He couldn’t relax without clearing his inbox, leading to countless all-nighters: While his family was sound asleep, he responded to messages…he now says: His many years of only getting four hours of rest every day caused “severe, chronic sleep deprivation.”
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Sounds familiar…
I’ll take 5% of his success.
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You’ve made no bones about your late-night habits over the years - so you were the first 3P Seller that came to mind when I read the article…
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My former life was lots of 50-hour weeks at others’ whims. I was pretty high up the company, but never had autonomy. Credit where it’s due (and only saying this b/c of the news this week), I admire others for calling out corporate ■■■■■■■■. It’s like disengaging from the Matrix.
I personally owe Frank Fritz and Mike Wolfe of American Pickers a TON of credit (as stupid as that may sound to some). They showed me literally that you could make $ in other ways than 9-5. I sincerely owe those 2 guys a lot. My family life is tangibly better off for their inspiration. Frank died this week and it makes me sad a bit he’s not around. But I am so gratefull for people like him who demonstrated other ways to have fun making money.
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I heard that. So sad and so young.
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I had a boss like that. His 3 AM emails were legendary for being unreadable gibberish and those of us who received them made it a challenge to see who could decipher the greatest amount of the message. Great boss, nice guy, but someone who should have been sleeping instead of emailing with his eyes closed.
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I have a client whose 3pm text messages are nearly unreadable. So. Much. Wine.
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It doesn’t matter when I go to bed.
It doesn’t matter when I wake.
It doesn’t matter if I slept well.
It doesn’t matter if I’m working or revenge procrastinating.
I am always, everyday, a permanently exhausted pigeon.
Credit
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I get it, not the email checking but the extra hours.
“When you Love what you do you will never work a day in your life.” Image circa 1989, it is still that way today. Thanks be to God for that.
I work half days now, any 12 hour period I pick. I do so all days but two holidays. and one 6 day vacation every 7 years.
Though that is an average. We just got back from a Saturday mission north of NYC, 17 hours total, 8 hours of travel, the rest working. My thighs are feeling the pain today. In the morning I will thank myself for the exercise.
I am thankful every day that I can actually perform hard labor. The key is 80% planning and 20% working. That and a good team that knows family is first. And willing to support that with casual overtime, getting casual undertime.
The later with pay of course. Darn, it is near midnight here in New England, time to unplug.
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Yeah, well sleep is over rated! We went out all day and it was nice to just get away without thinking about Amazon and other sites for a while.
It’s 11pm and I’m starting to pack stuff for shipping tomorrow just so I get a head start. I’ll work for an hour or two and then go catch up on some recorded shows.
Night owls unite! My average bed time (per the FitBit my daughter convinced me to get) is 12:27pm so time is on my side!
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12:31am here in Cali. 30 minutes until bedtime — at least, that’s what I aim for. I’m awake and coherent, which is more than I can say about most mornings.
Sleep is not overrated. I need/get a minimum of 8 hours, usually 9 and occasionally 10.
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I got you beat. 3:30AM.
Up at 8 to check things out and have breakfast - no alarm necessary. Then a 1-2 hour nap. LOL
So unhealthy but who cares.
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You and I must be related somehow, but my latest (recent) time for sleep was about 2:15.
I have discovered that old age is catching up and I do take a nap once or twice a week now. I can go up in the middle of the day and try to catch up on some recorded shows, take a nap, and then REWIND the entire show! 
“So unhealthy but who cares.”
My wife claims to, but after 56 years I don’t pay much attention to that! 
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Ain’t that the truth. 10 years ago I was always up late and into the wee hours, usually working on something accessing the MWS API’s.
Nowadays? Wife gets up at 6:30 AM to get the grands off to school so we get into bed about 9:300 PM school nights and I just watch whatever on TV after she goes to sleep.
Side note: I was also sad to hear about Frank passing. I’ve watched a LOT of American Pickers over the years and this past Aug. (on an anniversary trip) took a pick in front of the Nashville store.
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I’m a night owl too so late-night online activity is a concern for me.
I’ve stopped answering emails when it gets late in the evening. They always take me longer to compose when I’m getting sleepy and I’m never happy with the results. I wait until the next morning to respond. Sometimes I find that an email which I thought needed a long response can be answered in a couple of sentences.
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I had a Doctor appointment yesterday (normal LATE follow up on my diabetes) and made a mistake – I asked my wife if she would like to go along.
Well, she DID. My numbers are “OK” but not great, normal aches and pains, etc. and then SHE brings up my hours and lack of sleep.
Frank (my doctor) went over what I do for sleep which concerns her much more than it does me, and decided I don’t have any BIG issues, just need to adjust things like going to bed at the same time, no lights, no phone, no TV, etc.
Then he says SOME people do fine on 6 hours of sleep. They look at 8 hours of sleep and think ‘after 30 or 40 years I would have wasted days/weeks of time that I could have done other things!’
I figure it would have wasted days upon days I could have spent making people mad on the OSFE…
And, next time, if she wants to go, I’m taking along duct tape…
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The wife and I have made a compromise. She doesn’t say anything about my sleeping habits no matter how limited they are and I wont’ say anything about her cold feet on my legs no matter how cold they are.
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