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There was a study in 2009 that showed that Early Risers Crash Faster Than People Who Stay Up Late. From the article: Researchers Christina Schmidt and Philippe Peigneux and their colleagues first asked 16 extreme early risers and 15 extreme night owls to spend a week following their natural sleep schedule. Then subjects spent two nights in a sleep lab, ...

A lot of the problem is psychological - as is the answer. If you answer these questions, it may help you understand why you are procrastinating: What am I afraid of? What will happen if I stop procrastinating on this project? What will (ultimately) happen if I procrastinate on this project? What am I using to avoid doing what I should be doing? Note that ...

What gets measured gets done - Management Maxim Write a list of what you want to do on a physical piece of paper, listing each item line by line. If an item on the list seems too overwhelming to do, break it down into smaller parts. It's okay, even encouraged, to put down easy tasks on the list. If I want to do a software project, often the first item ...

[Please note that the answer below mostly covers the 'creativity' section of your question and I would suggest you break the others out into seperate questions to get more targeted answers] First of all, don't put yourself down! You need to be in an optimistic and confident state of mind. I find that if there's too much pressure, I end up worrying about not ...

This is what we call Chronotype, Clodoré et al. has also done research about alertness differences. Chronotype is an attribute of animals, including human beings, reflecting at what time of the day their physical functions (hormone level, body temperature, cognitive faculties, eating and sleeping) are active, change or reach a certain level. [..] ...

There's a technique called "active listening" that may help. While using it, you listen with a goal of being able to repeat back (paraphrased) what the speaker is saying. There's more than that, but just that much helped me quite a bit years ago. Google the phrase and see what some of the links you find have to say - it may help you.

I am not a conversation specialist but here are some tips that I have been using and I've found them pretty effective. 1) Be the first one to listen, and be the last one to talk. Most of the time you can solicit enough information in the discussion and then come up with a summarizing statement. Those kinds of statement are usually harder to debunk because ...

It's quite natural for your mind to wander. If you sit still for a few minutes and try to watch your thoughts, you wil find that your mind is almost continuously going from one thought to another. Fortunately you can train your mind to focus. Try to focus on one task at a time as much as possible. This goes for everything you are doing, even something simple ...

There is no definitive answer to this; as you outlined yourself in the article and comments this does depend on your energy levels which depend by itself on your cortisol levels. We are different people; so, what works for one person might not work well for another... As you have been a night owl for some time you have had a shift of your cortisol/energy ...

It sounds like you're friends don't share the same interests as you do. This could be the result of you having become friends at a time when you shared similar interests but have now grown apart. First, try inviting your friends to the activities or events you wish to engage in, assuming they're not solitary. Perhaps your friends have nothing better to do ...

Usually I write a schedule of what I'm gonna do the next day. It helps me getting into things because it feels like somebody else already took the decision for me (my past self), and it's easier for him to plan something for somebody else (your future self). Of course it doesn't forces you to actually do the things and you can always find a mental excuse to ...

William's answer regarding meditation is very useful, but even before this, you can use a very simple technique when something angers or frightens you: Take a deep breath, and count to ten Then look again at the problem. Deliberately taking this time reduces your fight/flight instinct dramatically, allowing you to think rather than react.

I think you may find this problem is not limited to you - I think this is one of those feelings in life that applies to everyone. I might suggest, based on some things that have worked for me and some other friends in the past, that you try taking breaks from the work while you are still interested. So for example if you are writing a story, and it's ...

To add to the "very" useful advice of @sskates , I would say that even when you find yourself doing "one particular" task for many hours, you might end up procrastinating. Reason: You are bored. My advice is, when you make a "plan" for tomorrow, do make sure that you include the things of an entirely "different" task too, in your schedule. This way if ever ...

Good answers here already - I have just one thing to add. What ultimately helped me move past procrastination was serious meditation on where procrastination left me. I focused on specific times when procrastination truly impacted my life negatively, and worked to remap the procrastination impulse. What I mean by this is the following: when the experience ...

There are more than a few points to ponder here. Are you wanting answers within 2 seconds of hearing a question or 2 hours? There is something to be said for how big of a window do you have on answering the question, what format is the answer to take, and a few other things that may be worth noting here as I'd imagine it is one thing to brainstorm an idea ...

Depends on what you think these people "can and should" be like, I suppose. If you think they should like you instead of hating you, then in light of that quote you should treat the same way you would treat someone who likes you, i.e. be nice to them and pretend you're not noticing the hate. Though in my personal opinion some of them may just find that ...

I wonder if you have the same problem as me: A "should" voice that incessantly tells you what it thinks you should do when really so many of those things aren't shoulds but coulds. My latest strategy to prevent myself from immediately assuming that I have to do something presented to me is that I am changing the "should" in my head to "could." "I should ...

If you haven't already done so, I suggest checking out assertiveness training as a good place to start to learn how to say "no" effectively. There is a lot of information about assertiveness training on the web. Wikipedia has a good section on this topic at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assertiveness If you go to the self help section of your local book ...

It depends on what your actual goal is. If the goal is to finish the project, build up emotions around that, instead of only solving the "exciting" and/or interesting parts. Be excited about more-complete functionality, not merely getting to the point where you "know it could be done". If the goal is to solve interesting, exciting problems, you're already ...

You need to allow yourself to be bored. Make time to think, to let your mind wander. Your brain cannot both consume information and produce new ideas at the same time. When you are bored, your creativity is triggered. So, put aside some time every day when you don't read, listen or watch anything -- but just think quietly and calmly for at least 30 minutes. ...

Deciding you want to make a big change is half the battle. You may feel alone at times, but know that you're not. I'll be rooting for you! So will anyone else who is truly kind, even if it takes you a while to find those people. Here's what's helped me: Create a daily practice that becomes your rock. Make it your top priority besides basic survival and ...

Aim to be silent as much as possible. Often inattention comes from you thinking about what you're going to say next... which results in you not focusing so much on the other persons conversation. Try making the aim and goal of some conversations to be basically paraphrasing what the other person says, without adding your own 'content'.

What distracts you? Is it: other tasks on your mind other things going on around you (radio, TV, ...) emotions, memories, etc. Try to identify what causes your distraction, and then when you know the cause, try to eliminate that cause. For instance, turn off the TV. I am very easily distracted by computer screens, incoming email, etc. so when people ...

I know I'm playing devil's advocate here, but you do need to keep in mind what your productivity goals are for. For me, one of the reasons I aim to be very productive during my work hours is that I can have uninterrupted leisure time. You should also keep in mind the law of diminishing returns. Working weekends might not give that much of an edge, and ...

I personally believe that i lose motivation in the middle. How to handle this ? find someone who will pick it up at that point and get project to conclusion finding such a person is not easy, but (if I understand correctly) you do like difficult tasks - just consider this to be one the most difficult.

You may be benefited by using REBT. Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) is a form of psychotherapy and a philosophy of living created by Albert Ellis in the 1950's. REBT is based on the premise that whenever we become upset, it is not the events taking place in our lives that upset us; it is the beliefs that we hold that cause us to become depressed, ...

Game designer Chris Crawford addresses this in Chapter 7 of his book, On Game Design. I think he described it well in the start of one of the segments: The best strategy is to stuff your head full of concepts and all their associations. After all, the bigger the web of associations at your disposal, the greater the chance that you'll find some odd ...

You can't be productive the whole day. Sometimes you do have to hang out somewhere or watch a movie all night. But you should make the best out of your free time as well. Allocate some leisure time for yourself. I tell my friends when I'm free. I insist on them telling me at least a day in advance, and I'll turn them down if they want to go and hang out ...

I find that spending time with a group or in an activity not necessarily my first choice can actually benefit my personal productivity by shaking up my routine thinking and allowing in other perspectives that can be catalysts to new ideas. I call that "blowing the stink off of me". I've read some recent articles on the value of suggestions and ideas coming ...