Regimenting the Path to Becoming a “Morning Person”

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I’m usually one to enjoy personal challenges and achieving goals that I set for myself, even if I end up reverting back to my old ways or give up the pursued hobby once I reach a level of achievement. Hashtag humblebragz. But seriously, I become quite self-loathing if I can’t move towards things I want to achieve. And to this day, there has been only one personal goal that I’ve failed miserably at -

Becoming a Morning Warrior

I’ve always dreamt about getting up before the sunrise each day and slamming in a good 2-3 hours of productivity before typical working hours begin for the rest of the world. Especially as I’ve worked almost exclusively along my own schedule for my own work for the past several years (as a student, artist, and now entrepreneur), I know full well that my success is heavily determined by my quantity and quality committed.

After getting back from Korea last weekend, I was presented with the absolute golden opportunity. Severely jetlagged, I was finding myself wide-awake at 2 or 3 am each day. I used this as a launch pad into the week, which was a bit of a struggle due to the 3-day conference we at @sndbox was a part of, but was able to maintain a 4 or 5am wakeup each day. I’m even writing this post as I listen to Brooklyn hipsters make their way home after last call. And I feel greaaaaaat.

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There’s a number of key reasons why I’m so keen on maintaining this schedule -

1. A ceiling on productivity. It doesn’t matter if I’ve been awake for 7 or 12 hours, by the time it’s around 6:30pm and need to head home for dinner, I’m exhausted. This is a major mental block for me and most, as tiredness is very determined by the energy around a person. Thus, if an entire coworking space empties out at 6, I’m going to feel drained no matter how many hours I put into the work.

2. Mundane work. Any job, even an entrepreneurial one, is absolutely stacked with little email replies and an endless amount of similar need-to-dos. I hate dedicating time and energy to those while at the office, when I should be in full productivity mode. Getting up early and using the few extra hours to get that out of the way makes the trek to work much more exciting.

3. Quantity is a key factor. There’s a key saying in Korean when it comes to success - “A genius cannot beat out a hard worker, a hard worker cannot beat out someone who enjoys it.” This phrase is much more eloquent than the translation butchering I’m giving it now, but you get the point. I’m thinking about my work at all hours of the day anyway. Why not give that focus a few more hours of productive time?

I know may people have their different strategies when it comes to maximizing productivity. Some people don’t even sleep for several hours straight at all, focusing on 1-2 hour power naps throughout the day. I’m curious on your experiences, so let me know below! Steem on!