Noah Kagan's 5AM Challenge & How It's Changing The Way I Work

First, thanks Noah Kagan for producing your amazing podcast. I appreciate you dude.

                                                                              I love mornings?

So, recently I took Noah up on his 5am challenge. If you’re not familiar with Noah or his awesomeness check out THIS POST and THIS POST and THE CHALLENGE

It’s a pretty simple challenge. Essentially get up early and get shit done. I’m on Day 3 of the 5 Day Challenge and I’ve already been loving the results. I want to take you guys through the 5 day with me, as well as through my continuing take aways and lessons with a 5am wake up time!

So here we go..

Day 3 Progress:

1. I’ve increased my productivity.
   I’ve gotten so much done in the past 3 days. Tasks that I normally put off “until tomorrow” because I’m so tired after work I now take care of before most people are even awake. Not even taking how gratifying that is into account, I’ve just downright been active. I’ve done tasks like
   -Writing content for Steemit
   -Researching leads for freelance work
   -Finish a Khan Academy course (HTML & CSS Basics -SO glad I’m learning this skill)
   -Creating content for clients  (knocking out blog posts and scheduling content)
   -Editing more photos
   -Organizing my work space (this task has greatly streamlined my work process)
   -Batching email responses
   And that’s just to name a few!
   
   
2. I’m starting the day with WINS
   Now, I start my day with a 10 minute stretch and making my bed. Simple but SO powerful. Tim Ferriss has spoken about this extensively. Starting my day with these little practices has really helped me to enter my work with focus and clarity. I’m hoping to really beef up these wins/habits as I move forward.
   
   
3. I’m more specific in my work
   One thing that’s really helped me use this new block of time effectively is to-do lists, and this idea is taken straight from Noah Kagan. Before I started this challenge I would have this giant list of tasks and ideas swimming around in my head when I sat down to work and would jump around from task to task accomplishing NOTHING. Now I have a very strict to-do list that I prepare the night before and it’s really changed the way I operate. I’m doing tasks that actually matter and not getting sidetracked by distracting, albeit interesting, articles or other content. I’ll create a separate post specifically about specificity (haha I couldn’t resist) and how much it can increase productivity, at least in my experience.
   
   

Goals Going Forward:

1. Get a 5am Buddy
   I need an accountability buddy who I can establish consequences with to keep me on track. I’m famous for jumping head first into things and then slowly drifting away from them. I don’t want that to happen with this practice, so if you know anyone who would like to wake up early or if you would like to join me in my productivity practice let’s talk!
   
   
2. Implement more self awareness practice into my mornings
   I used to meditate every morning (one of those head first, drift away practices) and I miss it. I want to implement either meditation, journaling or some form of self awareness practice into my morning. Maybe multiple practices. I think that can help to set my day up for success as well as really make me a kinder and more understanding person. 

More updates coming soon.