Why I Wake Up at 6 AM
It’s early in the morning. The birds and squirrels are just waking up. From the corner of my bedroom comes the soothing sounds of harps from my iPhone to wake my ass up and get me out of bed. And, I must tell you, I love it. It feels great to be the first one up in the house — I’m up even before my dog.
But it wasn’t always like this. Not too long ago I was dreading the sound of my alarm and hitting snooze one, two, sometimes three times before getting myself out of bed. For most of my adult life, wake up time was around 8 AM. It was blasphemous for me to wake up at a time that began with a 7. But that’s all changed for me in the last six months or so.
Why I Made the Switch
I made the switch from being a night owl to a morning person because I was getting frustrated that I wasn’t getting enough done each day. I was upset with myself for “running out of time” to workout. I was getting annoyed that my to-do list never seemed to dwindle. And I was just tired of being in a bit of funk due to these issues. It was too easy to look up at the clock, see it’s 4 PM and say, “Oh well, I definitely don’t have time today to workout, read or make that phone call.”
In addition, one of the reasons I quit my corporate job and started working for myself was because I wanted the freedom to set my own schedule. Part of setting my schedule includes a bit of leisure time each night . For me, this means shutting off my working brain around 9 PM each night . Well, when I was waking up at 8 AM and going to bed close to 1 AM, that meant I would have 3 to 4 hours each night of downtime. AKA time to go down internet rabbit holes, play video games or watch TV. I don’t have to tell you that 3 to 4 hours of that every night is overkill — especially when I wasn’t getting the work done that I wanted to get done.
I still try and shut down around 9 PM on weeknights (although that’s been creeping up to around 10 PM lately), but now instead of staying up to 1 AM, I’m in bed by 11 at the latest, 10:30 if things are perfect. A solid 60–90 minutes of downtime each night is more than enough for me to relax, reset and get ready for another day.
Back in late 2015, I read a book that would change my life — but not for another 16 months. That book is The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod. In his book, Hal espoused the virtues of waking up early and having a morning routine before the real meat of the day started bringing you distractions, fires to put out and emails to respond to. I read the book, put his ideas to practice for a couple of weeks before falling off the wagon and going back to my old ways of sleeping in and being a bum in the mornings. However, while vacationing in Mexico over Christmas in 2016, I made the decision that I was going to give the morning routine another shot, but this time I would stick with it!
And here I am, some 6+ months later, with a 95%+ success rate. How have I been so successful this time versus my last attempt? Let’s dig into it.
The Switch
Like a lot of things in life, making the switch was easier said than done. One day I sat down and had a serious heart-to-heart with myself. The result from that conversation was that I was going to set my alarm for 6 AM the next day and get my ass out of bed when the alarm went off. Day one was a success. Then I did two days in a row. Then three, then four, then before you know it I had waken up at 6 AM for four weeks straight. Go me!
Besides, the serious conversation I held with myself, there were a few other things that set me up for success.
But before we go there, let me share my morning routine:
- 6:00 AM — Wake up. Bathroom, weigh myself and get dressed.
- 6:15 AM — Head out the door to go on a 1.2-mile walk with the pooch.
- 6:50 AM — Back at home. Change into my workout clothes and begin working out.
- 7:30 AM — Sit down for breakfast and a cup of coffee. In addition to changing my wake up time this year, I also went full bore on Tim Ferriss’ Slow Carb Diet. I may be weird, but my breakfast every weekday this year has been lentils, two eggs and sautéed spinach with garlic. While I eat breakfast, I read a “personal development” book. I’m using that term very loosely here. The books I read are books that help me expand my thinking — biographies of successful business people, sales books as well as actual personal development books (such as The Obstacle is the Way).
- 8:10 AM — Into the shower I go.
- 8:30 AM — Dressed and ready for the day. At this point, I pour myself a second cup of coffee and respond to emails, confirm appointments and generally get myself prepared for a successful day.
- 9 AM — I’m either out the door headed to a meeting or off to the office to work.
I know some of you are looking at this and going, “That’s 3 hours of your day. Every single day.” And my response is, “Yup!”. That’s because I made the conscious decision that this was important to me. By creating time for myself each morning, I can ensure three things get done each day, no matter what: I sweat, I learn, and I fuel my body. Instead of lounging on the couch at night, I have replaced that time with something much more fulfilling and better for me. The sense of accomplishment I feel every day at 9 AM gives me the fuel that’s needed to attack the day and want to repeat it again the next morning.
How to Make the Switch As Easy As Possible
I make it a point to do as much prep work as possible the night before to remove any barriers to success. One of the things I’ve learned over the last few months is that if I have to think or figure out what I’m doing, I’ll give up and either go back to bed or get none of my routine accomplished. My willpower is extremely low at 6 AM. Here are some of the ways I prep the night before:
- I set my workout clothes out and choose what workout I will do the night before.
- On Sunday, I prep my breakfast for the week to streamline the process as much as possible. I also have my coffee pot ready to go so I only need to turn it on to get caffeinated.
- I put my phone charger on the other side of the room, so I have to physically get out of bed to turn it off. Getting out of bed makes it much harder for me to say to myself, “oh just 15 more minutes of sleep”.
By doing as much as possible the night before, I’ve already set up the dominos for success. All I have to do is get up and start knocking them down!
Recommendations for How to Make the Switch
I’ll be perfectly blunt here, the first morning you wake up two hours earlier than you’re used to will suck. There’s just no way around that. But I will tell you that each day it gets easier until one day it becomes your new normal. For me, that was roughly a week and a half. I also wake up no later than 8 AM on Saturday (my day to sleep in), and I set my alarm for 6:30 AM on Sundays. By not varying my wake-up times drastically, it helps my body get into a rhythm.
I’ve read a lot of advice that says start rolling your alarm forward by 15 minutes each week. I say phooey to that. Roll that bad boy forward to the time you want to get up — a little shock to your system and pattern breaking can never hurt to shake things up.
If you find yourself having a hard time getting up, do yourself a favor and download The Rock Clock. This app made by The Rock is pretty ridiculous, I’ll admit, but it is effective. The simple brilliance of this app is that there is no snooze button, removing the friction between attacking the day and crawling back into bed. Plus it doesn’t hurt that you can wake up to such calming sounds as an explosion or a chainsaw! (For some reason, the Android version is vastly superior to the iPhone one.)
Finally, if you are struggling to keep to your new schedule, I recommend finding an accountability buddy that will help you stick to it. This can take many forms, but the power of having accountability to others is not to be diminished. I’ve heard of everything from just a morning check in with a group to an automatic deduction from your bank account to an organization that you despise when you sleep-in to an automatically posted tweet that you have to disable each morning lest your deepest, darkest secrets are spilled out onto the internet.
More than anything though, it’s about being honest and accountable to yourself. It’s about having the willpower and the gumption to get your ass out of bed! I’ll let Marcus Aurelius sum it all up better than I ever could:
At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: “I am rising to do the work of a human being. What do I have to complain about, if I’m going to do what I was born for — the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?” — But it’s nicer here …
So were you born to feel “nice”? Instead of doing things and experiencing them? Don’t you see the plants, the birds, the ants and spiders and bees going about their individual tasks, putting the world in order, as best they can? And you’re not willing to do your job as a human being? Why aren’t you running to do what your nature demands? — But we have to sleep sometime… Agreed. But nature set a limit on that — as it did on eating and drinking. And you’re over the limit. You’ve had more than enough of that. But not of working. There’s still more of that to do.
Now that I’ve been waking up at 6 AM for some time, I absolutely love it. The peace and solitude that comes from waking up early is something I look forward to each and every day. However, now I’m contemplating moving the needle forward a little bit earlier and waking up at 5:45 AM to ensure I’m out the door on my morning dog walk at 6 AM, but my wife thinks I’m crazy. Do you?
I’d love to hear from you. What time do you wake up? Any routines or rituals that help you get through the day?
