Throughout my teen years, I used to stay up all night coding. I always had new ideas that I wanted to try and it seemed like the time was never enough, so I would often go to sleep early in the morning.
Once I started working though, that was hardly sustainable. You need at least 7 hours of sleep per night.
So in September of 2018, I tried something different. Rather than going to sleep at 3 AM, struggling to wake up the next morning, and being always late at work, I started going to bed at 9 PM and waking up at 4 AM every morning.
I liked it so much that since then, aside from the occasional break, I haven’t stopped. Let me tell you about it!
The benefits of waking up early
Here are the reasons I keep waking up early after almost 3 years:
- The flow. In the morning the flow is so much more intense than late at night. I now often get 4 hours of straight uninterrupted work in the morning before I even have breakfast! At the end of a work day, you will inevitably be tired and sleepy, no matter how excited you are about what you are doing. In the morning you are fresh. By waking up this early you make sure that the BEST hours of your day are being put where it matters, and not on commuting or any other secondary activity.
- The silence. Everyone is sleeping. Your friends: in bed. Instagram notifications? none. On the streets outside: nobody. Loud neighbors? nope! 😌
- The mood. It’s crucial that you work on the things that most excite you in the morning. You’ll start the day in a great mood and it’ll give you momentum for the rest of the day. It’s nice to wake up excited every morning! Imagine if you didn’t wake up thinking about catching the subway in 20 minutes 😅.
- Finally, the productivity. I find that I often do 3 times as much work during the early morning hours as the rest of the day… 🤷♂️
The difficulties of waking up early
- Going to bed early. Yep, you gotta. It might not work for you if you’re into going out often.
- Hard to start. The first few days you’re doing it you’ll feel extra tired by the end of the day. But after 3 or 4 days it goes away and you just get used to your new routine! If you make it through these first days, you’re there!
- Easy to break. If you go to sleep too late for a few days in a row you’ll build up too much sleep debt and you won’t manage to wake up. Once you sleep in, it’s really really easy to break the routine!
Why wake up so early?
Well to get more time for the things you want to do, of course! Whether that’s building some enterprise, making more money, having more fun, learning more, doesn’t matter!
Are you already doing it? Will you do it? Let me know!
That’s all folks
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