Have you ever wondered how waking up at 4 am feels like? if not, it's about time you actually do.
Just a few months ago, I had no idea how it felt. I had this habit of always hitting the snooze button or pretending not to hear the loud and annoying alarm.
Then one day I decide to wake up and I was able to hit the gym, do a little bit of coding and go to work on time. That's when it dawned to me and I realized what I've been missing out on. I did that for a week (5 days) and the things I was able to achieve (learn new programming concepts) in a day were pretty amazing.
I'm not alone in this. You find yourself setting the alarm the previous night only to hit the snooze button and feel sorry for yourself the rest of the day. The interesting bit is that you don't go to bed till 4 am chilling with Netflix.
Take a stand and decide you ain't gonna be a whiner and awaken the beast inside you. Try to wake up early before the rest of the world and see the magic of how productive you could be.
Not everybody can be a morning person but if it fails on your side at least adjust your schedule to get on or off your bed by reducing the amount of time spent sleeping. If 4, 5 or 6 am is too much to handle, restructure the pattern to probably sleeping late and waking up later in the day. Regardless of the choice you make (no one cares what time you do it), it's very important you get enough sleep (at least 6.5 hours) to avoid constant burnouts. So get to know your body, have a plan and create that time accordingly.
If you want to be proficient in that language you love then create the time you need. If you want to build and deploy that app so badly with your busy schedule then time is what you need. Take responsibility for your life and think about what you can achieve in those 2 to 3 extra hours. In case you claim you don't have enough time during the day, what are you doing to create more time? think about it, no one was given more than 24 hours in a day including yourself. It's only a matter of sacrifice to get more time.
We all have equal opportunities, the difference is how we get to utilize and act on them.
You have a plan tomorrow, something to achieve, someone to love, something significant to look forward to? then get up early or create extra time in whichever way you see fit!!!.
Everybody has problems, so deal with it. Do you want to have a feel of that freedom? Stop complaining and have a little bit of discipline. The sad truth is that if you do what is easy, your life will most probably be hard, but if you do the hard stuff, you have a chance of having an easy life.
Your future simply depends on what you do TODAY!!, so make it count.
Ask yourself what I heard someone asking, "What are you missing out for sleeping in? Everything. What are you gaining for sleeping in? Nothing. What are you giving up by sleeping in? Everything. What are you accomplishing by sleeping in? Nothing."
Just for one day, challenge yourself by creating extra hours IF YOU CAN at any time you desire. I'm NOT saying you sleep for 2 hours, that's a death sentence. Do that for a week (5 days) even if it's just an hour, and you're going to have something special.
Patterns of repetition govern each day, week, year, and lifetime. 'Personal habits' is one term we use to describe the most common of these repeated patterns. But I say these habits are sacred because they give deliberate structure to our lives. Structure gives us a sense of security. And that sense of security is the ground of meaning (Robert Fulghum).
Again, regardless of the pattern you choose, keep in mind that sleep is important. Have just the right amount of sleep since the best bridge between despair and hope is a good night’s sleep
And just as a reminder, someone great said, "Excuses sound best to the person that's making 'em up!"
Latest comments (46)
Nice read🤩
Dear Author, i'd like to see you taking care of little children, for example - mine. I have 3 kids. One, the oldest one does whatever he can to stay up late. He prefers to go to bed after midnight. Some time ago I tried to "fix" his go to bed schedule at about 8pm, it caused him to wake up around 1am. I gave up after two weeks, he was fine, but I was like a zombie.
Another kid prefers going to bed at 8pm and wakes up at 6am. Totally opposite of the first one.
Another one, the hardest case, has no fixed schedule and goes to sleep whenever she wants, and wakes up after 3-6h to fetch something to eat, of course waking her parents. Sometimes she goes back to sleep, but not always.
I'd really enjoy watching how you maintain your routine with them. I think that just one child, except for the middle, will be enough to break your routine. I guarantee that after just few days having alarm clock at 4am you'd experience real hell on earth due to lack of sleep.
Man, I go to sleep at 6:30 am usually...
Don't forget the other added bonus of getting up early. The network and servers are hardly busy--more productivity baby!
Today was the third day in a row that I got up around 4am. I'm a notoriously early riser anyway, but we had something starting at 7am in NYC and I live in the PNW, so there you go. Of course by 4pm I'm pretty fried.
Wake up earlier, by going to sleep earlier, and having the same amount of time in a day!
Blergh.
Anyone claiming that you should wake up early is claiming bullshit and understand nothing about sleep.
If you interrupt your sleep, you'll be sleep deprived, period.
If you do it on a long period, you'll have health issues (increased risks of heart diseases and cancer, among others).
DO. NOT. DO. THAT.
You can also go to bed early. It's not one sided. I find I don't sleep as well in the summer when it's light from 5am to 10pm, so I installed black-out shades in my bedroom--dark, quiet, cool. My wife calls it my tomb, but it works for me.
Read a bit more here, and even more in the book twitter.com/brianluidog/status/114...
TL;DR; If you are a morning person, try it. If you are not a morning person, let it be.
The day has 24h: 8h work, 8,5h sleep (if everything goes well) and 7,5h for everything else. So I gain nothing from getting up early and instead I would deprivate me of some sleep because I already have trouble getting to bed at about 22:30.
I am just not a morning person. Wake up, get fresh, go to work, don‘t talk to me the first 90 min after getting out of bed.
Hitting the gym in the morning? 🥴🤔😖
I prefer it after work. Then my head is free. No more obligations today. „Me-Time“!
Learning to code in a new language? Try new stuff? If your employer values you, you could do that at work. Maybe not full time, but at least experimenting should be in it for you.
If I am not on a tight deadline, I made it a habit to always try something new. Not the Bazillion-th same Asp.Net Web-Forms Website, but ASP.NET MVC or now I changed to .Net Core trying SignalR and Azure WebApps, Functions ... the Full Monty.
Please don't spread the info that 6.5 hours are sufficient. If you sleep only that much for a week, that's like skipping one entire night of sleep. People do it all the time but it's killing you. 8 hours is the optimum for an adult human.
Source
7-8h on average, but depends on your genes, for some people 6.5h can be enough, but it's true it's definitely not for most people :)
It's interesting how this limit is lowering down with the advance of the technology. 20-30 years ago 8 hours of sleep were minimal recommended duration, recently I've started seeing that 7 hours are enough. And now it's 6.5 hours? :/
Too lazy to find sources but 6.5 hours are not enough if you want to rest properly.
Also, I know that everyone is different, but it really doesn't matter if you get up at 4 am or 7 am if you organize your day well.
It's still 8 hours, nothing changed.
I know :D Just saying' that there is a lot of people advocating less sleep.
I did that for years and years.
Waking up at 4 AM.
To be at the factory at 5 AM.
And then put stuff on a conveyor belt during 10 hours.
What an accomplishment !
Well it sucks.
"The power of dying at 40".
You need to sleep to be healthy, I don't think that "accomplishing things" is a goal in life, it doesn't make your day worthier.
Enjoy life, and if it means waking up at 10 AM (lucky you, I have kids now, not for me anymore before several years ;)) then good for you !
Kind of important to note that sleep is very important. Our body needs it to recover. Our brain needs it as well. If you want to wake up at 5am, sure. But make sure you go to sleep early as well. Telling someone to wake up early, but not change their evening schedule, is bad.
If you dont get enough sleep, you'll actually achieve less during those hours that you're awake. Sleep is important. Sleep enough ;)
Amazing! I'm waking up 5 am for about 3 weeks now and the difference is great. I can read my emails, learn new stuff and come even earlier in the office. I'd recommend this practice for everyone (everyone who can wake up on that time, by the way).
From the perspective of human brain activity and application of patterned thinking,
Waking up at 3:30, enables one to build admirable and super-productive, healthy and just empowering morning routine.
Manage yourself, not time.
Besides, deepwork (Cal Newport) fits in very nicely, especially reading of comprehensive literature, for brain is not busy with anything - your entire focus is on the book's contents.
Thanks for writing, Bolton!
Thanks for the feedback @fosteman .
Nice read. Personally, I established the habit to get up at 5:00 AM and dedicate at least one hour to learn/read in the morning during the last year. While establishing this habit I tracked it using GitHub and made at least one commit every day. (you can read more about it here: medium.com/@rieckpil/30-minutes-ev...)
I can recommend to never reduce the time spent sleeping and rather adjust your schedule to get to bed at 9 - 10pm. Read this excellent book about sleep first if you are more interested: rieckpil.de/p/why-we-sleep
Your comment has an important point that the author is missing in my opinion: Adjusting the schedule to get up early is the key and not to reduce the time you spend sleeping!
Very important because most people jump right into getting up early and try to keep it up until it becomes a habit and then they find themselves constantly tired, burned out, caffeine addicted.
@darksmile92 Thanks for your comment. I also agree with @rieckpil on the point of adjusting your schedule appropriately to meet your needs. I apologize for missing out on that important aspect.
You can still edit the article to clarify that bit ;)
@boltc0rt3z don't apologize, this is the perfect environment to start discussions and come to new conclusions! :)
One cannot always cover all facets of a topic.
As @waterlink said, you can edit your article anytime, if you like to.