We all operate on borrowed hours. The question is when we choose to borrow them. I’ve observed two distinct work patterns among people I collaborate with: early starters and night workers. Both sacrifice something. Both gain something. The difference is what they’re trading.

Night workers borrow hours after the day depletes them. They carry projects home, find clarity at midnight, and produce excellent work. But they’re working after the day has already extracted its toll. Meetings happened. Decisions were made. Energy was spent. The midnight hours are what remains after everything else took its cut.

An argument can be made that some people genuinely refresh by evening, that they find renewed focus after the day winds down. It is in our genes; there’s science to back it up. Perhaps. But that path comes with its own compromises. It requires strict boundaries around sleep, deliberate recovery, and a level of health discipline most people don’t maintain consistently.

Early starters borrow hours before anything else makes a claim. They begin before the world makes demands. By 10.30 AM, substantial work is complete. The rest of the day becomes execution and collaboration, not creation. Pretty cool.

The asymmetry can be wrapped with virtue or discipline. (Not glorification or vilification.)

I’ve been the midnight worker for a really long while. In retrospect, it was mostly about my lack of control over the day, talking to clients mostly, than anything around focus. I was forcing depleted attention onto work that deserved better. It felt productive, the quiet and focus, but I was working through accumulated fatigue.

When do you borrow your hours? I’ve found morning offers something night can’t quite replicate. But perhaps that’s just aging talking.