Enjoy the sunrise

“Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy wealthy and wise.”
- Benjamin Franklin

* Ring! * ah, !@$&%*(!!!!

I’ve always been terrible at waking up early. As soon as the alarm went off, I would hit the snooze button faster than I could think about hitting the snooze button. I hated waking up early, I felt too tired, too groggy. I had tried many times to become an early riser, only to fail every single time. As I mentioned in my previous posts, because I was a night owl, I always felt best after the sun went down. Being a night owl may not have been such a problem if my work schedule fit my natural sleep patterns, but I was expected to be in the office at 8am which made for an entertaining morning sprint out the door every single day!

Fortunately, I was able to overcome the night owl chronotype by studying and experimenting with various theories and creating an effective method of early rising. After many attempts and many failures, I was able to re-create myself as an early bird. I currently wake up at 5:00 am and since creating the habit, I have personally seen a marked decrease in procrastination and solid improvement in my punctuality. If that’s not enough to convince you to wake up, here are a few more gifts waking up early will award you with.

1. Enjoy the quiet morning serenity

I used to enjoy the quiet times late at night, but I feel that the quiet of the early morning also has much to offer. Absorb the serenity of the morning with its cool fresh air while most are still fast asleep. This is a great time to plan your day and set your goals. I set aside a corner of my bedroom where I have a small table and chair where I sit and write down my goals for the day. On days I’m feeling especially attentive, I will close my eyes and visualize how I will complete my goals. I haven’t built up much endurance with visualization, so I’m practicing it as much as I can.

2. A personal ‘Good Morning!’ from the sun

The beauty of nature is something to awe, and with each sunrise, we are greeted with a bright ‘good morning.’ Sunsets are equally beautiful, signifying the end of the day, a ‘good bye for now.’ While most of us are able to enjoy the sunset, far less people are able to take in the simple beauty of the sunrise. Wake up early and watch the sunrise, and claim it as your own! You can check the sunrise and sunset times of your local at the U.S. Navy Observatory website.

3. Exercise

My exercise routine used to start around 11:00pm, comeback around 12:00am and then shower and ready for bed. Obviously not great scheduling for a person who had to be at work at 8:00am. Since waking up early gives me time to exercise in the morning and gets my blood flowing, I start the day feeling good. I have also noticed that exercising in the morning will give you great energy throughout the day, and will help you sleep earlier and have better sleep quality. I currently alternate my exercise routine between cardiovascular training and weight training.

Side note: One thing that I have noticed is that if I start my run early (5:30-6:30am) the air is cool and crisp, but if I start my run after 6:30am, the air quality quickly diminishes as cars start to appear on the roads. This is because I run in a residential neighborhood and a LOT of exhaust is produced by cars not having reached their operating temperature. Since the car has just been started, the catalytic converter is not yet doing its job. I usually avoid running if it is after 6:30am.

4. Increased productivity

I have noticed a correlation between waking up early and increased productivity. Waking up early gives me time to set goals for the day before exercising and breakfast. After exercising and breakfast, I will usually use the time before work to read the news, write articles and tie up other loose ends. Because it is quiet in the morning, distractions are kept to a minimum and I am able to complete tasks much quicker than any other time of the day.

5. Starting the day with a good wholesome breakfast

Waking up late, I never had time to eat breakfast. Always rushing out the door, I was lucky enough to have a glass of water and possibly an unhealthy snack. When you’re pressed for time, I noticed that I usually ended up eating a lot unhealthier, making me sluggish till lunch time. But by waking up earlier, I now have ample time after exercise to make myself a wholesome breakfast. It is well documented that eating breakfast has many benefits and will help kick start your metabolism. Other benefits are increased concentration and strength. Check out the full benefits of breakfast. Just eating breakfast alone is a great reason to start your day early!

6. Shorter commute times

For people who have to commute in traffic, this should be THE reason to wake up early and head to work. Traffic has a funny way of working, and just 10 minutes earlier can make commute times much shorter. (YMMV) Save yourself the stress of commuting in traffic, and having to rush to work. You’ll feel much better and ready to start your work day.

7. Other areas start to improve

As I mentioned earlier, waking up early has contributed to many benefits including better punctuality and a big decrease in procrastination. I attribute these effects to the fact that I was able to improve my self discipline resulting in better self control and focus. These changes will make a big difference in helping you achieve your goals in life, all the while having more time for family, friends and hobbies.

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photo by tormods

5:00 am.

It hasn't been easy, but waking up early has been getting easier. There's still a long road ahead, and I'm ready for it.

I was extremely tired and felt very heavy waking up.  Knowing it was the 4th week of my project, I couldn’t help but wake up and bask in the glory.  A few changes in my strategy helped me wake up early and I was able to average earlier than the past 3 weeks.

I’ll have to sleep in tomorrow (Saturday) and sleep off my sleep debt I’ve accumulated during the week.

My goal isn’t to wake up early during the weekdays, accumulate sleep debt and have it haunt me on the weekends.  I will have to readjust my sleep schedule accordingly to keep me from sleep debt.  Although I will be ending my daily project progress posts, I’ll be refining my strategies and will post updates in the future.

Thank you for following my posts as I progressed though “Project Early Bird” my first step towards big change!

5:15 am.

I had a difficult time sleeping last night.

I slept around 11pm and then woke up around 12am and tossed and turned for about 15 min before I was able to sleep again.  I ate dinner late, around 8:45pm and ate till about 80% full.  I obviously made some bad decisions.  I slept late last night and the night before so I feel a bit tired.  I have to learn from my mistakes!

5:00 am.

I wasn’t get to bed till 11pm.

It was difficult to wake up and I thought about sleeping in a bit, but thought to myself ‘It’s only a temporary pain to wake up now, and I can take a short nap later if I’m still really tired.’

Well, I’m up and once the grogginess wore off, I was able to take advantage of the day.

5:00 am.

I have been definitely getting into the groove of waking up early and it’s not as difficult as it was during the first 3 weeks.  But I’m not going to be letting my guard down until I can consistently wake up early on autopilot.

Last night, I had dinner early which helped me get to sleep early.

Have a good day everyone!

5:30 am.

Good morning everyone, it’s a new week, another chance to get it right.

I took the time this weekend to analyze my early rising strategies and changed things that wasn’t working for me.  I hope to wake up earlier than 5:30 am this week on average.  Technically, since I’m only counting the weekdays (and started the project on a Tuesday), I’m on day 15.  But this is week 4, so I will work hard to finish up strong and work on consistency after this week.

I’ve just finished up the 3^rd week of Project Early Bird and I will be reflecting on my early rising strategies during the weekend to improve my rising times for week 4.

Although my rising times have been greatly improved, my goal of a consistent rising time of 5:00 am has yet to be achieved.

As expected, my week one performance was on average about 2 hours off my target of 5:00 am. I was able to wake up early consistently week 2, and I would be very happy if I am able to consistently keep the performance of week 2 up. Week 3 didn’t go so well, and my rising times suffered. I’ll have to further study how I can improve and make waking up earlier, easier than it has been the past week.

7:00 am.

Wait… I’m supposed to be getting closer to my goal, not getting further from it.

I’ve only hit 5:00 am one day this week and the rest was downhill.  Although I’ve made significant progress, I’m still quite a ways from my goal.

I’ll be doing some research on sleep and work on some strategies I can implement for the coming week. (Week 4)

6:15 am.

I’m still having some trouble getting up at 5:00 am.  I feel so heavy when trying to wake up, I just end up telling myself to sleep in a bit longer and get some more sleep.

Friday, let’s see what we got in store tomorrow.

5:15 am.

Felt slightly heavy waking up.

Stayed in bed for a while checking email before getting up to go to the gym.  Slept around 10:30pm.

Ate some chips before bed to kill craving. (Again, not the greatest thing to do, but just had to kill that craving)