My biggest professional problem

I don't work enough. If you think about a professor, don't you imagine someone staying up to all hours of the night, reading and writing to the glow of a tiny lamp or a computer screen? Someone who talks with students and colleagues all day and then only sleeps for four hours at night so they can still get their latest article written?

That is not me.

I love to sleep. Especially in the morning. I think I would be happiest if I went to bed at 11 and woke up at about 9 every day. Most days I manage to force myself out of bed at 7:30, which means I can start work by 9:30 or 10:00 if I don't waste too much time on the internet.

I haven't always been like this. In high school I had a church class at 7 am and I always got up on time. I almost always had a class at 8 am in college. When I taught high school for a couple of years before grad school I was at my desk by 7:30. But then during my nine years of grad school I never had to be on campus before 10:00 at the earliest and the trouble began. I think most students adapt by staying up late and working, but my brain shuts off by 6:00 pm and the only thing it's good for after that is television and the occasional novel.

Don't get me wrong--I still average about 42 hours of work per week (I keep track of all of my hours, just for my own information). I work on Saturdays and sometimes Sundays, but that just isn't enough to be successful in academia. I need to figure out some way to work more without losing my sanity. Every day, after hitting the snooze for at least an hour and usually two, I sit up in bed and think: I hate myself for not getting up on time. The days that I do get up at 6:00 (which are few and far between) I'm not miserable. But the part of the brain that remembers that doesn't seem to be operational most of the time. Is there a pill for this? Somehow I doubt it's that easy.