Araz Gholami

At the suggestion of a friend—who actually got this time management method from one of his expert buddies—I decided to divide my day into three parts and stick to it consistently: 12 hours of work starting at 4 AM, daily tasks from 4 PM, and a 6-hour sleep from 10 PM. In this post, I’ll be writing updates on whether this schedule works out or not.

Day 1

4:10 Waking up at this hour feels like military base life, which stresses me out a little. I’ll try to give it a fresh vibe.

7:10 The sun still hasn’t risen. It’s winter after all. Light music is the only thing that fits this hour. I finally finished a task I’d been putting off for two weeks. Considering that yesterday at this time I was still asleep, that’s solid progress.

8:00 Normally when I get mentally exhausted I just lie down for a few minutes, but since I might fall asleep I’ll avoid it for now. I’ll need a workaround for this part.

10:00 Everything feels routine. After two years of waking up before sunrise, it doesn’t shock me. Wrapping up the final parts of that task now. Honestly, it’s soul-draining. No wonder I kept postponing it.

11:30 Eight hours in and most of the work is done—haven’t even hit noon yet. With my old schedule, I’d just be getting ready for my evening walk right now.

14:00 The grind wore me out hard. Took a 45-minute nap in the afternoon.

15:00 Didn’t expect such a short nap to refresh me this much. Just one more hour of work after that and done.

19:00 After 12 hours, my brain wasn’t sharp enough for more coding. But I wasn’t sleepy either, so I tackled lighter tasks that don’t need deep focus.

20:00 Fatigue started creeping in. Based on my bootcamp experience, I’m guessing this tiredness will drop significantly after about a week.

Day 2

4:10 Switched my alarm tone to something I’d never heard before. Instead of dragging, my subconscious is like, “What the heck is this sound?”

5:00 Still not fully awake. Probably time for some Nescafé ~o)

6:00 Streets are completely dead. Dark outside. Managed to push forward another exhausting task. Shoutout to the Blogo app—it made blogging ridiculously easy. For now, my writing space is just the WordPress editor.

6:15 Drafts disappearing feels like they never existed. But 6 AM isn’t the right time to get mad.

7:00 That military-base vibe is still nagging.

10:50 Internet’s been dropping every five minutes for ten minutes at a time. Zero progress.

00:50 Met up with an old friend, so I was out until now. No chance to follow the sleep schedule. Tomorrow I’ll wake up an hour later to make up for it.

Day 3

5:10 Not sure if it’s the coffee I had last night or if I’m slowly adjusting, but the killer drowsiness from yesterday isn’t there.

7:15 Still haven’t found the perfect playlist for this hour. Testing different stuff.

14:50 Feeling groggy and drained. But that’s on me—I only slept three hours last night.

17:30 Tomorrow’s the last day of testing this schedule. If I feel as wiped as today, I’ll have to drop it. Instead of boosting my productivity, it’s dragging it down.

20:30 Turns out it wasn’t the schedule’s fault—I’m coming down with the flu. Time to pause this experiment.

A few days got skipped because of the flu and other stuff, but I’m still continuing.

Day 4

4:05 Set the alarm to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Perfect. Been testing different alarm apps daily to see which works best.

My challenge here is waking up without stress—there’s no shortage of nerve-wracking options. Once I saw a pillow that simulated sunrise light at a set time. That seems ideal, but I doubt I’d find it here.

5:30 Classical music works even better than light tracks. Feels just right at this time of day.

13:05 Might sound strange, but I finished all my tasks for the day already.

Day 5

4:10 A dark night, restless waves, and…

5:30 Gotta do something about this internet. Getting cut off first thing in the morning is maddening.

10:40 If I can keep this up, it’ll become a routine. With stable internet, I could focus 100% on my work.

Day 6

3:30 Can’t sleep. Snow’s fallen too. No point waiting till 4. Time to dive in.

5:00 The “Kitap Okurken Müzik” playlist dropped me straight into the Café Beyoğlu album. Perfect fit for the moment.

10:20 Someone once said, “God help us the day we become our own bosses.” Pretty sure this is what they meant.

15:20 Running out of steam. Quick rest, then back at it.

Day 7

3:50 Only one light on across the street. I’m dying to know who it is and why they’re awake.

5:27 Not a single sound outside.

(to be continued)