Rise and Shine: How Waking Up Early Supercharged My Productivity

Wake up one hour earlier and do the thing that you keep saying you’ll do.

Do the thing that you don’t have enough time for.

Do the think you are too tired to get the motivation to do at the end of the day.

I started adjusting my morning routine after hearing an author speak about how she woke up one hour earlier to write her book, which ended up taking her a year. That was the only time she had to herself, as she was juggling a family, a job and other responsibilities. I know a year sounds like a long time, but she wrote an entire book! So I thought I would try it. After all, I was procrastinating on some creative things I wanted to do because I would be tired at the end of the day, or would have plans on the weekend, or would be traveling or getting ready to travel so I would push it off. I’m all about experimenting so I wanted to see if waking up an hour earlier would be a productive use of time.

I started focusing on my writing in that first hour, and wrote more in two weeks than I had written in two years. I had taken notes here and there over time, so I had the topics, but somehow never got around to writing full sentences let alone paragraphs. Once I dedicated this new time to writing, although at times I was tired, it was effortless. Some mornings, the hour went by so fast that I wanted to spend more time, but I knew I had the time the next day to continue.

When I had less to write about, I switched to reading the news and researching topics that I had been meaning to do on the weekends. Don’t get me wrong, I have time. My entire week isn’t booked up with activities and obligations. But I still wasn’t managing to find that focused time because social things and events and just being tired would distract me, or just plain old procrastination. In the morning, there are much less distractions.

By waking up an hour earlier, I created dedicated time to be creative. For me, that works in the mornings. For you, that could work after a cup of coffee, or your power hour could be from 8-9 pm, and that’s okay. But by 8 am my creative juices are flowing and I have a sense of accomplishment to then continue the momentum to tackle the rest of my day.

#routine #productivity #creativity #writing