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The Early Bird Really Does Get the Worm

According to Christoph Randler's research as reported in HBR, the early bird really does get the worm.

The Finding: People whose performance peaks in the morning are better positioned for career success, because they're more proactive than people who are at their best in the evening.

The Study: Biologist Christoph Randler surveyed 367 university students, asking them what time of day they were most energetic and how willing and able they were to take action to change a situation to their advantage. A higher percentage of the morning people agreed with statements that indicate proactivity, such as "I spend time identifying long-range goals for myself" and "I feel in charge of making things happen."

Morning people tend to wake at the same time every day, but there's a significant gap between evening people's weekday and weekend wake-up times. In Randler's study of college students, that gap was about two hours on average.

Common Traints of Morning People include:

  • Agreeable
  • Optimistic
  • Stable
  • Proactive
  • Consientious
  • Satisfied with life

Common Traits of Evening people include:

  • Creative
  • Intelligent
  • Humorous
  • Extroverted
  • Pessimistic
  • Neurotic
  • Depressed

FInd the full article through hbr.org