The Early Bird
November 3rd, 2006
Throughout my life, I never would have considered myself a morning person. When I was enrolled in college, many a day would pass that saw me finally emerge from my room close to the dinner hour - just in time to pretty myself up, and get ready for another evening of rabble rousing. I dreaded waking up in the morning, and the only time I ever got up pre-6 AM was if I was headed to the mountain.
As an adult, I have grown to love the mornings. I find that my days are filled with distractions - some self imposed, most external. When I worked in an office, most distractions came from coworkers. Now that I am working from home, my family has filled that role nicely. Between taking the kids to school, playing with them upon their return, and helping my wife with daily tasks, I lose hours of productivity each day. I found myself staying up later at night in an effort to make up for lost productivity. But those hours at the end of the day were tough to work through and remain focused on the task at hand.
Approximately two years ago, I decided that the only way for me to “do the needful” and maintain a meaningful personal life was to start my day earlier. So I set about creating a plan to get my ass in to work earlier. After some trial and error, I discovered the best way to accomplish it was in baby steps.
So I started off by setting my alarm clock 15 minutes earlier than I used to. Anybody can wake up 15 minutes earlier - it doesn’t take much will power. After a week of waking at the earlier time, I set my alarm clock 15 minutes earlier yet again. Continue for another week, and repeat. After the course of a couple of months, I was able to start my day almost three hours earlier than I had previously. Instead of starting my work day at 8 o’clock, I was consistently beginning at 5 AM.
Most other people start their day a few hours later, so I was able to create three hours of distraction-free work. Typically, I use the time to pour through some email and RSS reading (about an hour), and then I use the other two hours to jump into any outstanding projects I may be working on. That way, by the time everyblody else’s day has begun, I know that I have some productivity under my belt.
Another benefit - by waking so early it is damn near impossible to stay up later than 9 or 10 o’clock. I have found that by going to sleep earlier, I watch a lot less television. That should be enough of an incentive to give it a shot. While I don’t know if there is a direct correlation between early rising and success, it makes me feel more productive, and thus puts me in a successful mindset.
Give it a shot, and let me know how it works out for you.
November 3rd, 2006 at 10:04 am
I’ve tried/practiced the exact same thing a few times!
For me it works for a while… but then comes the project/travel/whatnot that breaks the habit and it’s once again hard to get back to the rhythm.
Besides working at odd hours, one of the (self-evident) tricks I personally use is to not open the IM and email clients at all.
These kind of things really seem to have a lot to with rhythm. Hmm…
November 3rd, 2006 at 10:39 am
I drink way too much every night to even think about waking up early.
November 3rd, 2006 at 11:04 am
Jimmy: Drinking at night will definitely make it harder to get out of bed. Maybe you should start drinking earlier?
Tommi: I have definitely slipped on and off the schedule over the last couple of years - typically because of travel. The key for me has been to get back into the groove as quickly as possible upon the end of traveling. Like many things in life, the longer you wait to get it going, the harder it is to do.
November 3rd, 2006 at 1:22 pm
It is really nice to get in early. I’ve been trying to get to the gym around 6:30 to swim laps. After that I head to the office and eat breakfast at my desk. Starting early also means hitting the sack early. Usually I find it hard to fall asleep as I want to work, but when I wake up so early, I just pass out around 10 or so.
November 4th, 2006 at 12:35 pm
I’m going to give it a go. Why not?
I’m starting to enter that “teenager again” phase where I sleep in (on my days away from work) until I wake up. It’s poor, I know.
November 14th, 2006 at 5:47 pm
Funny I had the same sleep habits but now that I am older I wake up really easily and really early (mostly on the weekends) because I want my time to last.
I guess I am trying to make sure I live every minute. Funny how your priorities change the older you get!
Thanks for the great content.
November 17th, 2006 at 8:44 pm
For about 20 years I ran on a 25 hour day. I would stay awake one hour later every day. Then I got married to a ‘10pm’ to bed clock nazi. Being a person who only needs 6 hrs of sleep a night - this meant I would wake up at 4am with little to do but work. The quiet time at 4-7am was a breath of fresh air. I could work and get my quite time fix too.
I’ve mellowed at bit on the 4am stuff, but am still at the office most days by 5:30am (especially if I am in a conference build). I find all my email, postings, reading, and even accounting work goes twice as fast. I get more done from 5:30 to 9am than I do almost the entire rest of the day. It is around 9 that I turn on the phones and let the random noise interfere with production.
> television
What is this television you speak of?
November 22nd, 2006 at 10:58 pm
Great advice Greg. Funny how getting older makes getting up earlier so much easier. I’ve been getting up between 3:30 and 4am just about every day for the last 4 years with no alarm.
Unfortunately most of that found time is lost on the freeways of Los Angeles, but that is coming to an end very soon. I can’t wait to get my time back.