4:30am is Top league
What does it mean to you?
For a long time I was going late to the bed and could not ever get up early.
It all started with a chase
I remember, when I was young (already makes me feel old) my personal chase was to be a graphic designer. I wanted to go to a design school, but my parents felt I should either choose medicine or engineering.
I did neither and ended up studying mathematics in university. Not that I loved it, but I did not hate it as well. I was quite good with numbers (not that fetched you gold medals in school), but good.
So the chase to the design school ended before it started.
I did not like the combination — Mathematics graduate, trying to become a graphic designer. I stood no chance of even getting a decent interview.
I did not lose faith — the chase was on. After hounding some friends (in ad agencies), I got my first interview at a small time agency in Chennai, India.
I knew, something worked and gave that job everything I had. Things sucked as I started learning to design on my own, watching other designers. It was cool, I liked it and continued doing so.
Ad agency life can be hard work. Late nights, sometimes no sleep for 48 hrs straight. I remember there were only a few colleagues at work who could boast of this. And I was one of them — this was a different league.
And so started a chain of late night work and still getting up in time for work the next morning. And this style has followed me all these years.
And I could see this was not fun. We can only do so much in 24 hours. And the less we sleep, the less productive we become. I found this a few years back.
And the process to reverse engineer this lifestyle kicked in. I wanted to go to bed early and get up early.
I pushed forward the sleeping clock by 2 hours and it has helped me get up at 5:30am. The aim is still to get into the 5am slot. Getting early only means that you need a better sleep pattern, otherwise it will not last for long.
But it has helped changed a habit. I admire the people who wake up at 4:30am (or 4am as my mum does).
Why is this important — because playing catchup is a never ending game. In the long run what gets neglected is your own health.
We have time for everything, except taking care of our health.
The early mornings will get you one thing for sure.
A headstart
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