the watch of time

We’re told that we’re all brothers (or by extension, sisters) under the skin.  Differences of skin colour, physique, language, etc. are ultimately superficial to the truly unifying elements of our species.  This may be physically true compared to other species.

However, there is a characteristic within humans which seriously and undeniably divides us.

Some of us are morning people, and some of us are late day/night people.  Many of us are clearly either one of the other.  (Those who are neither may be classified as Charlie Browns.)

Do you recall an episode of the classic sitcom ‘MASH’, in which Hawkeye is drafted (so to speak) to take over for a few days from Colonel Potter as temporary commander?  Dragging himself into the office the first day, he looks at an attentive Radar, and says “Now I know why they shoot people at dawn; who wants to be alive at six o’clock in the morning?”  Right on, brother!

One of the reasons I struggled as a radio sales rep was it was often desirable to conduct business in mornings.  Sales meetings were held at times early in the morning (to me, an 8:00 a.m. meeting is early).  Obviously these elements were not in my favour.

While I was in the financial services industry one colleague in particular was a morning person.  He conducted the majority of his business in the a.m.  I was advised that regularly he would be either the first or one of the first in to start the day, well before the office officially would be open. On the other hand, his guidelines included finishing work for the day by 4:00 p.m.  Most days, I would really be only getting into gear by then.

Athletes and actors, whatever their bio-clocks might be really, have to adapt to their profession time requirements.  The latter have it toughest, as their routine might change from early morning wake up calls for movies or TV, to a couple of weeks later performing in a live evening show. Professional athletes tend to compete in afternoons and evenings, so their adaptability is more of the odd hours from traveling variety, where at least they don’t have to look potent or perky.

In either spectrum, sales of coffee are certainly stimulated.  One wonders how many people would really be helpless without drinking coffee in the morning.  I worked briefly with someone who advised that he started each day with five cups; this same person’s quick temper and short tenure were, I suspect, not coincident.

Whenever we had sales or other official group meetings in the morning, I was usually one of the few to bypass a caffeine hit, because as I stated to colleagues I didn’t want the danger of being woken up.

Many of us find that as the day wanders along, our creativity becomes energized.  I do a lot of my writing at night, sometimes being inspired after midnight.  By that time, some morning people are into their third hour of sleep time.

Whoever came up with ‘Early to bed, early to rise, etc.’ was probably either blinded by early morning light or a secretly paid lobbyist for the stimulant industry.