Trying to live with an early bird can be hard at times. But working with them isn’t always a walk in the park either. Of course, I’m sure they’d say the same thing about us.

So what can you do to make things work out for both sides?

1. Early birds and night owls need to realize that there is a place for both sleep cycles. For example, when I ran my web design and hosting company, I would hire assistans who were early risers. They would start the day bright and early helping clients who were also early risers. And they could take care of all the projects that I’d come up with the night before. With this understanding, we complemented one another.

2. Realize that a sleep cycle alone does not a lazy person make. That said, if a night owl is sitting up all night watching Letterman, yes, that’s a problem. But if she’s writing an ebook, doing laundry, building websites, answering helpdesk tickets, mopping, rocking a not-very-sleepy child and generally keeping herself busy, then NO, she is not lazy. Seriously.

Understanding and accepting one another are the two main things you can do to work with the early bird in your life. Of course, it really helps if she returns the favor…