Thursday, November 18, 2010

Late Versus Early

Are you an owl or a lark? Knowing and accepting your natural tendencies can help you be more productive. Owls are night creatures and larks are those who take advantage of the early day and mornings. We are usually one or the other.

  • Observe who you are - a lark or owl. Accept it and delight in your being. 

  • Work to schedule your activities and tasks around your natural tendencies. Don't create unnecessary work for yourself by planning against your nature. 

  • Understand and acknowledge the owl or lark tendencies of your friends and family members. Don't expect deep conversation from an owl early in the day, or late night discussions with a lark later in the day. Accept the morning or evening tendencies of your friends, co-workers and family. Learn to work with them by their style instead of trying to make them someone they are not.


By working with your true nature as well as others, you will be more incline to be the productive and accepting person you want to be.

1 comment:

Fred said...

I love Terry's metaphor of larks and owls. I wonder, however, if it's possible to transition as you mature in age from one type to the other. In my teens and 20's, I delivered newspapers and would arise at the unbelievable hour of 2:30 am, walk 7 miles delivering papers, then return to work a full-time job! So I was a lark. I was still a lark when I joined the Air Force, and I remember so well the loud speaker barking at 5 am in Basic Training: "05 hundred hours, time to get 'em up!" We went to bed at 9pm or 2100 hours. However, now that I'm almost 60 and senior citizen status, I have definitely transitioned into an owl. I get to my state job just as late as allowable (8:30 am); it's a real struggle to get anywhere early. I never go to bed early. Last night I helped my son with a do or die project for school and never went to bed! But we got it done! So that's neither lark nor owl - just insane! But sometimes you do what you have to do. My son and I had a great time. Maybe that's called Love...an owl who temporarily becomes an lark for that very reason.