accomplished. 

When we would meet, sometimes she had had great success. The caveat was she felt really, really burnt out for the next week or sometimes, the next month.

Yes, on some level she was getting some things done, but on the other hand, there was a growing sense of frustration that the motivation wasn’t really able to be sustained. Most of her energy was spent on staying awake than on her actual projects.

Eventually, I just straight up asked her, “Janelle, are you even a morning person?” 

She said, no. 

Janelle didn’t enjoy the mornings in the way she thought she should. She wanted her mornings to be a very low level entry into the day. To get up naturally with the sunlight, grab a cup of tea or coffee, sit down, read, do some praying, meditation, maybe some affirmations. Really, she didn’t want her morning to be task driven in any way.

In her ideal scenario, her morning ritual would take two to three hours, which meant she wasn’t getting around to her list of to-do’s until late morning or early afternoon. 

There was a lot of shame around this rhythm because she was “wasting her mornings”. 

Once again, I asked her, “if you’re not a morning person, when does your energy really seem to hit?”

I could tell she had never really been asked this question because she didn’t have the answer. So, I gave her an assignment: track when your energy naturally flows. When do you feel like your ideas are really steadily coming? When do you have natural inspiration or natural motivation to sit down and start tinkering? When are you thinking of how to move the needle on these various projects? 

She did that for a couple of weeks, and came to find out the best time for her was in the evening after everybody had gone to bed.

So, I gave her the thing she didn’t know she wanted: permission. 

I said, “If that is where your natural creative energy seems to flow, then you need to be working at that time. That’s when you need to set aside time and invest in your creative projects. There’s no point trying to be a morning person. If you are not a morning person, it’s wasted energy. You’re going to end up frustrated. You are going to end up feeling like a failure because you are going against what your body is naturally doing.”

There was such a sense of freedom in that simple declaration.

Now, let’s take a look at me. I am a morning person through and through. I am at the gym at 4:00 AM when it opens getting my workout in. When I get home, I get right into my creative investment time for about an hour and a half to two hours before starting the rest of my day.

By the time 3:00 PM in the afternoon hits, my creative energy starts to tank. I know that my best creative energy happens between 6-8AM, and that is where I need to invest my best creative time. Otherwise, I am going to be getting frustrated with myself, trying to convince my body to be more ready for work than if I just went with what my body wants to do anyway. Which just so happens to be the early mornings. But that doesn’t have to be the same for you.

Contrary to hyper-productivity gurus, podcasts, and online coaches – you do not need to be a morning person to get your creative projects done. 

For example, everyone else in my family are night owls. They can get a lot done in a very short period of time, late at night. 

You will not get anything of value out of me after 5PM. If I’m honest, my brain starts shutting down around 3PM in the afternoon. 

Now…I hear you. I hear you. We don’t always get to work in our preferred window of opportunity. Life happens. We have commitments. We have things that often get in the way or pull at our time. I get it. We’re not always going to be able to only work when our body is saying, please, let’s work on the creative stuff. 

What do we do, then?

Try to stay as close to that window of opportunity as you can. Here’s an example:

I want to work on my YouTube scripts between 6-7:30AM, then head over to film from 8-9AM. When I get to my desk, I realize I need to prioritize something else at work that requires my attention at that exact moment. By noon, I finally have a break. Technically, my ideal working time has long since passed, but I want to get this video recorded today, otherwise I won’t have time again for a few more days. I know that my brain has another three hours of useful creative energy, so I choose to shorten my lunch, crank out a video, then cross that off my to-do list. 

This is a real life scenario that happened when filming the accompanying YouTube video to this blog that you’ll find down below. Was it my ideal workflow? Absolutely not. However, I knew if I pushed off filming until after the work day, I’d be less inclined to film at all. This would push back my project further than I’d like and leave me feeling like I didn’t accomplish anything at all. 

Get creative. You are a creative, so get creative with your time. Always shoot for the natural flow of creative energy, but it’s not a complete bust if you have to step outside of that working window should life get in the way. 

Here’s another way to look at it. 

Find out when your brain is not working and reverse engineer your optimal working range. Let’s go with someone like Janelle. Her brain didn’t start working until around noon. Her optimal creative energy hit between 6-8PM. She has a number of creative projects she would like to work on before she hosts people for the weekend, but she has some house work to attend to for her family coming in the next day, along with a job she has to clock into for the afternoon. 

It might be tempting to organize her day like this: 

• 6AM – Wake Up & Get Ready
• 7-9AM – Creative Projects
• 10AM – Work
• 4PM – Dinner
• 6-8PM – Housework
• 10PM – Bed

Knowing the day will be full, the temptation is to put her creative investment time first. That age old idea of putting your highest priority first in the day. However, knowing Janelle’s brain does not enjoy the morning, those two hours will most likely not be used as well as they could. So, what if she organized her day like this instead:

• 6AM – Wake Up & Get Ready
• 7-9AM – Housework
• 10AM – Work
• 4PM – Dinner
• 6-8PM – Creative Projects
• 10PM – Bed

It seems simple but how many of us are trying to be morning people because we think there is something intrinsically better about being a morning person?

I know this works because Janelle tried it. While her time was limited, by shifting her creative investment time into the range in which her creativity flowed more naturally, she was able to move the needle. No longer was she fighting to stay focused on projects she knew she was passionate about. Instead of shaming herself for not being able to find the amount of motivation she needed to start making progress, she simply listened to what her body needed. 

Don’t use your best energy on tasks that don’t require it. Folding laundry can happen when you are half asleep. Finally starting that novel you’ve been wanting to write cannot. And should not. Your art deserves your best energy. The dishes can wait. 

If you are a night owl, I hope you feel free from the pressure to become a morning person if you don’t have to. I don’t believe that motivation and inspiration just happens. We need to fuel our creativity. We need to be working and investing. I’m not saying it’s just going to happen, and then all of a sudden you’re going to write that novel in two days. However, I do believe that if you start paying attention to when that creative drive snaps into place, I think you’ll start noticing a natural rhythm in which your body wants to be creative, your mind is ready for the investment, and you’re ready to do the work of creating.

I would challenge you to start paying attention to that natural rhythm of creativity for the next few weeks. Then, I’d love to hear how it went. Was it what you expected? Did you figure out when that creative flow hits? Have you ever thought about the fact that maybe you’re not a morning person? 

I hope that is freeing for you. If you are a midday person, a night owl person, I don’t even care. As long as you are putting your best creative energy when your body is naturally ready, I believe it will be a game changer for you.