No, Waking Up Earlier Won't Make You Successful

The early bird gets the worm, or so we think.

Over the last decade, the business world has inundated us with articles and advice about getting up early. Gurus claim it is the source of their success, and popular outlets glamourize any CEO who wakes up at 4 am.?

But it's largely bullshit.

Although waking up earlier?can?be your preference, it's largely uncorrelated with success. Waking up earlier has a more significant correlation with working low-paying, manual labor jobs.

But I digress.

There's been a 'hustle' culture promotion that has led many Americans to sleep deprivation. As Dr. Matthew Walker, Author of?Why We Sleep?puts it, "we have stigmatized sleep with the label of laziness." That is a problem. We are not only losing out on sleep but actively promoting against it.

"Human beings are the only species that deliberately deprive themselves of sleep for no apparent gain. Many people walk through their lives in an underslept state, not realizing it." - Dr. Matthew Walker.

The 'early bird gets the worm' needs some rewriting. But, "the early bird, who's adequately rested gets the worm," doesn't quite have the same ring to it.

We need adequate sleep (7+ hours) to be at our best. However, according to the CDC, one in three Americans is sleep-deprived, negatively affecting memory, reaction time, and cognitive function.

Not sleeping to wake up early and 'grind' is the definition of hustling backward.

We need to change how we talk about sleep, both outward and to ourselves. It is not lazy to sleep an adequate amount of time. It is what's needed to be a top-performer, period.

Changing Schedules and Focus

If you do want to wake early, great! But it should be noted that this means going to bed earlier.

But that's still missing the point. We don't need to change what time we wake up in the morning to be successful. We need to change what we do during the ~16 hours we're awake.

Still don't believe me??

There are?plenty of examples?of people today and throughout history who have been later risers and wildly successful. From Mark Zuckerberg waking up at 8 am or Winston Churchill not leaving bed until 11 am––you have to find what works for you.?

What does success look like with our family, relationships, and career? And how are we going to act today to achieve it?

I've found asking myself those questions to pay more dividends instead of beating myself up about waking 30 mins later.?