Does Getting up Early Make you More Successful?
You shouldn't depend just on waking up early in order to become more successful; obviously there are a lot of other factors to it.
However, there has been proven benefits to waking up early verse starting your day later.
After transitioning into this lifestyle of waking up early, here are the benefits I found improved my day and work life.
1. You always have the time to exercise
Working a 9 - 5 job, its hard to find the motivation after work to drag yourself to the gym; you are fighting daily commute traffic, you might be thinking of dinner instead of your workout, plus the gym is always crowded after work.
Getting up early gives you the option to make exercising the first activity of your day.
It‘s all about creating that mindset and motivation to get going once you wake up.
The hardest part is jumping out of your warm bed and driving to the gym.
But what are the benefits:
- An empty gym space
- Your metabolism is burning your direct fat source instead of food from your day
- You can go home after work feeling accomplished and having more time with your family
- You start your day feeling more energized and focused
- You got one of the hardest parts of your day out of the way, now everything else seems easy
2. You can get home earlier
Some people have flexible hours or work remote, meaning they create their own schedule. With this lifestyle, it can be tempting to sleep in and go to work at a later time, feeling all refreshed, but you also reap the consequences.
You have to stay late at work:/ Picture this!
You start working at 7 am instead of 9 or 10, meaning you get off around 3?! You have your entire day to check other things off your to-do list, you have more time to explore, no daily commute traffic, the world just got a little better.
3. Create a healthier morning routine
Waking up early gives you something many people seem to lack during the work week… time.
You have extra time to enjoy your morning, so how are you going to fill it?
You could take time to be with yourself, meditate or do morning yoga and connect spiritually. You have time to properly prepare yourself for the day; hair, makeup, get a full breakfast, etc.
If you start your day with the mindset of feeling rushed, you will feel that your entire day. If you start your day feeling prepared and ready, it sets the tone for your workday and sets you up for more success.
4. You are more productive in the morning
I understand this can differ amongst people, but most of the time, by starting your day early you feel more productive and ready to work versus in the late afternoon.
If you are able to start work early, that means less people, less interruptions.
No calls, time to check your emails, no texts or updates on social media. Just time for yourself to catch up.
So where do you start??
You want to become an early riser, but it’s not an easy transition for most people and takes some practice and discipline to get your body use to it.
Here are a few things that worked for me:
- Set your alarms on your phone or clock and place it out of the room away from your reach. That way, you have to get up to turn it off.
- Start slow. If the goal is to wake up at 5:00 a.m and you are use to waking up at 8:00 a.m, set your alarm for 7:30 at first and slowly wake up earlier and earlier until you reach your goal.
- Count to 5 and get out of bed. Most of us wake up, but don‘t have the motivation to actually get out of bed, or fall back asleep. Instead, when you hear your alarm focus on counting to 5, once you hit 5 jump out of bed. This allows you to distract yourself from focusing on how your bed feels, instead count and get up.
- The first thing you should do when you are on your feet, is go to the bathroom and wet your face. Cold water helps wake up your body and sends alerts to your nerves, transitioning them from sleeping to waking up.
- This tip is easy, but hard at the same time. Since you are getting up earlier your body needs at least 8 hours of sleep to fully recover, so you can’t go to bed at the same time you are use to.
Getting up early sounds hard and almost impossible for some, but that’s because of your mindset. It’s time to change that.
Stop saying it’s impossible, and start your baby steps to waking up earlier and taking advantage of all the benefits that come with it.
The best thing you can do is test out waking up early for at least a week to a month and see how you like it.
See what more you can accomplish, how your body feels and looks and what work you are able to get done verse sleeping in.
CNBC put together a list of what times some of the most successful people wake up and start their day. Take a look:
1. Bill McNabb, Chairman of the Vanguard Group, wakes up around 5 and gets to his desk by 6:15 a.m.
2. Bob Ferguson, Attorney General of Washington State, wakes at 5 a.m. to make breakfast for his family
3. Brad Feld, Venture Capitalist at the Foundry Group, rises anywhere between 5:30 and 9 a.m. to ‘watch the day openup’
4. Caroline Burckle, U.S. Olympic bronze medalist, rises at 5:30 to work out — without an alarm
5. Mellody Hobson, President of Ariel Investments, rises at 4 a.m. to exercise and take a bath
6. Melody McCloskey, founder and CEO of StyleSeat, trained herself to get up at 5:45 a.m.
7. Scott Adams, creator of “Dilbert,” wakes at 4 a.m. to be his ‘smartest’
