How waking up way too early increased my productivity 🌅
Own your morning. Elevate your life
— Robin Sharma
I’m not a morning person. My morning routine last year was hitting the snooze button one too many times and having to sprint for the bus. Needless to say, I value my sleep 😴.
Then I learned about the 5 am club. For those who don’t know, the 5 am club is a concept started by Robin Sharma where you wake up at 5 am every morning (yes, that includes weekends) and do a 20 minute workout, plan your day for 20 minutes, and study for 20 minutes. I know, it sounds horrible.
But shockingly (or not), it optimized my mornings. From increasing my self-control to helping me manage my time, the benefits were incredible and I can’t wait to tell you all about them.
Okay but first, how do you survive waking up at 5 am.
Get Enough Sleep
Getting enough quality sleep at the right times can help protect your mental health, physical health, quality of life, and safety. It’s clearly very important.
When I first started waking up at 5 am, I wasn’t going to sleep any earlier. The first 3 days I did the 5 am club for, I felt really tired. That was because I was only getting 5 hours of sleep (not good🤷). I was convinced that the 5 am club wasn’t going to work for me when I was sabotaging myself the whole time.
Once I realized what I was doing wrong, I started going to sleep at 9:30 pm. As a 15 year old, I should be getting 8–10 hours of sleep. When I started getting enough sleep, I immediately felt the effect. I woke up at 5 am feeling normal and I wasn’t feeling asleep throughout the day. It was great!
Win the battle of the bed. Put mind over mattress. Join the 5 am club. Dreams get done when you’re awake!
— Robin Sharma
Naturally, changing my sleep habits took a lot of effort. I was used to jolting awake to a blaring alarm that disrupted my deep sleep. After snoozing that alarm a minimum of 5 times, I would drag myself out of bed, get ready for school, then realize I was about to miss my bus which would result in me skipping breakfast and sprinting to the bus stop. I know… it wasn’t great…
The 5 am club is the exact opposite. Using an app to track my sleep, I can wake up more comfortably. Then, with an extra hour of time in the mornings, I’m not only able to eat breakfast, I even have time to finish my work! I felt more awake going to school as well. Before the 5 am club, I would be tired all the way through my first period class (8:20–9:25). Now, since I’ve done my morning workout, I’m energized and ready to learn going into school.
JUST DO IT
Waking up at 5 am isn’t easy by any means. When I first tried the 5 am club, I found myself making excuses to snooze my alarm. I would do the 5 am club for 2 days and then cave into my warm bed. I was literally ruining any chances I had of succeeding in the 5 am club. The 🗝️ is consistency. I was complaining to people around me that my circadian rhythm wasn’t changing but I wasn’t even giving it a chance to do so.
Once I can to the realization that my method wasn’t working, it took a boatload of willpower to change it. However, once I took the leap to wake up at 5 am every single day for a week, it got a lot easier over time. With enough sleep, waking up at 5 am is no different from waking up at 7 am!
Absolutely Nobody Else Is Awake
Nobody else is awake (lucky them…). That means that there are absolutely no distractions. You can just forget about Instagram, all your unread emails, and any other work. It feels like the world just pauses for a while and you can just focus on yourself.
5 am is the time of least distraction, highest human glory, and greatest peace
— Robin Sharma
I used to say that my brain wasn’t “awake” in the mornings (fine, I’ll admit that was an excuse). But I’ve actually found that I’m more productive in the mornings than I ever was at night. This is because of the lack of distractions. When nobody else is even close to waking up, you can get stuff done without worrying about what’s going on everywhere else. It’s a shockingly peaceful and productive time.
Tips on doing the 5 am club
- Keep a glass of water at the opposite side of the room to drink in the mornings
- Use a sleep tracker to wake you up at the right times
- Don’t go back to sleep after waking up
Takeaways
- Get enough quality sleep at the right times
- Consistency is crucial. Maintain a sleep schedule that works for you.
- BE PRODUCTIVE IN THE MORNINGS
