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The Benefits Of Getting Up Early In The Morning

“Learning to use mornings well is, in our distracted world, what separates achievement from madness.”

I came across this book and after reading it i was inspired to get up early and change my sleep patterns.
What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast – http://goo.gl/eB8ig

Feel free to read it, but it basically says they all get up around 5-6am. I’m going to explain why and and give you more reasons below:

I’ll take you through my new thinking flow chart and then explain why.

1. Get to sleep early –> 2. Get up Early –> 3. Get Fitter –> 4. Get Healthier –> Leads to being more productive and living a better life.

1. Most adults need 8 hours sleep. If you want to get up at 5 or 6, that means getting to bed at 9-10pm. Simple.

2. After you have mastered step 1, step 2 becomes harder. Who has the motivation to get up early while its still freezing and the sun has yet to rise?

  • You have more control of your schedule in the morning.
    • When work hours start, other peoples priorities invade your own. “You can’t write in your journal quietly at 8.15 on preschool mornings, but you can at 6:15.
  • You are more productive in the morning. Later in the day you are more easily distracted and less focused.

3. If your serious about getting fitter, you will have to do it in the mornings.

  • Phone calls at work get pushed to the afternoon, you have to work back. There’s always a good reason that 5pm gym workout before dinner at home is going to get skipped. If you do it in the morning, you can do it every morning without fail, nothing will get in the way or stop you.
  • Research suggests that will power and self-discipline are easier while the day is still young as will power and self-discipline drains slowly over your day. If your going to start a new routine and stick at it, you’ll need all the discipline and will power you can muster.
    “You have one energy resource that is used for all kinds of acts for self-control. That includes not just resisting food temptations, but also controlling your thought processes, controlling your emotions, all forms of impulse control and trying to perform well at your jobs or other tasks. Even more surprisingly, it is used for decision making, so when you make choices you are (temporarily) using up some of what you need for self-control. Hard thinking, like logical reasoning, also uses it.”
    “After a day of dealing with traffic and frustrating bosses that will power of yours is all used up. Self control and will power fails late into the night. Alcohol abuse, sexual misbehaviour, gaming excesses ett all tend to come about late in the day.”  – 
    Willpower: Rediscovering the greatest human strength – John Tierney”
  • It has also been noted that once you are disciplined and form habits, you actually require less willpower as they become automatic processes.“Ultimately, self -control lets you relax because it removes stress and enables you to conserve willpower for the [more] important challenges.”

4. Getting healthier is somewhat different to fitness.

Plenty to say on this but 3 quick tips.

  • Ban the sugar
  • Eat lots of fruit and vegetables.
  • Eat more smaller meals. Try six meals a day, it keeps the metabolism pumping and you burn more calories.
What my new morning routine looks like now:
  • 5:45am – Get up – Find something to listen too. Music/sermon etc
  • 6:00 – 20 minutes of cardio on stationary bike.
  • 6.20 – Pushups/Skipping till im smashed.
  • 6.30 – Rest, then 3 minutes of rowing.
  • 6.35 – weights
  • 6.45 – breakfast + coffee
  • 6.55 – Shower
  • 7:10 – Bible Reading, Praying and other readings.
  • 8:00 – Go over todo list and smash some out. Reflect on todays events.
  • 8:55 – Head To Work
  • 9:00 – Day Job
  • 10:00pm – Sleep.

What does your early mornings look like?

  • Interesting idea. Not sure if it will work for me. I can work well into the wee small hours, but getting up in the morning I’m always tired, no matter how much sleep I had before or if I went to bed early.

    Nick Andrew

    July 18, 2012

  • It takes a while to break out of the stay up late, get up early routine. But once your there, you’ll get a lot more done in the morning that you would at night, you should give it a go :)

    Ardorpes

    July 18, 2012

  • An interesting post for sure!!

    I guess it’s difficult for me to decide on this because I’m not full-time working, but I prefer doing my exercise later at night, because it helps me get a good sleep, fight temptation at night time, and just think about life while there’s not heaps of others around etc.

    That said, it was an awesome point that others impinge on your lifestyle once you’re doing stuff at normal rising time…that’s just a reality, and a true one to point out!

    On the flip side, at the moment I go to bed late and get up early, because that’s what you can do during uni times!

    Joyously in Him,

    Faf

    Faf Driscoll

    July 19, 2012

  • Definitely some good thoughts! I enjoy mornings, and so am generally up for mornings anyway. But I definitely challenged in how I spend that time in the mornings.

    I agree with Faf in that it is tricky because being a uni student too my timetable changes day to day.. So regular routine daily is hard to put into place.

    The exercise points – I currently have none. Need to get that one going.

    Good stuff brother!

    Chris Petschack

    July 19, 2012

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