I think you might be hearing these words “Nocturnal Blogger” for the first time. If you are a student of life sciences you might have guessed on what I am referring to. Animals like bats, cockroaches, lions, etc usually sleep during the day and are active during nights such animals are referred to as Nocturnal animals. I just used this term “nocturnal” to refer the active state of an animal during night hours. Most of the bloggers especially home makers who blog are mostly awake during nights, as it is the most peaceful and comfortable time where we have less distraction.
Whenever I thought of writing an article during the day from morning 9 A.M to evening 9 P.M I usually have many distractions. My parents some times call me for some work and I have to abruptly end my writing. Sometimes I just sit to write a killer article and I am saturated with ideas on when to keep them in my Word Pad and then suddenly my friends start to come.
They’ll come and ask
“Are you busy?”
With a sigh inside my heart and a smile outside my face I have to say
“Hey nothing to worry just come in”
They spend about an hour or two telling all sorts of happenings and after they leave all the ideas which first flowed like a river will now become dry like a desert. I run out of the points what I have originally thought to write. So I switched my blogging schedule to some late hours in the night and early hours in the morning.
Are you also facing similar situations and thought of blogging in the late hours?
Are you a nocturnal blogger too?
Then here are few tips and suggestions to be followed in order to balance your workflow or to maintain the same productivity as you have during the morning hours.
Read: Shocking Sleep Deprivation Effects You Need to Know
Keep your lights ON:
The most important part as I start off my tips is keeping the lights ON. Mostly parents or elderly people or people who live in our house don’t allow us to keep the lights ON after the clock hits 11:00. But I personally have observed that when we use our computer in the night our eyes are strained too much rather than they do during morning. I tried using my computer by keeping my lights ON and I was able to observe a change. I could work an hour extra if I kept the lights of my room ON.
If you keep your lights off and if the display of the monitor is brighter, then your eyes will be strained and they become dry very soon. So make sure you lower your monitor’s brightness and try to use a small light in the room so that you would not strain your eyes. If your eyes start paining or you feel any sort of burning sensation its better you switch off your PC and go to bed. If you keep looking monitor for 5 hours continuously in the dark and as you finish your work and are off to sleep you could observe that you would not get sleep immediately and your eyes feel illuminated(you feel the monitor light for few minutes) even though you close your eyes. So lower your monitors brightness during night hours.
Always sit in a proper posture:
In the night hours we feel bit sleepy and just to take a little nap we slide a bit in our chair and rest. But the fact is that if you sit in a wrong position you could face lot of problems. Maintaining a proper body posture is a must and if you use your keyboard with a bad posture then you might suffer RSI (Repetitive strain injury). You should see that height of your chair is such that your arms should form a right angle when you use your computer. Also see that you keep a distance of 50 cm from the computer screen.
Read: Proper body posture to sit in front of Computer
Avoid drinking too much tea:
This is the tip followed by many students before their exams to keep themselves awake and study the whole night. Similarly as a blogger if you have lot of pending work which should be cleared or finished off by the next day then you need to stay awake whole night and for this drinking tea does keep you bit active. Drinking tea now and then is ok but if you develop this habit of drinking daily and that too in a surplus quantity can be hazardous. Recently an article was published in yahoo news stating a condition of a woman who has been drinking lot of tea.
Read: Too Much Tea Causes Unusual Bone Disease
Avoid eating Junk foods:
Hey you are not watching a movie to eat pop corn and drink some coke. You need to completely avoid eating junk foods like pizzas, burgers, soft drinks and any sort of oil foods during nights. It seems crazy to hear but some people do have the habit of eating while they surf net during night. You could well grow some extra pounds which would definitely have a negative impact on your health. Jane Sheeba of ProbloggingSuccess has clearly stated about the adverse effects of eating junk foods during nights in one of her posts in her health related blog. I have collected few words from the article and given a link below to read what she has said.
If you donβt have any walking or exercising space in your daily schedule, you are prone to put up more weight. Junk food is also a major source of fat adding component in your diet.
Late night snacks should be avoided as the body metabolism will not be much active during late hours of the day. If you can avoid taking food two to three hours before retiring to sleep, you will not add weight.
Collected from: How To Lose Weight Naturally: 5 Effective Ways
Keep off from your designing work:
Are you a freelance designer or a template designer or a graphic designer then its better you keep all kinds of designing works for the next morning. I too use to design templates during nights and I used to strain my eyes and waste a lot of time when it is in the night. But when I design in the morning I would do the same amount of work within half of the time I take to do it in the night. If you have the knowledge of CSS and play with your template designs then try for yourself. At nights our body always tends to relax and if we want it to work and that too for creative works like template designing or graphic designing then you are giving it an extra burden. Sometimes you might mess up using some wrong colors and spoil your design completely.
Have an organized schedule:
If you are sitting for 5 hours in the night it is better to have an organized schedule. As soon as you finish your dinner go for a small walk it not only helps you health wise but you can also brainstorm for your next post or you can organize the schedule for that particular night. And donβt make it a habit to work every night sacrificing your sleep. If you try to change the circadian rhythm then definitely you are reducing your life span.
Let me explain this for clear understanding I have collected a small excerpt from Britannica about circadian rhythm.
Circadian rhythm is the cyclical 24-hour period of human biological activity.Within the circadian (24-hour) cycle, a person usually sleeps approximately 8 hours and is awake 16 hours. During the wakeful hours, mental and physical functions are most active and tissue cell growth increases. During sleep, voluntary muscle activities nearly disappear and there is a decrease in metabolic rate, respiration, heart rate, body temperature, and blood pressure. The activity of the digestive system increases during the resting period, but that of the urinary system decreases.
So if you did not understand anything from the above passage let me say in simple words that you need to take approximately 8 hours of sleep and that is mandatory. I also read an article in Rahul Kuntala’s blog LearnBlog tips that sleeping 6.5 hours to 7.5 hours increases the productivity and life span too. I have linked the article below on how Rahul schedules his work plan below. Give it a sure try you would definitely learn something regarding organizing your schedule.
Read: How I Work 8 Hours/Day Online Without Getting Distracted
So plan your 5 hour schedule by keeping some 10 min gap after every hour. Plan one or two hours for writing article for your blog, half an hour for responding to your mails and comments usually it won’t take long for newbie’s, half an hour to promote your articles in social networking sites like twitter, Facebook, G+ etc, remaining time for reading your friends blogs, commenting in their articles and reading some blogs to gain knowledge for writing your next posts. Have a schedule like this and it will definitely help you rather than spending whole 5 hours in Facebook chatting and playing Farmville.
Conclusion: What Nocturnal Bloggers need:
So I want to conclude the above topic by giving a gist or summary of the entire 1300+ words discussed above. In order to be more productive and supercharge your workflow during night hours you need to organize a proper schedule and work for only two such nights that too not more that 4 or 5 hours and sleep well during other days. If you are free only during night hours then better plan a one hour schedule and strictly follow it. One day for writing article, one day for interacting in comments and promoting your articles in social networks, one day in reading and brainstorming for the next post. Keep this as your continuous schedule and supercharge your workflowβ¦
Only thing you need to keep in your mind is to keep your health safe.
Aren’t these tips handy?
What do you have to say? I am waiting for your commentsβ¦
You’ve been using REAL time examples unlike many other bloggers – I love to share and comment on such type of posts π
Great work buddy. Thanks for the mention too!
Two cents: Unless you’ve great motivation to achieve something, it’s not possible to follow a strict time schedule. And make technology work for you, not against you!
Cheers,
Rahul
Very True Rahul…Its damn hard to keep a schedule and you got the point…The Motivation is the Key.
Thanks a lot Rahul for your encouraging comment,
Glad to know that you liked my posts containing real time examples.
Thanks for the Two cents but its worth more than that…
@ Vivek, Glad you picked up something from Two cents…
Read your article man. I don’t know ho you manage to work for more than 5-6 hours.
Fortuantely, I am not a ‘nocturnal blogger’ as you referred here, Vijesh. But once in a while, I do work late into night. My family want the room to be dark. So I can’t continue my work and turn off my system. I am a ‘Diurnal blogger’ if I can say it so.
Thanks for a very useful post.
Thanks for the comment Achari,
Nice to know that you are a Diurnal blogger, good thinking to sleep during night and working in the morning. BTW when you go to school how do you manage your blogging schedule? Now I think you are in holidays…
Well, I go to school at 7 in the morning and come back at 7. On most days, my blogging schedule is between 8-10 pm and 5-6 am. I know that’s not enough. School is for a living and blogging is for passion.
I’m a nocturnal blogger myself working into the wee hours of the following day. I read this post with lots of interest and I’m obviously going to observe them and correct what ought to be done right.
Thanks for giving another Masterpiece….These days I am becoming Nocturnal too…I go to bed at 2 or 3AM and it takes atleast 30 minutes to fall asleep….Given that I have to blame TamilNadu EB which regularly cuts the power at 12AM-1AM…Rahul Kuntala on other comment exactly pointed out why most of the bloggers dont able to keep the schedule…It takes real motivation which I lake as of now.
One more addition..Please make the social sharing process easy…Change the Social sharing button and make it easy for us to share your masterpiece.
Hi Vijesh,
A very interesting article – I’m sorry to hear tea’s not too good for you because I love it (don’t like coffee!) – I don’t take it too strong, though, so hopefully I’m OK.
I’m not really a nocturnal blogger, but have been through phases when I’ve worked very late at night and sleep deprivation became a major issue. I think it’s important people realise they need their sleep and their health will suffer if they try to get by on too little.
Posture’s important whatever time of day or night you’re working online, also the need to take regular breaks – I know that to my cost because I’ve developed a repetitive strain injury affecting my neck and shoulder and I now use a timer to make sure I have a break and a stretch every half hour or so.
I’m sure a lot of bloggers who work late into the night will really value these tips – thank you!
Sue
Thanks for your comment Sue,
This encourages me to write even more. Its ok if you take tea in limited quantities rather than drinking in surplus quantity. Glad that you took some time in visiting my blog and giving a valuable comment.
Indeed during a day you get distracted or disturbed by friends, phone calls etc which slow down my online work. Working in the night is hard for me. I can work till 11 a clock, maximum 12 but then I must go to sleep.
Thanks for sharing these tips Vijesh. Best regards from I. C. Daniel
Hey Daniel,
Thanks for your opinion, so you take care of your health by sleeping whenever you feel like you are done. Great, sleeping well can also enhance our productivity…
Hey Vijesh,
I really love this article. I struggle a lot in maintaining a writing schedule and its more because I’m a Nocturnal blogger (as you call it π ) The tips you mentioned are invaluable and I would start trying them right away! You are really doing a great work here @blogingrace. Keep up!
Hey Karthik,
Thanks for your encouraging and valuable comment. It encourages me to write more, also keep a good writing schedule Karthik you have a long way to go.
Great tips Vijesh.
These tips are not only for who works on night hours (nocturnal) but also for day time bloggers.
When I Switch off my lights in night hours, my computer cause some burning sensations in my eyes.
I don’t always maintain proper posture while working on my PC. It has some hazardous effects! So, I have to maintain a proper posture.
And I don’t like coffee and tea π
Great share π
Hi Sriram,
Glad to know that you don’t like tea or coffee. So I guess you liked all the points mentioned in the above article. Thanks for your encouraging comment…
Hi vijesh,
So practical and applicable ways to continue your blogging in a comfartable manner, Most of the tips i follw u mention like i keep on my room’s light upto 12: 30 pm in night and never take tea or coffee but offcourse there is a lack of proper scheduling and crazy about junk food or yes some other things who distract me like facebook, friends phone calls, mouse hanging etc.
Tanks for sharing such a great tips…
Hey Rupali,
Thanks for sharing your experience so I believe next onwards you wont waste your time over Facebook etc but have a proper schedule. Also avoid junk foods at your desk.
Happy blogging….
Hello Vijesh
Very interesting post indeed. I agree with you dude that the most suitable time for blogging is the night hours. I Personally love to write at night . In day time their are lots of other works are happen like going to class, playing etc. Very nice to read.
Hi Mahendra,
Nice to know that you too blog during nights, so be alert and don’t strain too much and keep an eye on your health, happy blogging Mahendra…
I’m kind of people like you. Writing an article during morning time is sometimes hard, with lots of distractions. I’m a student and I feel the same thing when studying. I’m kind of student that’s hard to get started when doing something, therefore when I have to stop studying for awhile to do some other works, it’s just hard for me to continue back to my studies, usually it’ll take some time to get back. Similar to blogging. Therefore, I found night is the best time for blogging.
Hey Rudd,
Thanks for sharing your experience, glad to know that you too are a nocturnal blogger and you also believe it is the right time to blog. But keep in mind all the points I have mentioned.
Have a nice time blogging…
Hi Vijesh
I just love this post! π
You seem to always hit a nail in my head. I remember one time when Rob Goss wrote about his work schedule habits waking up @ 5:00 in the morning and proceed his work throughout the day!
I tried that and the next day I was dead. I’m not so sure I can do what he can do. As an Artist, I’m always been a nocturnal being. I even said one time that I might be related to hamsters. And my brother-in-law just laughed at me.
Then Adrienne shared her work schedule and she said that she worked whenever she can but doesn’t really have a working schedule like Rob. Now after reading that I began to feel better and I’m not alone after all. I thought I was being abnormal. And Joy Healey is the same with me. She’s a nutritionist and just as nocturnal like me.
Like you said in the morning there are lots of distractions. The UPS, FedEx, dog barking, daughter coming over, baby crying rattling my brain, hubby kept talking in my ears while I’m trying to finish an article. He sometimes notice I get annoyed and just looked at him and say, “I’m in the middle of my writing.” *smile*
Then when we come to bed, hubby hates that I’m still reading on my iPhone and hates that little light that shines on his face. Then he learned to put a towel on his face to block all the lights and I’ve learned to dim the light on my iPhone and read underneath my blanket. But that doesn’t last either coz I started to feel suffocated underneath.
Then, world war 3 seemed to wind down after we bought our tablets. He has a desktop & laptop computer on his desk and he only work there to do his eBay. After that he comes in the bedroom and read his tablet. Now I don’t feel like I’m always pestering him with my iPhone lights. Now I would bring my laptop in the bedroom too to finish reading all the eBooks and continuing education I have been doing online. He learned to read his tablet before going to bed and so am I — reading on my iPhone trying to finish all the blogs I needed to read and comment on.
As far as sleeping is concerned, Dr. Nedley said that for every hour of lost sleep at night (that’s after 12:00am) is equivalent to 2 hours of sleep @ day if you’re trying to compensate for the lost sleep. I wrote about this when I was still blogging in Health Matters:
http://healthmatters.info/rest-3
I don’t ways work at night. Only when I need to finish a website and I’m in a critical deadline. In the morning when I really need to work on my writing or graphic design, I turned off the TV. Not even a stereo. Just plain quiet. That’s why I said one time I need to move in the woods coz the quietness in nature, hearing the trees swaying, birds chirping… somehow rejuvenated my soul. I just keep praying someday we would move into the country. So long as they have the Internet and UPS for my husband we would do just fine in the country living!
Angela
Hi Angela,
Thanks for sharing your story and also thanks a lot for pointing out that article which you wrote for health matters. So at last I could understand that you are enjoying blogging after you dropped from RT program. I believe you love technology a lot, isn’t it?
Yeah, I love the new technology. And I love Macintosh. I said one time, if I couldn’t find a job I would be a sales rep for Apple Computer . π
RT program was nice but there’s a REAL reason why I dropped this and I cannot tell you it’s too personal. However, people said “all things work together for good.” God always used things for good even if the circumstances was negative.
Things in life happens for a reason. And I’m always humbled. Like I told you before blogging wasn’t a part of my plan when I came back doing graphic design again. But somehow it lead me to believe that I am sitting in a gold mine only if I work intelligently, have enough drive, determination, and persistence.
I tell you what, I feel like I am starting over a new leaf. WordPress is so new to me. It’s nice that you can now create a website without knowing an HTML and if you have the right hosting service you can now create a website on WordPress in 5-10 minutes! But there are still a lot to learn such as how to secure your site from hackers. So far I’m taking a webinar on WP Security Decoded. This guy shows you how you can install your WordPress safely from being hacked.
So much to do so little time. Besides this webinar, I’m taking courses from: Rob Cubbon-Creating a Website in Responsive Design. I’m learning how to do Podcast also. And I’m behind reading Steve Scott’s eBook “Affiliate Marketing Without the BS.” So yeah…like you in work like a dog day and night til we establish our authority!
Have a blessed weekend my friend.
Angela
Hi Vijesh, these tips are wonderful. Great article dude, if we really follow this tips it would be very helpful to our self supercharged.
Thanks for your encouraging comment Jason. Hope if you follow these tips you are going to supercharge yourself…
A very important post with valid points…. I have also noticed that switching on the light really minimizes the eye strain significantly….. It is always better to do routine jobs at night instead of something which needs more attention and brain work…..
Hey Banerjee,
As you said it is better to do routine jobs rather than jobs which need more attention and brain work and that is what I pointed out as designing.
Thanks for your valuable comment
This is not an issue with me Vijesh… I prefer to work during the day whether I have distractions or not. I love to sleep and I have things that need to be done during the day so this wouldn’t be something I would want to implement but I can see why many would.
I’ll just say I wish the best to you all. Personally, I need my sleep! π
~Adrienne
Hey Adrienne,
Its a wise decision any one would opt, sleep is so good that I love to sleep a lot, but not before I establish my identity in this blogosphere and I am done with my bread and butter then probably I would lower my blogging schedule.
So these tips are for those who work day and night to reach a milestone in their blogging journey.
Thanks for your Wishes…
Hi Vijesh,
I know a lot of bloggers are nocturnal but not me. I am a very early riser so I am tired early in the evening as well. My husband and I both work from our home and it is just the two of us here all day so not too many distractions. I am sure there are a lot of people with circumstances that make it easier for them to work at night.
Your tips on posture and the rest are important for all of us not matter what time we prefer to do our blogs.
A great post Vijesh,
Sue