For creative night owls, the 9-to-5 is pointless

Most offices run on a 9-to-5 schedule, or one that closely resembles it. But being clocked in doesn’t mean you’re locked in. While many workplaces still run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., not all minds do. In fact, many of the most creative forces on the planet function best after quitting time. A 2025 U.K. survey from Adobe Express of 1,500 workers employed across a wide range of industries found that 31% are most creative in the morning, while 19% experience their creative peak in the afternoon. But interestingly, a large percentage of employees get their creative juices going later on—when most offices are already shutting down for the day. Seventeen percent reported that they experience peak creativity in the evening hours, while another 13% said they peaked at night. That means that a whopping 30% are brimming with their best ideas once the work day is long over—almost as many as the early birds. This means that some companies are thinking outside of the box (and outside typical work hours) to get the most creativity out of their staff. Night owls may be creatively stacked A 2024 study from the Imperial College London found something interesting about night owls (those who were more active in the evening hours). “Our study found that adults who are naturally more active in the evening, what we called ‘eveningness,’ tended to perform better on cognitive tests than those who are ‘morning people.’ Rather than just being personal preferences, these chronotypes could impact our cognitive function,” says Dr. Raha West of the Department of Surgery and Cancer at Imperial College London. Off-the-clock creatives may also be some of the greatest visionaries. The music and art world, for example, provides plenty of examples of late-night genius: Bob Dylan famously did his best songwriting at night. Carl Jung, Franz Kafka, Prince, and Picasso were also often hard at work after dark. Likewise, Fiona Apple has described herself as being nocturnal,