More and more independent creatives and conventional workers alike are adding and early wake-up as a necessary habit for productivity. Since the start of the year, I’ve adopted the practice myself, mainly for going to the gym and even catching up on household recreation (read, watch tv, etc.) that most people do at night.
An article on Medium expands upon the virtues of waking up early. The author Matt Donovan (@mattdonovan) showcases the process of his installing this habit, and what it’s already earned him.
Building this habit was hard work. I knew from the start I couldn’t do it on my own. There are different ways to achieve accountability. There are services like Beeminder (and a host of others) that will charge you money if you don’t meet your goals.
Funny enough, I’m not going to simply say “everyone must wake up early.” You gotta do what’s best for you. But I will recommend testing the approach if you’ve never done so before. Most of us were night owls in high school or college, but as adulthood arrives (ha!) our physiology changes. It becomes harder and harder to stay up all night and be productive — to say nothing of a society that requires us to work on their an early-riser schedule.
To that end, here’s a video from the Happiness At Work Conference 2017 where Camilla Kring outlines how to succeed in business if you’re not a morning person — which most of us aren’t. Definitely worth a look.
In recent years, I’ve come to reject “the cult of 5:00am,” but can still see the merit in doing something before the world gets going full speed.
Do you wake up early?
When are you most productive? Do you wake up early or stay up late? Something in between? Leave a comment to contribute.
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