Waking up early before the competition

/ Uncategorized

The 5:00am wake up

If you study most successful people throughout history then you will notice that they tend to get up at a very early time.  Sometimes as early as 4:00am!  The main reasons for this are:

  • They love what they do
  • A head start over the competition
  • Gain more hours in the day for productive tasks
  • Allows for less distractions

We tend to love our sleep and it can seem quite a daunting task trying to wake up so

early, especially when we have such busy lives which requires MAXIMUM rest.  Here are 3 simple tips on how I get up at 5:00am everyday.

1.  Your “why”

This seems obvious but think about it, what is the real reason you want to start waking up at such an early time?  Without a motivating reason it will be a nearly impossible task to do.  So start figuring out some REAL motivating reasons why you want to wake up so early.  CEO of Starbucks Howard Schultz reported that he wakes up at 4:30am every day.  His motivating reason WHY is because he adds a few more working hours to his day which allows him to get an advantage over the competition.

If billion dollar CEO’s need a reason to get up then so do you! So make life easier for yourself and have one.

2.  Before bed

You might find this hard to believe but your evening habits can have a major impact on how early you get up. Luckily there are ways to combat this:

    • About an hour before you go to bed start to ‘wind’ down.  That means limited access to electronics like phones and laptops.
    • Experts say that blue light (which comes from LED’S) can mimic sunlight and trick our bodies into thinking it is day time, therefore affecting our sleeping patterns.  Apps such as Flux can reduce blue light and help you sleep better.
    • One way (most effective) is to set a cut off time for using your phone
      before bed.  I recommend around 1 hour before bed.  This allows you enough time to settle into bed before falling asleep.  Reading a book will assist in getting you sleepy, and will help distract you from your phone.
    • NO CAFFEINE IN THE AFTERNOON-  Everyone loves a coffee in the morning but don’t be tempted to carry the habit right through into the afternoon.  Caffeine seriously disrupts sleeping patterns

3. Apps

In this day and age there are about a thousand different apps for millions of different tasks.  Getting up early is no exception, there are hundreds of different apps that can assist you in getting up early but we recommend one.

Alarmy.

Alarmy is a game changer and is one of your most useful tools in getting up  early.  This fantastic app can allow users choose how they wish to turn off their alarm by either solving a maths problem, shaking your phone, scanning a bar code or taking a picture of something .  It forces you to get up and move which is what makes it so effective.  Honestly if you are serious about getting up earlier then this app is a MUST.

These are a few tips that I use for getting up earlier.  I now get up around 5:00am most days before my alarm, which is something I thought I would never be able to do.

My main takeaway from these tips would be to really focus on why you want to get up so early.  I personally like to do it as it gives me more time in the day to go to the gym and work on my work.  You need to find out your own WHY and make sure it is strong enough to get you up during those cold winter mornings.  Trust me I still struggle through these myself!

Thanks.

Conor