Now that I’ve lived on the west coast for a few days, I’m quickly realizing what the toughest part of this is — the time zone.
I’m a night owl, so I figured it would work out great since 3AM on the east coast is only midnight on the west coast. What could possibly go wrong with this plan?
Well, let me tell you — going to bed at 3AM on the east coast is the same as going to bed at… 3AM on the west coast. And going to bed at 3AM on the west coast is the same as going to bed at 6AM on the east coast. And therein lies my problem.
When I lived on the east coast sleeping in till 10AM wasn’t a big deal, since it’s only 7AM on the west coast. When you’re sleeping in till 10AM on the west coast, it is a big deal, because it’s 1PM on the east coast.
How do you west coasters handle this problem? Do all of you get up early, completely ignore time zones, or something completely different?
But it’s okay, I have a brilliant, fool-proof plan. Starting tomorrow I’ll get up at 5:30AM every morning, go to the gym, and start my day by 7:30AM. What could possibly go wrong?
Why can’t we all be more like Gary, getting up at 5AM, having four full time jobs, and being married all at the same time?
Who cares what the East Coast is doing? Just live your life man :)
*peace, ** to a
As late nights are almost unavoidable regardless of where in the world we are, I'd just work on whatever you have to work on (blog stuff) until 3-4-5am PT and then immediately publish it (or set it up). That way your ETers can wake up to it.
Then you can crash in piece and come back to post full of comments.
Thinking that you would be able to wake up at 5:30am PT and immediately get to writing about news and promos (ET morning news/promos, that is) is just silly.
Ben, I live on the West coast and my clients are in Central Europe. Yes, 9 hours time difference. I found that the key is to make sure your clients know what to expect en when you will be replying to their mails.
3 hours is easily manageable. Just don't try to stay on the east coast clock, if you do that you'll never adapt. Nice bonus: at the end of the day you are really finished! Enjoy Seattle, nice city. I prefer Nevada, cause of the weather!
get up at 5am, work for a while, take a nap, work some more, finish the day. Easy peasy. You can hit the mountains in the morning and be at the beach (although cold and rocky) in the afternoon. Try that in the midwest or east coast!
flip flops! How could I have forgotten flip flops! I'll give you credit for that too!
I love Zeffer's comments! Hate to say it, but the USA does revolve around east coast time. The stock market, our center of government...need I go on. Don't get me wrong, I think the west coast is important....I mean without you guys where would we get granola or fun terms like "surfer dude"!
And also know that people don't stay up very late in King County suburbs so you may find yourself the only car on the roads at 3 am which is an eery feeling
When I moved out here from the east coast I didn't adjust my wake up time at all. I used to wake up at 9 eastern, I started waking up at 6 pacific.
My sleep schedule didn't change only where I was on the planet :-)
"Come to the East Coast. We have a better time zone than those West Coast nobodies."
Well, I'm sure sold. ;-)
@ zeffer
I don't think anyone is saying the west coast is the center of gravity. Just saying it's better :)
I love how defensive west coasters get about the fact that the east coast is where the nation's center of gravity is. (And I'm a foreigner with no skin in the game!) Methinks she doth protest too much...
@Swag I love those early games. Nothing like waking up right to football. On the other hand, I can't stand when I am back east and a game is still going into the late hours of the night and you want to go out on the town or go the sleep, but you have to stay by the TV. :)
I guess living in flyover country really does have a benefit after all, at least insomuch as you're never more than two hours off from anyone else in the lower 48.
If you want a real problem with sleeping schedules try living in Alaska or working remotely from Thailand. Days that never end and time zones that are diametrically opposed can make for some interesting sleeping issues.
Yeah, I'm in Seattle and I don't give a hoot what time it is on the east coast. I rarely need to care. :)
On the bright side, you're still ahead of Hawaii and parts of Alaska!
I agree with Elijah, comment #1. I could really care less about what happens on the East Coast.
First time leaving messages here, lol.
I'm from Vancouver and was living in Toronto..
time difference is totally irrelevant to me. I don't care about other time zone and wake up at 7:30am on weekdays or..12pm on weekends. :)
Funny, when I lived on the east coast I went to bed at 3 and got up at 10 also, but I figured it was because I never really adapted from being a life-long west coaster. Give it some time and I think you'll adjust!
Yep, it's a problem. My solution was to marry a woman who gets up at 6 am. That pretty much re-set my schedule.
Come live in Hong Kong where no matter what time you awake up you're already everybody's tomorrow!
Many have already posted, and I agree, why on earth would we care what time it is on the East coast if we live on the West coast? Contrary to popular belief (at least for those on the EC), the world does not revolve around the East coast!
Only a small portion of the people living in an area deal with clients in other time zones and most of the time it is not an issue. However as others have pointed out, you probably need to change your sleeping hours to accommodate your clients or change your clients to accommodate your sleeping hours. I am sure you can figure out which one works better for you ;)
Watching sports from the west coast is one of the best parts for living here. All the games start 3 hours earlier and you are actually awake for the night games on the west coast :)
Ben...if this is your biggest issue in life, I WILL TRADE WITH YOU ANYDAY!! hehehe
Good thing you dont have to fight that I-5 traffic like I do!
A lot of my coworkers are from Seattle and moved here to the east (NYC) for that same reason!
However, I still think I 'd try a hand in west coast living for a little bit just to say I did it.
Ha! You had your first rain this week and you see that the forecast has us (in Seattle) for rain for the next 7 days. I'll bet your time zone discussion is just a red herring!
I live in Seattle but consulted to clients on the east coast (now central time zone) so had to just stay on east coast time to reduce jet lag and deal with work at home. That means being ready to work by 6am at the latest. Good news is you get to finish around 3pm and can get some things done at home before rush hour and everyone local comes home. Given the long nights...
I live in Seattle but consulted to clients on the east coast (now central time zone) so had to just stay on east coast time to reduce jet lag and deal with work at home. That means being ready to work by 6am at the latest. Good news is you get to finish around 3pm and can get some things done at home before rush hour and everyone local comes home. Given the long nights it is dark when you start work and nearly dark when you end work!
I would much rather live in Tampa than Seattle... sorry, Lucky!
I think you will actually end up liking it. Being from Florida originally, it's nice that East coast tends to respect the time difference, and you never hear from them after 6pm your time, or 9pm their time. So you end up with a busy 8am to 6pm but then it is done for the day!
Well, it's easier to get QF F... ;)
I tend to follow the sleep early/rise early thing on the West Coast. On the plus side, financial markets in NYC close early enough that you get the afternoon off (and can take a mondo siesta, if needed to let you stay up later for socializing).
As far as keeping your loyal readers informed, I like Buffer which allows me to spread my posts throughout the day when I may be sleeping or busy.
Finally,...
I tend to follow the sleep early/rise early thing on the West Coast. On the plus side, financial markets in NYC close early enough that you get the afternoon off (and can take a mondo siesta, if needed to let you stay up later for socializing).
As far as keeping your loyal readers informed, I like Buffer which allows me to spread my posts throughout the day when I may be sleeping or busy.
Finally, it could've worse - when I lived in Tokyo, I had to do midnight conference calls with Seattle and Europe and I would inevitably be drunk/fall asleep/snore in them.
Try living in Hawaii! Talk about time issues!
On the other hand, the morning paper has no "late results" because game on west coast started after publication time. Here in HI, by the time I get home from work, it's too late to call my family friends on the east coast!
i bet the people that got in on yesterday's chase $5k ink spend are all from east coast. its yanked out by the time west coasters started calling.
The real horror comes on Sunday, when the NFL games kick off at 10 am.
Two words why this matters: CALL CENTERS.
For example, the BA call center is located in Jacksonville. And it aint open 24/7. So it's a pain to try to sync up with them -- trust me, been there done that.
I can only imagine that in Ben's world he's on the phone with call centers 50-60% of his 'working day', and thus he might now be asleep for half of their operating hours!
Ha ha I actually wondered about that for you. I get frustrated enough being Central - West Coast would be a whole new ballgame. I think you gotta just get up earlier. Good luck!
The world does not revolve around the East coast, my friend. Embrace your new location - let it sink in, you'll never want to leave.
I think your observation is right in that we west coast folks tend to retire for the night at an earlier hour and start the day bright and early. There are probably several main reasons for this. For the business person and investor,it may be necessary to keep on top of the financial markets and for everyone, particularly in southern California, the weather is so glorious that one wants to take full advantage of it....
I think your observation is right in that we west coast folks tend to retire for the night at an earlier hour and start the day bright and early. There are probably several main reasons for this. For the business person and investor,it may be necessary to keep on top of the financial markets and for everyone, particularly in southern California, the weather is so glorious that one wants to take full advantage of it.
At least you moved from one state with no state income tax to another, but I hope that was not a factor in your decision.
And of course, for those of us on the West Coast, we now are adjusting to the changed timing of your blog posts.
Midwest is the solution. In the middle of the action as time zone goes. :)
I am surprised Gary is not giving presentations on time management when he is not working his day job, blogging, posting, co-running Milepoint, and giving presentations at seminars. The time differences are good and bad... Now that you are having an occasional ground-based libation, just think that the bars are still open when you are thinking it's 3 AM!
@Julian and others-We East Coasters expect Lucky to have new posts on his blog when we have our morning coffee at 7:00 am. By 10:00 am everything is old news to us.
For those of you not getting the problem, I imagine a lot of lucky's clients are on the East Coast, which means if you wake up at 10AM Pacfic Time, you might have a stack of emails that need to be addressed.
@Elijah: Hilarious. I was thinking the same thing!
yo seriously, what's up with Gary? he's like superman with time bending abilities.
The obvious solution: spend more time in Bali and Berchtesgaden. ;)
Seriously Ben. So you get up at 10am on the west coast. Holy crap, that's 8pm in London! It's tomorrow in Hong Kong! Oh noes!
I dealt with this same problem when I moved to the west coast. The best was when I lived in France. I'd stay up until like 4am every night and it was only like 8pm where all my friends/family/work was in the US.
Why do you care what time it is on the East Coast when you get up at 10? And getting up at 10 is too early if you go to bed at 3!
We generally handle it by not caring what people on the East Coast are doing.