There are two kinds of people in the world: the early birds and the night owls. The ones who jump out of bed as soon as the alarm goes off and the ones that hit the snooze button again and again. The ones who had already excercised, checked their mail and had breakfast by the time they get to the office and the ones who focus better when everyone else has fall asleep.
The battle between the night owls and the early birds seems to favour the latter, office hours are friendlier to them and it is believed that they are more productive tan their counterparts, but it is not always like that.
A research conducted by a profesor from the University of Education in Germany found that those who started their days earlier felt more in charge and were more active and goal-oriented.
Meanwhile, another reaserch from the London School of Economics and Political Science suggests that people with higher IQ levels tend to stay up late.
Both types seem to have their pros and cons, but they can be equally succesful. Here are some examples.
Early birds:
Jack Dorsey.
The CEO of Twitter and Square gets up at 5:30 a.m. to meditate and jog a few miles before work.
Indra Nooyi. PepsiCo’s CEO starts her day at 4:00 a.m. and gets to the office by 7:00 a.m.
Richard Branson: The founder of the Virgin Group empire has said that he leaves the curtain of his bedroom open and wakes up when the sun rises (at 5:45 a.m.). Then, he goes for a swim around his private island and eats a healthy breakfast.
Night owls:
Mark Zuckerberg. The founder and CEO of Facebook usually wakes up at 8:00 a.m., unless he has stayed up late. One time, Zuckerberg refused to do a morning conference call because he wouldn’t be awake yet.
Elon Musk. The Tesla and Space founder is among the CEO’s that get little sleep at night.
Barack Obama. After having dinner with his family, the president of the United States spends between four and five hours alone in the Oval Office, where he works in his speeches, reads briefs, letters and novels, and even watches ESPN or plays with his iPad. This alone time is so valuable for Obama that he sacrifices some hours of sleep.