Changing this habit actually did increase my writing productivity
What do you know? All those early-morning advocates are actually right.
For various reasons, I’m currently taking a break from work. Living a life of leisure. Aside from my personal commitment to finish editing my novel, there are no fixed demands on my time. Before taking this break, I worked as a freelancer. I’ve had the luxury of deciding my own schedule for many years.
Until recently I made full use of it by sleeping in every day.
I’m the kind of person who finds it difficult to function on too little sleep. I’ve always gone for a more-is-better philosophy where sleep is concerned, allowing myself to slumber freely until I wake up naturally.
My flatmate — a hard-working biology student — would often attend several classes, return home and cook lunch before I had even emerged yawning from my room. She’s a darling, always saying “good morning” to me, regardless of the fact that it was technically afternoon.
A brief history of my lie-ins
To be honest, sleeping late has been a lifelong habit of mine. Brought up in a home-schooling household, I didn’t have a strict getting-up time as a kid. I’ve never had a steady 9–5 job (I’m sounding like a real hippy aren’t I?). Evening activities like band rehearsals or salsa drag on until the wee hours. Sleeping late seemed like a necessary habit to compensate.
I wasn’t unaware of the virtues of getting up early. I’d even done it myself a few times. Accompanying my younger brother on his paper round, it was nice to see the sunrise gradually brightening the empty streets of our neighbourhood. As a teenager I swam competitively, attending early morning training twice a week. The shock of a cool swimming pool, first thing in the morning refreshes you like nothing else.
It almost made up for the getting up early part.
But without these external nudges, my natural habit — or at least the one I’ve always reverted to — has been to doze until well-past dawn. And that’s despite having read countless articles about writing and productivity, all claiming that morning — preferably early morning — is the best time to be creative.
So what changed?
You’re probably expecting me to tell you about a Medium article I read that changed my life…
Sorry. Actually it was a Youtube video. And it wasn’t even about writing or creating. It was about Ayurveda. Dr Marc Halpern stresses the importance of waking up at a regular time each day to achieve balance as a Vata-Kapha type.
The topic itself isn’t relevant here, but one of the things he said really stuck with me.
“You may say — ‘oh [getting up early] is not possible for me, given my circumstances.’ And I understand, it’s difficult sometimes, and yet… until you’re able to develop some steadiness, you can’t expect to get back into balance.”
There it is in black and white.
Until you stop making excuses and actually do what is recommended to help you, things won’t improve.
It was like a lightbulb moment for me. I started thinking about an idea that I’d never seriously considered before. What if I started getting up early and writing first thing in the morning?
Well, it wouldn’t hurt to try.
And what do you know, it actually worked!
It wasn’t even difficult. Perhaps it was because I had set my intention for what I would do when I woke up. From the very first day, I arose ready and raring to go, diving into my writing, completing my target wordcount in record time and enjoying a wonderfully smug feeling for the rest of the day. Next day repeat. And the next.
I’m still going and have no plans to go back to lie-ins.
As long as I make sure to go to bed early enough and thereby get enough sleep, it’s easy to wake up at a set time because my body has found a routine. I’ve been sleeping far better, and it’s a lot easier to go to bed at a reasonable time when I know I only have until 8am to sleep.
What’s that you say?
8am isn’t very early to be waking up?
Well I’m a partially cured snoozer, but you can’t expect miracles. 😉
Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear your thoughts. Have you ever experimented with changing your sleeping habits? What effect did it have on your productivity?
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