The early bird gets sleep deprivation
Pressing snooze on “rise and grind” culture
How many times have you read that waking up early increases the quality of your workflow?
“The early bird gets the worm,” as the classic saying goes. Successful entrepreneurs across the globe say that having a 5 a.m. wake up call is what makes or breaks their day. Being awake before sunrise is the golden key.
Rise and grind… I guess.
I’m not saying all of the “Ten Steps to Success” authors are wrong. I just see a flaw in their logic. Maybe it’s small, but that flaw helped me restructure my entire workday.
My passion had started feeling too much like a means to an end, but now I find enjoyment in it once again. Believe it or not, I’m actually excited to sit down at my computer each day.
See, the thing that people are missing is that it isn’t about the time the alarm is set. The routine that follows is what really matters. It’s the time spent exercising, it’s the daily meditation, it’s the healthy breakfast they eat before starting the day.
I understand that for some locked in the corporate world there is little flexibility outside of the nine-to-five timetable. But the world is changing (especially in 2020), and more jobs are becoming remote positions. The gig industry is booming amongst Millennials and Gen-Z. The traditional workday is being restructured.
Now more than ever, it’s important to have a daily routine that suits your needs. I have never been a morning person. I never felt able to contribute to early meetings. I didn’t even feel like I was awake until a couple of hours into the workday.
I was awake early, but I definitely wasn’t productive.
Working from home, I tried to stick to the 8 a.m. start time. I would walk to my desk, rubbing my eyes and yawning. By 5 p.m., I never felt as if I had done enough. I didn’t even start writing until noon. How did I let the day slip away from me?
How was I ever going to be successful if I continued doing this?
I was so tired. Every single day, that’s all I felt.
Tired.
So I changed things up. I started waking up later, around 9:30 or 10 a.m. The difference in energy was astonishing. I actually felt ready to leave the bed rather than dragging myself out.
I drank my coffee before starting work. I would sit down and check the news, maybe read a chapter from my book, or sometimes I would just sit there and let myself think. These peaceful mornings continue to bring me more inspiration than anything else ever has.
I would make sure my space is clean and ask myself if I felt ready to begin. By then, the answer was almost always yes.
I would work later into the evening, until about 7 or 8 p.m. The best part was, I ended pretty much all of my days feeling accomplished. As the weeks went by, I could see my writing become exponentially better. And to top it off, I was a lot happier.
If you want to increase the quality of your workflow, create a daily routine that makes you feel confident. You don’t have to wake up early, you just have to take care of yourself.
Now go get some rest.
