Over the years I noticed a solution that some diligent people apply to get over info overload and interruptions: they start their workday (at home or even in the office) an hour or more before the usual “Nine to Five”. Showing up at the office at 6 or 7 AM gives them an hour or two of total quiet, when they can concentrate on their work. In a sense they sacrifice sleep time to get onto a time machine and jump to that gentler age when people actually worked, without the rude interruptions of our Blackberry era. It’s a satisfying tale: the early bird gets its worm. Diligence rewarded…

Which works fine – for a while. What happens then, unfortunately, is that people notice this person is up and working early. How do they know? Well, unless you shut yourself up in a Himalayan monastery, you will get noticed all right, because you send emails, interact on social media, and so on. In fact, it is precisely the people you’re trying to avoid – your coworkers and friends – who will note your new work hours…

So what happens – and I’ve seen it happen to some coworkers – is that colleagues will start sending the early riser meeting requests for early in the morning, that being the one time they’re likely to have open on his calendar… and we’re back to square one, only with less sleep. After all, while the proverbial early bird is after the worm, it is itself on the menu of the early predator…