Early to Bed, Early to Rise

One of the few (if only) bright spots of the last ten months has been that the morning hike has replaced the morning commute. More thoughts on the virtues of hiking are available here: https://johnpavolotsky.com/2021/01/09/take-a-hike/

Today’s hike started at 7:15am, in the Pulgas Ridge Preserve (Redwood City, California) parking lot, en route to a 75-minute “short” loop, accompanied by a few friends (masked and distanced of course) and a couple of dogs (including mine).  We timed the hike to catch the sunrise and, more practically, to ensure that two of us would be home before our respective 9am conference calls.  Mission accomplished. 

The alarm on cell phone had been set to 6:30am (early, but manageable), but 5:30am would not have been unusual for early morning runs, when I needed to be in the office by 8:00am. Pre-COVID, I did a fair number of 5:00am gym workouts, again to be in the office for the early morning meeting.  Alternatively, if I had a mountain of work that really needed to be done and required quiet (and considerable focus) to do it, I would wake up at 5:00am and either start working on it, with the assistance of a cup (or two) of coffee or drive into the office early, to take advantage of the quiet, the empty cube farm, and to focus my thoughts on the problems at hand.  Of course, before waking up at such, to some, ungodly hours, I would try to go to bed early, to get the recommended (seven) hours of sleep.  As shown below, “try” is the operative word here. 

In Poor Richard’s Almanack (1735), Benjamin Franklin, the ultimate polymath and master of productivity, declared: “Early to bed, and early to rise, Makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”  Franklin had a good (to my mind) habit of going to bed at 10:00pm and waking up at 5:00am, before setting to the work of the day.  Mark Twain, in Early Rising As Regards Excursions to the Cliff House (1864) disagreed: “Now for that early trip, I am not any healthier or wealthier than I was before, and only wiser in that I know a good deal better than to go and do it again.”  Twain’s excursion involved a rather harrowing carriage ride through San Francisco at 4:00am to befogged and frigid Ocean Beach. I cannot blame Twain, then a correspondent for the Golden Era, a local journal, for his assessment, especially having grown up less than a mile from the Cliff House.  The article is dated July 3rd.  Summers in San Francisco, especially in the avenues, essentially west of Lone Mountain, the home of the University of San Francisco, are bracing at best.  With little exaggeration, the fog might arrive in June and not leave until the beginning of September.  When it does disappear, it is temporary, usually burning off by the early afternoon and returning by the evening.  Add to this a 4:00am start, and you can imagine why Twain noted, satirically: “I have no opinion of a six-mile ride in the clouds; but if I ever have to take another, I want to leave the horse in the stable and go in a balloon.” 

“It is the early bird that catches the worm” is another time-worn maxim.  Again, Twain objected, pointing out, quite astutely, that if someone really wanted and needed to catch the worm, he or she would have stayed up until the worm was caught. 

For years, I have been able to do my best, most challenging work in the morning, and usually quite early in the morning, leaving less taxing work for the afternoon and evening.  There is something about a great cup of coffee (I prefer single origin beans from Counterculture Coffee in North Carolina and Verve Coffee Roasters in Santa Cruz), a recharged mind, and the prospect of a gorgeous sunrise to start off, and to tackle the major hills of, the day. 

Daniel Pink, an organizational behavior and management guru, has written about committing the mornings to your most challenging work in When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing. I remember hearing the excellent interview on NPR (https://www.npr.org/2018/01/17/578666036/daniel-pinks-when-shows-the-importance-of-timing-throughout-life), but, unfortunately, never got around to reading the book. Now may be the time.  

Now that we all agree (perhaps) that waking up early makes the most sense, we need to fix the other side of the equation.  As noted above, I aim to go to bed by 10:00pm.  Part of this is dictated by waking up at 5:00am, meaning that by 10:00pm, seventeen hours later, I am done for the day, with just enough energy to read the book by my bedside before falling asleep. I set my phone to “Do Not Disturb,” set the alarm (usually not needed), and place it face down.  Of course, reality is less simple, with the television sometimes blaring in the background, the dog jumping on and around the bed, the radioactive glow from the cell phone of my spouse, and so forth. If I could only master this bookend of Franklin’s healthy habit, then perhaps I can further improve my productivity (or at least get a better night’s sleep). 

Back to the Cliff House.  When it is sunny and warm, pictured above, there are few places as sublime. Seal Rock stands behind it, maybe 100 yards offshore, buffeted by the often angry Pacific. Ocean Beach is just south, wide and extending for miles.  To the north is the home of the former Sutro Baths, now part of the Golden Gate National Recreational Area, and just beyond that is Land’s Ends, where a lush trail will lead you north and east to Sea Cliff and majestic views of the Marin Headlands and the Golden Gate Bridge.  

When I was a kid, in the 1980s, the Cliff House consisted of a restaurant, a tourist shop, and the Musee Mecanique, an arcade with penny games from old San Francisco (probably not much later than Twain’s visit) and modern games, like Pole Position and Pac Man, on which I spent (wasted) probably too much time and money.  In recent years, the penny arcade moved to Pier 45 (Fisherman’s Wharf) and sadly, last month, the Cliff House, like many other San Francisco restaurants, closed its doors due to COVID. More information is available here: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/dec/19/closure-of-iconic-cliff-house-ends-a-remarkable-era-of-san-franciscos-history

Some time has passed since my last visit to the Cliff House and the surrounding area. I think it will be a visit early in the day (but not too early), provided I can go to bed at a reasonable hour. 

Comments welcomed.