I’ve actually thought about this topic quite a bit in recent years. I may have even written a post or two before. The answer is, simply, that I used to know the answer but I don’t anymore.
In my younger days I was 100% a night person. Through high school and college (all the different times) and even into the start of my career in programming I did my best work at night. When we got to 8:00, 9:00, or even later, my brain would clear up in some weird way and everything became noticeably easier for me. Writing, working on math, reading comprehension and retention, analysis, writing music, playing music, it all worked better later at night. That was my time to do my best work. It was clear and obvious and it always worked for me.
Today? I still can do good work later at night, but is that when I am most productive? I think now it might be early in the morning. I had to change my daily routine after the gastric bypass surgery. I needed to start exercising every day and I needed to make sure I had breakfast, where for decades prior to surgery I rarely if ever ate breakfast, and that lead to my days starting earlier and earlier. Now I find that very early in the morning, we are talking sunrise early, I am able to get a lot done. First it was exercise, then it was exercise and just random things around the house, then I added guitar playing and writing and recording, and now I even sometimes will log into work a few hours early and get some things done.
It is a really odd feeling for me. I had about 50 years worth of feeling like a vegetable early in the morning and now I’m suddenly full of piss and vinegar* at the start of the day and I don’t know what to think of it. It also means I need to go to bed earlier in order to not be comatose by lunch time, which by extension means much of my usual best time of day is spent sleeping! What the hell is up with that, Robert?
So the answer to the question of the day is an honest I don’t know. Can a person have two most productive times of day? Or is it possible that my best time is slowly transitioning from the traditional time to a new time? I don’t know. If I ever figure it out, I’ll share the news with you all.
*I am pretty sure I have never used the phrase, “piss and vinegar” before. I don’t think I have ever spoken it or written it or really even thought it… and somehow using it here makes me feel like more of a senior citizen than I have ever felt prior. I am 10 days away from my 53rd birthday… is it possible that on some subconscious level I am totally buying into the idea of being a crusty, grumpy, old man? It very well could be!
Inside the Red Head's Head 