Daylight Stealing Time

If you've ever worked in an office, chances are you've at least once helped yourself to more than your fair share of the seemingly endless resources onsite: ballpoint pens, sticky notes, legal pads, and the like. A victimless crime, assuredly. As a remote worker and business owner, I am guilty of the constant pilfering of one of my company's most valuable resources: Hours. I choose to use an additional 2–3 hours a day sleeping in, on the regular. Even with our recent hour backward shift – of which I am conscientious objector – I'm currently in a pattern of sleeping until almost 9am every day. This may make me the envy of some, but it's not without shame that I admit what feels like an excessive indulgence. 

When I worked a regular job, one of my least favorite aspects was the rush hour New York City subway commute from Williamsburg to Midtown, and the non-creative, sleepy, jostled and sometimes even violated state it would put me in, most days. As such, years after leaving the standard in-office schedule, not unlike a child allowed to eat ice cream for dinner, I continue to prioritize the pleasure of extra sleep more often than not. The only person this "hurts" is me, which makes it a hard habit to kick – patricularly considering one could argue that sleep is indeed good for you! I end up making up the hours when other people are winding down – evenings and weekends – which can cut into time I get to spend with the 9-to-5ers in my life and put a wrench into the cultivation of a normal work/life balance. My current game plan? I'm using the Sleep Cycle app to slowly shift my wake up time a bit earlier every week.

Placed on your mattress, the app uses your phone's microphone to measures your movements throughout the night and wakes you at a point in your sleep cycle where you are most likely to emerge ungroggy and ready to face the morning. It's pretty cool. What will I do with these morning hours? Breakfast, yoga, brisk walks... it's my time, I can use it however I want.