Katie: Welcome back to The BusinessMakers Overtime Show, heard here and online at theBusinessMakers.com. I'm Katie Laird -

Esther: And I'm Esther Steinfeld.

Katie: - and you're listening to Chapter Three where we're going to talk a little bit about early birds and if they catch the worm. [Laughter]

Esther: Yeah.

Katie: The age-old question. [Laughter] So we found a really cool article on inc.com, Inc. Magazine that's talking about a recent study looking at the difference between morning peoples, people that like to get up early and conquer their day, versus people that are more night owls, a/k/a me. [Laughter]

Esther: Yeah.

Katie: And I don't know if I'm surprised or not but apparently the early birds, in a lot of ways, are kind of deemed the most successful.

Esther: Well let's not -

Katie: ___ the most successful.

Esther: - I feel like we should start this off by stating what the research says is a morning person.

Katie: Okay. Okay let's do that.

Esther: So person who did this research for Harvard Business - his name is Christoph Randler and he says, according to him, according to his definition, a morning person is someone who gets up at roughly the same time on weekdays and on weekends. He surveyed 367 college students, which is an age group obviously not, you know, famous for getting up early, when they were most energetic and willing to change a situation. The morning people were more likely to agree with statements such as, "I feel in charge of making things happen," and "I spend time identifying long-range goals for myself." And in the sample, the evening people tended to sleep two hours later on weekends. So it's kind of interesting to see how these patterns form, especially early on in college, you know. I definitely was the kind of person who would sleep until you made me get up on the weekend if I could. I could sleep 'til noon on the weekend and now if I tried to sleep 'til noon -

Katie: No.

Esther: - there would be no chance of that. I mean I can't even sleep past like 8:00 now.

Katie: Yeah, me too. Yeah.

Esther: It's just -

Katie: Wait a minute. So by this definition, I must - I am a morning person?

Esther: Uh huh.

Katie: Okay, now I feel like I just need to revolt against this whole segment.

Esther: Yeah.

Katie: Because I do not function well in the morning.

Esther: You don't function well.

Katie: I mean like I function -

Esther: Do you -

Katie: -- I drive a vehicle, so don't be afraid. I-10 Houston. [Laughter]

Esther: Well I think there's a difference between being fully functional and being up and ready to take on the day.

Katie: Okay.

Esther: No matter what. I mean for me, I have to get up at 4:00 tomorrow morning to be somewhere at 5:30 and that doesn't scare me.

Katie: Okay.

Esther: You know what I mean? I don't - I mean I have to do it and I can get up at that time and I can also go to bed earlier, but the article also says that, you know, the people who are night people are not "life's losers," as the article puts it. They're smarter, more creative and have a better sense of humor, other studies have shown. So yeah, when someone tries to keep me up past 10:30, starting to get 11:00, I have something to do on a weeknight, I start getting kinda crabby. Start feeling like you're really cutting into my sleep time right now.

Katie: See it's interesting 'cause -

Esther: I don't have a sense of humor about that.

Katie: - I feel like "Woo!" Like "Let's go!" Like I'm reading books, I'm writing blog posts and, you know, checking in on work email and then I'm like, "No, no, no, like you have to get up in five hours.

Esther: Right.

Katie: It's time to go to bed."

Esther: Right.

Katie: Like you must go. So it's very interesting. And more interesting still is some of the discussion that they have, talking about the challenge for businesses to really identify your employees that maybe are quote/unquote morning people versus night owls and actually trying to figure out ways to accommodate them so that you can get, I mean really, the most bang for your buck.

Esther: Right.

Katie: Not that I'm saying that I should automatically be allowed to come in at 10:30 in the morning just 'cause, you know, I'd like to linger [Laughter] and be a little cheerier.

Esther: Right.

Katie: But it's interesting 'cause I mean there are some professions, for example, not to be completely stereotypical but I work with a lot of programmers who like to work in dark caves of offices and would prefer -

Esther: Exactly.

Katie: - to be on the Internet at 3:00 in the morning when no one else is awake in our country. [Laughter]

Esther: Right. Absolutely.

Katie: And it's not that we let them do that but whenever push comes to shove we have a big deadline looming, we know that if we really wanna get the most out of them, time is of the essence, we're gonna be like, "Hey, why don't you just work from home and do what you do." [Laughter]

Esther: Exactly.

Katie: Not every day.

Esther: Just go home. You don't need to be here.

Katie: Yeah. Just make it happen and your body, your cycle, like you know what's gonna make it happen, it's go time.

Esther: Exactly.

Katie: So.

Esther: So he also does state that there are chronotypes that evolve over your lifetime. Different segments of the population are different types of people. It's not necessarily -

Katie: That's true.

Esther: - possible to 100 percent change. I mean even if you have to get up early, that doesn't make you a morning person.

Katie: Right, right.

Esther: You know. But, you know, teenagers are evening people. I mean you remember what it was like to be a teenager. I do. I stayed up 'til God knows what time and had to get up and go to school and I was half dead -

Katie: Yeah.

Esther: - for half of the day -

Katie: Yeah.

Esther: - most of the time. And some, you know, people in their 30s and 50s is when they start to get split off a little bit more and then by the time you're after 50, you're, you know, you're eating dinner at 4:00 and you're in bed by 8:00 and you're up at 4:00.

Katie: Yeah. [Laughter]

Esther: So - or so says the old myth.

Katie: Right.

Esther: With - well, you know, it's kind of interesting. I feel like I'm a morning person. I don't know what kind of people you guys are, but once I started working out in the mornings, it changed my whole day. It changed my whole waking up schedule and it just made me a morning person.

Katie: Well and it makes me think there was a lot of hubbub around - and I don't know if it was like an interview or a series of interviews talking about these, you know, really powerful women in particular that swear by their 5:00 a.m. starts. You look at Oprah. You look at Michelle Obama and if they're not up by 5:00, like they kind of consider their day shot. Like that's how they get so much accomplished -

Esther: Right.

Katie: - is they're up early and you know what, sometimes they're up late, too, but that's just want they've gotta do.

Esther: Right.

Katie: So it's interesting. People of varying success degrees just - they just make it happen one way or another.

Esther: I was gonna say I think that, maybe that's what it comes down to is just making time for important things to get done. Whether you work best at night. I know some people really function better. They're more creative, they're more ready to get things done in the evening, whereas I am done. At a certain point, I can no longer think clearly. I cannot write something coherent. During the day, I'm totally fine but once I get to 7:00, 8:00, there is gonna be nothing creative coming out of my brain. I need to watch "America's Got Talent" or something and just veg on the couch.

Katie: That's how you recharge.

Esther: That is. I actually spoke to my best friend today and we were talking about falling asleep with the TV on. And she put it well, in a way that I couldn't even realize why I wanna fall asleep with the TV on it's because I want to drown out the voices.

Katie: [Laughter]

Esther: I want to stop listening to the voices that are telling me, "You're getting up at 5:00 and here is your laundry list of things you're gonna do for the day."

Katie: Right, right.

Esther: You know? I need to drown that out. I need to watch, you know, the show on Discovery Health about primordial dwarves and -

Katie: [Laughter]

Esther: - things of that nature. [Laughter] I'm spilling all my secrets but oh my gosh, Discovery Health has some awesome shows on at night.

Katie: Wow! Okay.

[Laughter]

Esther: Now you're gonna turn it on. You're gonna see what I'm talking about.

Katie: Exactly. [Laughter]

Esther: You'll go, "Wow! This is really," women has two uteruses, uteri?

Katie: Oh my go- [Laughter]

Esther: I mean I could really fall asleep to this and I do.

Katie: And you do - and you do.

Esther: On a regular basis.

Katie: And you are much better for it.

Esther: Much to the chagrin of my boyfriend.

Katie: I - yes. I would imagine.

Esther: Who does not want to watch the show about primordial dwarfism right before bed? But that's too bad.

Katie: Awesome and on the next show, we'll have Dr. Phil on and we'll be bringing [Laughter]

Esther: [Laughter] Yeah. How to save a relationship.

Katie: Exactly. [Laughter]

Esther: It's like I know exactly how you can save this relationship. Dude, I don't need Dr. Phil to know that.

Katie: [Laughter] Well, I feel like -

Esther: On that note -

Katie: - we've really stayed on topic this show. So go, us. [Laughter]

Esther: Oh, God, we couldn't even paraphrase this one if we wanted to.

Katie: No. Although I do just wanna say one last time, Candwich. I'm just - I'm still disgusted.

Esther: [Laughter]

Katie: And I think that's a great way to end.

Esther: If I actually can find a Candwich, I will bring it in next time.

Katie: Okay.

Esther: I don't know where they sell these things. Maybe - probably have to buy them online.

Katie: I'm sure - you know what, I'm sure they're such a novelty, like they're - yeah. We could - we'll find one.

Esther: Toys R Us?

Katie: [Laughter]

Esther: No?

Katie: I feel like no. I feel like no.

Esther: I almost think that when you pop the top, like it's gonna pop out like the worms.

Katie: [Laughter] Like the snakes, the crazy snakes or whatever?

Esther: The snakes that could - yeah, those - the trick snakes. Like "Woo! Sandwich in your face."

Katie: That would probably be slightly more edible. So, you know. [Laughter] Belly -

Esther: Styrofoam Candwich.

Katie: - belly beware.

Esther: This is so business-related.

Katie: Well thanks for bearing with us in all of our levels of, you know, [Laughter] -

Esther: Ridiculousness.

Katie: - ridiculousness.

Esther: I don't even know what to say. Tune in next week -

[Laughter]

Esther: - as we talk about more interesting medical conditions. [Laughter] Find out more about what's going on with the Overtime Show on Facebook at facebook.com/overtimeshow; Twitter.com/overtimeshow; and as we've mentioned many, many times, theBusinessMakers.com/overtime.

Katie: And don't forget to search for us on iTunes where you can have our lovely voices and amazing wit delivered to you automatically by subscribing to our podcast. Search for The BusinessMakers Radio Show.

Esther: And I think we need to plug one more time the wonderful 20 percent off promo code that we've been given by the Interactive Strategies Conference, otsrocks, all lowercase. Use that code and you will get 20 percent off your Interactive Strategies Conference registration.

Katie: That's right and Esther and I will be attending -

Esther: We will.

Katie: - and we can't wait to meet you.

Esther: Yep. You've been listening to The BusinessMakers Overtime Show, heard here and online at theBusinessMakers.com/overtime. I'm Esther Steinfeld -

Katie: And I'm Katie Laird.

Esther: - and we'll see you next week.

Katie: See ya.