Waking up Every Day at Different Times to See What Works Best

The experiment to find the most productive routine for me

I have read so many articles about the perfect morning schedule that will keep me energetic the whole day. I did this by accident. I wanted to wake up early (at 5) daily, for a week, to see how my productivity would increase. I have always been a night owl and waking up early when your entire family is sleeping, is very hard.

As a result, I was not consistent, but I still recorded my performance daily.

And quickly it turned into an experiment to see what schedule keeps me most energetic. On most days, I still tried to wake up early without using alarm clocks.

My Goals

Before I started, I had certain goals in my mind. Things I wanted to achieve during this experiment. I know one week is a short time, but you have to start somewhere.

These were my goals:

Sleep

I wanted to sleep 7 to 8 hours daily. This meant I had to sleep early if I wanted to wake up at 5 in the morning. We all know early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.

Writing

Write 2 articles in a day. I thought I would do rough drafts in the morning and will edit them in the evening. It sounded easy enough before I started.

Read daily.

Every night before going to sleep, I would read 30 pages from the book I was currently reading. I wanted to reduce my screen time before going to sleep so I can sleep peacefully.

Exercise

I wanted to exercise daily. I used to go to the gym, but I had to stop last year because of Covid. I tried exercising at home but because I stopped after some time because I am very lazy. I wanted to make it a habit again. I thought I would start small. 1 week for 10 mins daily. 10 mins of light impact HIIT is all my lazy body can take for now.

Reduce caffeine intake

My coffee intake has increased a lot in this last year. I know the side effects and I know it can make you feel lethargic.

Caffeine increases alertness by interfering with certain chemical processes in the brain that regulate the sleep-wake cycle. However, once the body completely metabolizes caffeine, it can make people feel tired.

So, I wanted to cut on my coffee intake.

One week later

Here is the gist of it.

Overview of the days

The only goal I achieved 100% is reading 30 pages daily.

Day 1 was the most productive and Day 4 the least.

I wrote three and edited two articles on Day 1. I edited the remaining article the next day.

On Day 3, I found out that one of my best friends has Covid (She’s fine now. Thank God). It was so stressful. I slept late, woke up later. No writing. No exercise. It was the only day I skipped exercise. I didn’t even want to get up from my bed. So, I binged watch Shadow and Bone on Netflix. Good show, but the books are better and I know what will happen next because I have read the trilogy.

I tried to get back on routine on Day 5, but it was hard to concentrate on writing. But I had three days of this challenge left, so I tried to do my best.

In the end, I wrote 12 articles in 7 days. It would have been very good, but I don’t think the work I did after Day 4 was quality work. My mind was not in it.

Challenges I faced in this challenge

Sleeping early

I thought my biggest challenge will be waking up early, but it turned out sleeping early was the biggest challenge. After years of not sleeping at the proper time, I couldn’t go to sleep on time.

It was the reason I ended up feeling tired most of the days.

Stress

We think we are doing a challenge, but life keeps throwing its personal challenges at us. My productivity decreased instead of increasing because I was stressed most of the time. By the end of Day 3, I wanted to quit the challenge, but with everything going around it was an escape, a goal I had to keep going.

Caffeine

I failed spectacularly at this one. I regret to inform you that my coffee intake did not decrease. I will decrease it though. I am motivated and positive.

Rejections

I tried this routine to increase my writing speed and to write more and consistently. Hence, rejection from publications was a big part of it. By day 4, I didn’t care what was happening, so I ended up publishing in my publication. I didn’t get many views. I think one of my stories got 2 views only. But I didn’t have the energy to go through it.

The best routine

What every article says is in fact true. Waking up early will increase your productivity.

Many famous successful personalities like Tim Cook and Michelle Obama wakes up early in the morning. Tim Cook wakes up at 3.45 every morning, and Michelle Obama is working out by the time it’s 4.30 in the morning.

“It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom.”–Aristotle.

A study published in the journal Sleep Medicine found that just after three weeks, people who wake up early reported feeling less depressed and stressed under their new schedule. The participants shifted their sleeping time and waking up time by 2 hours successfully, at the same time decreasing day time sleepiness.

So, I have to do it for a month at least to start feeling better.

A recent study published in the journal Sleep Medicine found that making four lifestyle changes each day helped subjects stick with an earlier bedtime and wake up routine after just three weeks — and the new early birds reported feeling less depressed and stressed under their new sleep schedule.

A study also shows that promoting an early rising time can prove to be an important element of cultivating good health in young children.

A paper published by Kecklund, Akerstedt and Lowden showed that early morning work reduces sleep time and an increase in apprehension stress.

Waking up early means you have more hours to do your work. If I wake up at 5 instead of 9, that means I have more hours to do what I want. If I exercise and take some time to relax, even after that I have 2–3 hours extra.

This is the end of the 7-day challenge and I will continue doing that. Not as a challenge as a lifestyle. I can relax more if I wake up early because I did most work when I write first thing in the morning. I have more time to do things I love.

Try it as a challenge and make it a lifestyle choice. There must be something in it if every successful person is doing it.