I’ve been trying to wake up at 7am recently. All my life I’ve struggled with waking early – my default is 10.30am, even when I was working for others. Damn, it’s hard.
I’ve read a shitload of articles about how waking up early is great for you, awesome for productivity, changes your life, blah blah. I’ve also read an equal shitload of articles saying you should follow your natural rhythm, and how late sleepers are more intelligent than others, and it doesn’t matter what time you wake up.
I call bullshit. Unless you don’t have to interact with people on a daily basis, waking up early is key to living a high-performance life.
A couple weeks ago, I had to wake up at a brutal 7am on a public holiday, to go down to Klang to have breakfast with my parents and grandma. (yes, early risers, go ahead and judge me for saying 7am is brutal). Anyway that was the kicker for me – I accomplished so much during that day that I knew that to move forward in life, I’d have to break this habit of mine.
My old habit involved waking at 10.30am, brunch at 11.30am, starting work at 1pm, dinner at 8pm, more work from 9.30pm till 12am before returning home. That makes up a productive 9-10 hour workday, but at what cost?
- My work day starts at 1pm, which is lunch time for others, so actual collaboration/correspondence starts at 2pm, and ends at 6pm for most people. A four-hour-window per day is never good.
- I come home after midnight – as a newlywed, you can imagine how much my wife loves it. So if I decide to come home early to spend time with her, that comes at the cost of half my work day. Not good either.
So I’ve decided to really kick the habit for good and wake up at 7am.
Damn, it’s hard.
My first week, I succeeded half the time. Second week, 1/3 the time. This is my third week trying, so let’s hope I do better.
I’m also trying to build a new morning regiment altogether:
7.00am: Wake
7.15am: Guitar practice and/or light run with the dog
7.45am: Shower
8.00am: Breakfast,
8.30am: Leave for office
9.00am: Start work
The above seems to be pretty normal for most office workers… I honestly don’t know how you guys do it every day. Well I guess I’ll just have to sleep by midnight every day then. Irony, seeing as how I’m writing this at 1.30am.
Goodnight then.
