Ever felt like that there aren’t enough hours in a day to get everything done?
I used to feel the same away a little over a year ago, until I decided to make a very important change in my life. I started waking up early.
I now wake up at 4:00 a.m every day, and I can say that I’m at least 10x more productive then when I used to work late nights.
As an entrepreneur, your day fills up fast. If you wait till the afternoon or evening to do something, then you’re likely to push it altogether.
For the longest time my solution was to catch up by working late nights. I thought I was being productive, but as it turned out, I was just lying to myself.
Research suggests the longer you stay awake, the cognitive performance of your brain goes down. So in theory, you’re less productive than you’re in the morning.
So I decided to test this out.
I started reading up some life hacking blogs to see how I can wake up earlier. Instead of waking up at 7 or 8, I decided to get up at 6 a.m. Then slowly worked my way up to 4 a.m.
Tapping into the power of mornings allow you to increase your productivity because there are less distractions.
My wife is asleep, my dogs are asleep, most folks on this side of the world are asleep, my twitter is not buzzing, basically I have no distractions. On top of that, my brain is fresh. Add a cup of coffee, and I’m like a hyperloop high-speed train that Elon Musk wants to build.
By the time when most people are getting to work (9 a.m), I’m basically done with my work day. Since I can dedicate 5 hours straight without any distractions, I usually finish 8+ hours of work. Because I’m laser focused. I also have a lot more will power in the morning.
Being so productive in the morning also sets a positive tone for the rest of my day. I feel like I accomplish a lot more, and it allows me to keep my daytime schedule very flexible. Not to mention stay ahead of the game all the time.
If you’re a night owl, I highly recommend that you try waking up early. It will be hard at first, but you can build this habit slowly. Sleep is very important for your body. When switching your schedule, don’t forget to adjust the time you go to bed, so you can get enough sleep.
Waking up early is by far the best time management tip I ever received. Aside from waking up early, writing things down also helps with productivity.
Man… I have no problem staying up late working, and I need to test this out. Thanks for sharing.
Although I really like to wake up early too, I’ve not been successful in doing this yet.
By the way, I wrote a blog post about you and the Vijolom school story in my Persian blog: http://panevis.ir/?p=757
Thank you Vahid.
HI Syed,
I have been doing this for long time and also recommends this to my friends. I inherited this habit from my father who wake up early and go to his farm for the work.
when I can not complete a work at night, if I wake up early and thing then I find a better solution. Brian works very fast in the morning time. If anyone who suffering from time management, very well try wakes up in the morning. You can feel the difference.
Thanks,
Krishna Srinivasan
Wow.. That’s so early!
I’m not a morning person, but I think it’s just a matter of habit so I might try this too.
Thanks for sharing!
Yes David it will be well worth it. I used to say that I’m not a morning person either, but its all about habit.
Great tip Syed! I will give this a shot. I work 9-5 for an ecommerce retailer, when I get home i find it hard to get motivated to work on my freelance projects. Thanks for the tip.
Hi Syed! thanks for sharing this awesome tip. I’m wondering, since I use to work late nights, at what time should I go to sleep in order to wake up that early? Because it’s not easy as you mentioned.
Thanks again for your help!
– JGB! Neat Design
Hey JGB,
Sleeping early is a key as well. Most people that I know tend to stay up fairly late. Making a drastic change can be unhealthy and is not a long term solution. I recommend you starting out in small increments. For example if you normally wake up at 10 a.m and go to sleep around 2 a.m … You push it down to going to sleep at midnight and waking up at 8. Then slowly work your way down. For example go to bed at 11 and wake up at 7. That is full 8 hours. I realize that when I consistently get good night sleeps (i.e don’t use my phone right before bed, don’t watch tv, etc)… I tend to get much better deep sleep. Thus I can function very well with 6 – 6.5 hour of sleep.
So when I go to bed at 10 a.m … I can easily wake up 4 or 4:30. But its important to know that you can go to bed at 10 and wake up 6. Then slowly work your way to 5 or whatever else you feel comfortable with.
I might need to give this a try. I really seem to have a problem working when I first wake up through. For whatever reason, all of my creative juices flow after being awake for a couple hours.
For instance, I woke up around 11:30PM and now beginning to work on my next content piece at 1:30AM. I’ll stay awake for 5 more hours then catch a 3 hour nap. When I wake up from that, I’m usually babysitting or writing an article on the iPad while taking the kid to the park or whatever.
My sleep schedule is impossible for someone with a day job. Haha
Scott, thanks for leaving a comment.
I notice this happens with me when I don’t get enough sleep the night before. The key to waking up early is to making sure that you have a good night sleep. If you don’t, then your brain is tired thus it is slower to get moving fast. Whereas if you wake up fresh, take a shower and visualize everything you need to get done (write it down on the board)… then I noticed I tend to work like a rocket fire.
I did try this for a while, but only as early as six, but it definitely helped.
Am keen to give it another shot as when I work in the evenings I am twice as slow as during the day.
I hate getting up early though and struggle to not go back to sleep once my alarm goes off.
You just have to keep on pushing Joe. I know in the beginning it sucks to get up that early, but you gotta push yourself to build a habit. Reward yourself for getting up early and add positive triggers.
Thanks Syed.
Today I’m on day two of 5am starts. Those extra 90 minutes in the morning are my most productive of the day!
I’m still working on trying to get to bed early enough though, when I do I will start getting up at 4am.
You are so right!! I am so much more productive at 5 in the morning than even 1030 at night. Also, if I stay in bed past 6:30, it is harder for me to get moving.
Thanks for this…it validated what I know to be true.
Hey,
Thanks for this article Syed. I was just thinking about waking up early. Now you made me do that.
And yes, if someone wants to wake up early he should have to go to bed earlier. Will definitely try this out from today
Shahzad
Good post I’m gone to test
I’ve been waking up around 5:00 AM for most of my life and I find I am most productive in the morning. Thanks for writing these helpful articles.