How to Become an Early Riser – Starting Your Day at 5am

If you ask somebody as to what are the main reasons they are not pursuing some of the things they want to do, the answer is often the same: “there is just not enough time in the day.”

There’s certainly a limited number of hours in the day, but you can’t help but notice that some people just manage to get done so much accomplished with their time while others seem to never be able to catch up with themselves. Considering that we’re all working with the same 24 hours in the day, something else must be going on.

I recently found myself in the latter camp of people – the ones that are constantly trying to catch up with themselves. With all of the demands of work, much of the time was spent simply reacting to whatever was thrown at me. This was not particularly productive or efficient.

Moreover, I’ve put together a number of goals that I wanted to accomplish this year and beyond, but quickly realized that under the current circumstances, they were not likely to realize themselves unless a serious adjustment was made in the daily routine. The choices essentially varied from either “quit the job” (to free up the time) or change the schedule. I decided to try the latter.

Making the Switch

As many others working in a startup environment, I’ve gotten used to the “go to sleep late, wake up late” routine. After all, most people don’t even get to the office until 11ish because they likely stayed up late last night doing work. Unfortunately, by the time you get started, half the day is already gone and by the time you finish, it’s already too late to really do anything else productive – personally or professionally.

While reading up about different scheduling routines, I’ve come across a guy that was writing about an adjustment that he’s made a few years back when he started waking up at 4.30am every day. I’ve always thought that it was an interesting idea and heard people swear by it, but I generally liked sleep too much to actually pursue it.

This time was different, however. There was a clear fork in the road where one direction meant getting the goals accomplished, while the other meant… sleep. A few years down the line, it’d be a shame to look back at what you accomplished and see “got more sleep” at the top of the list.

August Challenge

I’ve decided to start the month off with a new routine of waking up at 5am, instead of the typical 8.30ish. To do this successfully, it was important to have a clear vision for what was going to be done with the extra time in the morning.

After looking at my personal goals for the year, there were a couple of them in particular that seemed like a good fit for the early mornings. These specific goals were:

- get more exercise and stay in shape,
- read at least 26 books per year (1 every 2 weeks),
- start writing on the blog at least twice per week;
- improve productivity and focus with work.

After reviewing them, I saw down and put together a rough outline of how the first 5 hours of the morning would be spent. It looks something like this:

5.00am – Wake up and stretch.
5.20am – Go for a 40 minute run (or other form of exercise).
6.00am – Shower, get ready.
6.25am – Write on the blog.
7.15am – Get breakfast and read.
8.00am – Plan out the day
8.20am – Do one major task – Personal or Work-related – before heading to the office.
9.45am – Head to work

As a result, by the time I get to work at 10am, I was able to complete several of my personal targets and handle one major work-related priority. The best part is that I also feel refreshed and have a clear vision for how the rest of the day will play out, which makes it much easier to deal with whatever gets thrown at you at the office.

8 Tips on How to Wake Up Earlier

Adjusting your schedule to start waking up 3+ hours earlier isn’t always easy. However, the following strategies definitely helped me to make the switch. It will help you as well.

- Have a very clear plan on what you want to do in the morning. It’s only worth waking this early if you have something very specific that you want to accomplish during the extra hours. It will help you stay motivated and productive. I’ve put together a specific plan on what I want to do from 5am until 9.45am (when I start heading to work), broken down in almost 30 minute intervals. You can certainly adjust it as you go along, but do have a plan to start.

- Have pleasurable and rewarding activities built in. While this is supposed to be a productive time, there is nothing wrong with adding some pleasurable activities in the middle. For me, it’s the opportunity to do some relaxing reading and have the time to go and get a good, delicious breakfast at a local cafe. Previously, I had time for neither and always regretted it. Now, this gives me something to look forward to when the alarm rings.

- Don’t let yourself slip. We are all too familiar with the little voice in the back of our heads that tries to convince us to sleep in for another 10 minutes after the alarm rings. After all, it’s only 10 minutes – we’ll still have plenty of time when we get up. Just don’t. Don’t negotiate with yourself. Get up, go to the bathroom to wash up, drink something – and within 5 minutes you won’t want to go back to sleep.

- Plan to go to sleep earlier. Waking up at 5am isn’t going to be terribly productive if you continue to go to sleep at 12-1am. Unless you’re one of the few rare people that can function perfectly well with 4-5 hours of sleep, it won’t do you much good if you’re feeling tired and sleepy the rest of the day. While the sleeping needs vary for all people, you do need to make an adjustment and go to sleep earlier. This is probably the hardest part as it oftentimes involves changing plans with other people, who aren’t on the same schedule as you.

- Make a bet with somebody else to keep yourself straight. The day I decided to do this, I went ahead and made a bet with a couple of my close friends. I told them that I’ll be able to do this for at least 26 days out of the first month – or otherwise, I’ll lose a chunk of money to them. This adds a big personal motivator as every time you don’t wake up on time, you have a risk of losing cash… and even more importantly, losing face with the friends. For me, this becomes a whole new challenge once I let other people know about it.

- Do something good for yourself. As some of the most productive time of the day, this is the perfect opportunity to get some exercise in. Doing so will set the tone for the rest of the day, make you feel amazing, and will definitely be a good use of your time. If the weather is good, do something outside. If not, go to the gym – most of them open pretty early too.

- Enjoy the start of the new day. Seeing a new day begin and observing the sunrise is probably one of the biggest perks and luxuries of the new routine. Not only it’s really amazing to be able to see the world awake for a new day, but it also makes you feel very privileged to be one of the few to see it. I make the point of writing for the blog in the morning while sitting outside on the porch. Absolutely worth it!

- Eat breakfast. This may seem insignificant, but as a result of waking up early, you can actually have time to eat a decent, unrushed breakfast. Do it at home, go to a cafe – but sit down for 30 minutes and take your time. It’s such a nice change from just grabbing something from the fridge or from elsewhere and just munching it down on the run.

Good luck!