Now, I get up at 5:30 every day to have an hour or so to myself before the kids wake up. Then I usually work 2-3 hours at night after the kids go to bed. I try to get in bed before midnight.

It’s crazy right now, but I can’t quit my day job and I don’t want to give up my dream of my own business…

Make the change over a month… if you usually get up at 9, start getting up at 8 for a week… next week 7… next 6. I find it almost impossible to shift my time several hours at a shot. Oh, and don’t cheat too much on weekends, esp at the start… getting up at 6am, but reverting to a 10am time on Sat and Sun makes it VERY hard to switch back on Monday.

I think another key will be to force yourself to take some time in the AM vs just moving your morning routine up several hours… unless you then take amid-morning break. But that will likely not happen for the same reason that you don’t take afternoon breaks.

Oh and another guy I read is doing this – David Seah at davidseah.com… might want to check that and his comments out for other tips.

In my experience, my aptitude for the work at hand varies: I am an arts student, and I find that I work best on essays during the morning if I am fresh. I can’t work on that kind of thing at night – I just find myself being distracted. When it comes to computing/coding, I find I work best in the evening – sometimes late into the night. I generally try to work to these patterns – noise caused by others, and early-morning meetings/classes notwithstanding.

It wasn’t just having the kids that helped me out….

It was having to take our daughter to school by 7:45AM that really kicked me in the pants.

After working 2 years for an oil company, on a 4am -2pm shift, 4 days on and 4 days off schedule my body became very good at being able to time shift. This is also a curse.

I do find that being at the office usually on my own from 8AM to 10AM, I can get a LOT of work done whether that’s actual coding or it’s dealing with emails, etc.

Then I got married and had a kid. Now my day is as follows: wake up at 7:30 or so when the kid wakes me up. Hang out with her until 9 when I take her to school. Then I “get” to work until 4 or 5, at which time I try my best to stop all work activity and spend time with the family. Any email/IM checks done after 5pm are of a personal nature, or the “I can reply in five seconds” nature. If it will take longer, I just save an empty reply to my drafts box so I’ll get to it the next day.

The difference in the two schedules – work all day versus being able to stop at 5 – is part of the reason I sold my indie software company a few years ago when I got married.

Plush it allows me to take a break during the day, and play some Wii.

But honestly, you could do that whenever, and you know your body’s rhythms better than anyone else. If your mind is sharpest during afternoon and early evening hours, peaking around sunset, you probably want to wrap your workday around that and let the sleep pattern fall where it may.

My own hours are strange – prior to self-employment, I was a 3rd shift RN, so very, very used to being up all night…and its when i am most productive. But when I started working for myself – most projects demanded regular ‘business hours’ – so I compromised and work a 10am – 8pm day

Although, every so often I get on a kick of rising early – around 6:30 – 7am — and yet, somehow still find myself making a cup of coffee and tackling emails right away…hoping to get work out of the way early in the day, so I can find time for other things in the afternoons. Yet, those days – - 9 times outta 10 I still find myself working until 7-8pm.

Self employment creates a tremendous need for self discipline when it comes to ‘me time’ – mostly because, since you work at home – you never really leave the office.

‘Me time’ was much easier when I worked in the hospital — when my shift was done, it was done and I didn’t have to worry about work again until the next day.

Having kids was also a good way to clear this problem up!