Day 63: Waking Up Early... The No Bullshit Guide to Being a Better Person...

To put it mildly, I used to be a late riser. I mentioned in a previous blog that one of the reasons I used to be late in the past was from oversleeping. The only times I ever woke up early were when I absolutely had to like when I had to catch an early flight, which was rare. By rare I mean once every three years… The rest of the time it was a snooze-a-rama infuriating anyone who had to sleep in the same room with me…  Even when I had to get up early, I’d wake up at the very last minute, scamper around the house to get ready, rush out in disarray, and barely make it in time. On my regular days, most of the time I was 5-10 minutes late; in the most extreme cases I would be 30 minutes or even an hour late. On a work day, my sleeping time would be maybe 4-6 hours and my time to get up would be a precise calculation of how long it took to drive to work, plus an 11 minute shower and three minutes to get out the door… I lived a life mathematically on the edge of tardiness. During the weekend, I would sleep somewhere between 9 – 10 hours and then stay up sometimes all night and really fuck up my sleep schedule so that Sunday night was spent worrying about not getting any sleep to face the day... You know exactly what I mean, laying there doing the math all night… “Well, 4 hours is enough, toss, turn, toss, turn, well three hours is enough, toss, turn, toss, turn, oh fuck two hours isn’t enough…”

I never once thought to wake up early as a habit. Why would you wake up early? I could not understand why people would want to do that. If I ever met someone who was an early riser by choice, I would look at them in bewilderment. People who got up early had no lives was my primary thought… I mean, how could you go to bed at 10:00 o’clock at night when that is when I was just getting started? Fuck the bar didn’t even get properly rowdy until 11:00 so why would I be sleeping? I saw waking up early as an act of self-deprivation, ludicrous, unnecessary... If I can sleep in late, why not just let myself rest rather than be forced to wake up at a certain fixed time? It felt like borderline masochism to me. While I am not adverse to masochism in the right context, this wasn’t one of those times…

Then, injury forced into the chair for almost 8 months and I got curious about self help books… All my life I had avoided these texts for the simple reason that I was raised in a culture where men didn’t need help… Isn’t that odd, how we grow up in a culture that surmises that whatever the men teach you and the women reinforce must be the right way and anyone who deviates from the norm is wildly and soundly denounced as dangerous and incorrect… Sitting there devouring dozens of books, I came across testimonials in favor of waking up early. Overwhelming numbers of testimonials, in fact, from different places. In fact, ALL of them had advice promoting the habit of waking up early and even proclaimed that waking up early as the single best habit one can ever develop (along with meditation). So then I did some Googling and I came cross interviews with very successful people who mentioned that they wake up early (like 5am) and how it has helped them become much more effective.

The first time I read that, I thought it was just specific to that person. Of course Bill Gates got up early…The light didn’t come on yet, but I think I was reaching for the switch at this point… The second time, it piqued my curiosity. The third, forth, fifth, sixth time…… it was clear that there was a trend. It seems that there is a connection between waking up early and success.

Now as a lifelong procrastinator and guru of sleeping as late as possible, I could have just brushed this off and say, “Nah, waking up early doesn’t work for me. I’m not a morning type of person because I work better at night.” Or, “It’s just all in the mind, you can be really productive any time you want to be...” However, just looking at my life and the results of sleeping in showed clearly that I was Thoroughly Wrong… Being tired all day from staying up late, sleeping in late and being late all the time wasn’t productive… I was too tired after work to get anything done, and with no time in the morning and consistently running behind all day, I wasn’t doing myself any good at all…

But I knew that until I really test this out for an extended period and give this my best shot, I couldn’t conclude anything. I had to try to know for sure. Just because my previous attempts to wake up early failed miserably didn’t mean anything and it certainly doesn’t mean that waking up early doesn’t work. Those attempts were always done without a serious intent anyway, which largely explained their failure.

A little side note before we go on…

A half hearted attempt at something means either you don’t want it anyway or you actually don’t want it to work at all to justify your own beliefs… If you are truly curious about anything, you will suspend disbelief and give it your best shot and if you are wrong you should admit it, even if you don’t utilize it, you can still admit that you are wrong… Don’t be a dick about things… You can say, I don’t get up early because I don’t want to without denouncing everyone who does…

On we go…

So you know the story, one of my 90 Day Life Change Challenge goals is to wake up early at 0500. I figured that if it worked, I’d cultivate an incredible habit that would aid me tremendously. If it didn’t, I could just discard it and return to waking late after the 90 days elapsed.

It wasn’t easy. I realized that waking up early is so difficult for many because it’s a holistic lifestyle change that goes beyond just changing your waking time. In the beginning, I failed quite a few times, rising at 0545 or even as late as 0600 a couple of times, but I never stopped setting my alarm for 0500.. I kept getting push back from myself and gradually over the expanse of a month, the habit began to form and the failures were fewer and then something really fucking weird happened… I started waking up a few minutes before the alarm… My bed time became 10:00 and sleep came easily within 15 – 20 minutes… This was unprecedented in my life… 55 years of being tired, being late and procrastination became early morning writing, exercise and showing up at work 5 to 10 minutes early… Organization skills increased, brain fog is never an issue anymore and my waking hours became shockingly productive… What I thought was going to be the hardest part of this 90 Day Challenge, became the cornerstone of its construct… There is no success without rising early in my life now. I became a morning person which is like saying that Dracula can become a day person…

In the ever present style of motivational writing here are some really good reasons to start waking up early… 

1. You Get a Head Start on Everything…

It’s like my life became this race to success and we all lined up and every morning I jump the gun and the judge never notices… I’m off and running way before he pulls the trigger so I am winning the race easily every day now… 

Of course, it can be argued that this is very subjective and entirely in my mind. It doesn’t mean that waking up early will guarantee an increased productivity nor does it mean that waking up late will lead to reduced productivity.

True and true. However, I believe that this psychological effect of having a head start has more far-reaching effects than people give it credit for. I’ve experienced it myself, not to mention that being a late riser often results in late sleeping and reduced sleep as you catch up on the work you missed out on because you were late, tired and disorganized..

2. A Serious Increase in Productivity…

My efficiency soars now that I wake up early. Simply a benefit that comes from getting a head start… I feel motivated to continue my lead, resulting in getting more things done and tasks getting completed faster. When I used to wake up late, I spent more time getting the same stuff done. I find this the oddest part of this whole idea… Say on a Saturday I get up at 0500 and spend the day doing my Life Change Challenge, chores around the house, shopping for the week, cooking for the week and spending time with my wife and daughter… I spend the day relaxed and get everything done with time to spare in the evening to chill out with my guitar…  I think it’s very much linked to reason #1 on getting a head start, which puts you in the right frame of mind to get big tasks done quickly. Now if I take the same Saturday and wake up at 0900 or even 1000 I spent the day doing the same things at a frantic pace, always pressed for time, always struggling…This difference is clear if you’re someone who has your to-do lists mapped out for the day. It’s something you have to try to know what I’m talking about, but 8 hours working from 0500 to 1300 is much different than 8 hours spent working from 1000 to 1800… Clearly different…

3. Morning Creates the Perfect Environment to Work Due to the Peace and Quietness of Solitude

Have you ever complained about not having any time to yourself? Ever felt like you never got to be you? All of us have struggled to get things done because the world invades our minds and takes our time away and usually it doesn’t have any reservations about doing it… I have the solution… Get up before the world gets up… I get up every day at 0500 regardless of the weekend or what time I went to bed. When I get up the world is quiet and I have at least two to two and half hours of complete solitude. If I do outside yoga, it’s just me, my yoga and some birds.. I exercise, blog, listen to music and relax with myself. I recommend this beautiful experience to everyone.  

4. Discipline, Commitment and Self Mastery

Waking up early is about self-mastery. As I mentioned above, there were many reasons that would prevent my waking early plans in the past. Reasons like working late, being out late, delaying my exercise till late at night, being on the phone… these reasons were a result of my lack of self-mastery. To wake up early, I had to learn to have a hold over these activities, which would mean becoming more organized and disciplined. Self mastery is commitment and commitment over time becomes discipline… Gaining control over your time is essential…

5. Again, You Have to Hear Me Talk About Exercise…

I’m gonna bet that you don’t exercise in the morning and always plan it in the evening... Does this exercise arrangement happen according to plan or does it sometimes get rescheduled or even cancelled due to last minute changes? Happily I would like to inform you that doing it first thing in the morning doesn’t get rescheduled because nothing is in the way… Waking up early gives you time to exercise in the morning. There’s nothing like a great workout to boost your day… To top it all off, you come home from an evening workout and eat, which leads to the couch, which leads to slower metabolism which leads to… Yeah, countering your exercise… Morning workouts lead to breakfast (unless you are fasting, which is even better…) and then activity which burns your food more efficiently… 

6. Finally, You Get the Privilege of Watching the World Wake up… 

I love my morning where I literally see the whole city wake up before me. I finish my exercise at about 0630 in the morning when the sky is dark and there are few people on the streets and few cars on the road. I witness the whole place coming alive. The human traffic increases as I watch people start their morning walks and the traffic becomes heavier, steadily. The sky starts to light up in different shades, first dark blue, then in gradients of purple, red, orange, and yellow, before long, sunlight starts to envelop the whole sky and the world takes on a very serene color. It’s a very beautiful experience. It’s amazing being an observer to the whole scene. I like to write as the sun comes up; it sets the tone for creativity… 

So listen… Get up early for a while… Not just a couple times and give up, let your body and mind adjust to it and you will see that the quiet, serene, dark world is a beautiful place… You can rest, heal and think before you have to be a dad, or a mom, or take on the title of your job… At 0500 in the morning, I am just bob (with a little “b” because I choose that…) and I can just quietly be alone with myself… It has been a long time coming, but I like me now, and I don’t have to be anything but that guy I like when it’s early in the morning…

Have an intentional rest of the day… See you tomorrow…

The 90 Day Life Change Challenge Update…  Sunday morning and the exercise was light, the requirements are few… It’s a day of rest with some squats and a yoga session… Isn’t that how everyone rests?

Love you like chimps love to sling their own shit…