AnotherGuy's Weblog

Four nights ago, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook would be celebrating it’s 400 Millionth user and 6 years of social media juggernautyness (a new word, just invented) with a cool event called a ‘hackathon’. Four nights ago the world celebrated with them, blog posts were written and tweets went up like smoke. And four nights ago I hadn’t the slightest clue.

In fact, I didn’t know that they had reached the milestone until last night, three days after the fact, when I read an article on Pingdom about the ridiculous population of Facebook (which is now larger than the United States), and how it’s going to grow even more (620 Million!) by the end of the year. But my grins throughout today had little to do with their numbers and more to do with their other activities.

If you would have come to me last week and asked what I was doing, you would have found me desperately trying to be more productive in just about every way. As I failed over and over in completing my tasks and following my strict work schedule, I had little hope that it would end with a title better than ‘failure’. With one day left in the week, I hadn’t even had the chance to bring some of the more pressing projects to a point of completion.

It was in my disappointed state last night that I suddenly had an idea. What if I were to take Zuckerberg’s event as my own, though three days late, and push an all-night private hackathon to try and finish some of the tasks that I set as goals for this week? Without even really thinking about it, I had posted a short blog and tweeted about my ambitious endeavor. I wrote my list, I started my timer, and I got some coffee.

I was taking the leap. I was ready for anything.

At 10 PM I had begun writing the code for the first of three websites to be completed. By 12 I had gotten as far as I could with it and moved onto the second. By 4 AM I was beyond exhausted, and I had no choice but to collapse in my bed and sleep. I never even got to the third site.

I failed in my goal. With all of  the excitement and loud music and ice cubes down my shirt, I still failed to achieve the goals that I needed to for satisfaction. I went to bed disappointed…

And I woke up with an energy to start the whole process again.

Apparently, I had a bit of an unconscious revelation in the night. After looking over my previous week’s work logs, and then writing out the list of tasks that I had completed during my own private hackathon, I realized that I had actually accomplished a WHOLE LOT MORE than I had in many previous weeks. In fact, I finished more in one night (built two websites and fixed a few major problems on two others) than I had in any other single day in my past.

The thing that made the realization stick, though, was so simple. How could I have missed out on the big news from Facebook unless I was too busy working? As it turns out, I was actually being productive with my time throughout the week. So focused in my work, that the tweets and blogs that should have brought my attention elsewhere had no effect on me.

If this is true, though, then it is possible for me to become even more effective in my work-time. But how?

Besides turning off Facebook Chat, keeping myself from checking statistics, reading my feeds only once a day and limiting my use of Brizzly, I think that there are other ways that I can be more productive, and I’m willing to try them out, especially after the success of last night.

What if I was to flip my whole life around. Start my work hours at 9 PM rather than 9 AM, and work through the night hours. It’s certainly quieter, and not just in the literal sense. Fewer people are on Twitter, so I’m not losing myself in vain discussions. I won’t be interrupted by “pressing’” emails from people, so I can focus on tasks when it is best for me to. Virtually no one will visit my website at night, so there’s no need to wonder about my statistics. Working at night, may be the life-hack that is needed to make it all simpler to manage, and easier to enjoy.

To counteract the obvious problem of becoming very lonely very fast, I’ll spend my time with my friends just like any other regular-shift person. I can wake up at 3 or 4 PM and go be social (go to meetings, catch up on projects, etc…). I can finish work at 6 AM and still have a few hours to do things around the house after the family goes off to work. By forcing myself into a work-only situation, I can practice and eventually develop a strong discipline that will far surpass any other ideas I’ve had on becoming more productive.

Perhaps most importantly, I can walk outside while it is still dark and look up at the stars. All while pondering my own life, my own imaginations and ideas, and how it could possibly mean anything in a universe so big. If during the day I am lost in the bustle of activities and interruptions, then it is at night that I can truly get lost in what I am doing, and who I am.

I think I kinda like that idea. And so tonight, with my Full Throttle at my side and a candle lit across the table, I’m going to try to start my switch to  night owl. I will, of course, let you know how it all goes in coming weeks. At the very least, I’ll try, and I’ll fail. But if failing that time hurts as much as it did this week, well… I can’t wait to get there!

What do you think about that? Is there any logic to what I am thinking, or has sleep deprivation caused some kind of damage?