So I generally agree with your post, but is this what constitutes early riser these days? I get having kids and missing the key 7-9am time slot, but is an 11am start time a Usual Thing?
Then it's 11, then they get ready for the day, then it's lunch time. Then it's lunch coma. Then by 3PM they start gaining speed. By that time, I am already exhausted.
I practice sleep hygiene and have tried cutting out caffeine. Conversely, there's no amount of caffeine capable of facilitating deep work before 10:30-11AM, just end up frantically clicking around articles and wishing for sleep.
Maybe these people aren't trying to game the optics, they just are naturally at their most productive from 11-7. IMHO it's awesome that your company allows that kind of flexibility (and that the morning startup is at 10:30!)
The thing that saved me were these $35 acupressure mats. 20-30 minutes and I am out.
VP of engineering who is not on top of the commit activity only sees me there 10 to 5, but they see the dude staying late with them.
Waking at 6, 7, 8, 10, seems pretty arbitrary, but waking up at 0-hour feels more significant to me.
I've never really thought about why that is, but just the relative difference between the numbers may be part of it
Personally I like to start working around 8, so I can triage the monitoring while the brain runs through the last boot processes and unit activations so I can use those (for me) very productive hours between 9 and 12.
I’m usually ready to go full speed by 8AM, I wfh and kids are out the door to school by 7:35-7:40Am.
/in the US and work in consulting
With somewhat younger kids (preschool), they too are out the door by 07:35-07:40, but it's me who's walking them to their facilities, which means there's no way I could possibly start working before 09:00, or before 09:30 if I don't want to start on an empty stomach.
I saw that on the east coast, which is partly why I moved away.
In silicon valley my norm (for ~25 years) has been to start around 11am which is much more tolerable.
