Oh
[Music]
early in my career as a freelancer I was
a late-night worker not not like a
prostitute I would just procrastinate
through the day and so I couldn't put
off my work any longer I'd often be up
past 2:00 a.m. it was until I started
living with my partner Natalie that I
decided to shape my schedule around hers
it's at that point that I fell in love
with early mornings there's something
special about watching the Sun Rise with
a cup of coffee even in a city like Los
Angeles things seem to go quiet in the
morning
well not all the time I usually wake up
between 6:00 and 7:00 a.m. but my
schedule fluctuates
I wondered how much more productive
could I be if I force myself to wake up
at 5:00 a.m. every single day for 30
days how much more could I get done how
would it change my life it didn't go as
planned
so I'm gonna be setting up my alarm for
the 30 days of waking up at 5 a.m. how
many hours of sleep do you need each
night we're gonna go with 8 hours so my
plan is to go to bed 9 p.m. every night
let's see how this works out getting a
bed by 9 p.m. isn't isn't a problem I'm
getting kind of old anyway and that and
I for a long time we're going to bed
around 9 o'clock so this is nothing new
waking up early isn't an excuse to
neglect sleep the research is clear the
serious consequences of getting less
than 7 hours of sleep per night is
severe according to Matthew Walker's
best-selling book why we sleep the
shorter you sleep the shorter your
lifespan the old maxim I'll sleep when
I'm dead is therefore unfortunate adopt
this mindset and you will be dead sooner
and the quality of that shorter life
will be worse the real challenge here
isn't waking up at 5:00 a.m. it's
getting 8 hours of sleep
there was an adjustment period for the
first week it was a bit like jet lag and
my sleep quality wasn't the greatest for
the first couple of nights I had to get
used to going to bed at a different time
than that but after a couple days I felt
a lot more like myself and my morning
started to get a lot more productive
then I had to deal with the real jet lag
I'm heading home to New Jersey which is
three-hour time difference so just as I
finally got adjusted to these early
mornings now I'm gonna have to
completely reset this is probably going
to be the biggest test so far
[Music]
what's that
yeah LAX that's right Alaska Airlines I
never would leave an apartment with a
banana as is a rule of mine never leave
an apartment with no it's not because
then you have the skin then you have to
get rid of and then you just hold onto
it for 45 minutes
exactly 45 I'm having a dilemma there's
nowhere to sleep I'm supposed to be
sleeping on that couch right there Oh
perfect thank you mom appreciate it
I see so it's just past 11:00 now
finally get into bed I'm getting no
sleep tonight if there's one thing I've
learned about habit change it's that
life gets in the way
when you least expect it life will punch
you in the face and that's what happened
with my trip home
multiple late nights hanging out with my
family combined with jet lag
and I struggled to get quality sleep so
it's just past 9:00 right now and this
is I just found out that this is
daylight savings time it's been a long
time since I've experienced sleep
deprivation but that night in particular
hit me hard over my first two days in
New Jersey I got a total of nine hours
of sleep and it completely changed my
personality
very few times very few times it's that
low you weren't just upset and you were
so frustrated I decided to catch up with
my sleep and snooze past 5:00 a.m. two
times during the trip and this is what
happens to me all the time when I try to
wake up early or if I try to build a
habit I try to start exercising
eventually something's gonna happen
you're gonna get sick you're gonna
travel you're gonna go on vacation and
you're gonna get jet lag and you're not
gonna be able to keep up with the same
exact routine that you've been trying to
build this was just a reminder that I
need to put my health and my wellness
first above this religious dedication to
an arbitrary challenge after getting
back to LA it took another week until I
started to get into a rhythm again and
travel wasn't completely to blame
so finally after about 20 days of waking
up at 5:00 a.m. and after a really
unproductive week one of the most
unproductive weeks that I've had in a
while I started to build a bit of a
morning routine here at 5:00 a.m. that
works for me and a part of that is by
5:30 a.m. I'm on my way to go to the gym
to get a workout in and I found that
since the Sun at least right now it
doesn't rise until 7 a.m. it's really
difficult for me to feel motivated to
feel like I have the energy to do really
creative work first thing in the morning
so if I go to the gym I can get more
energy I feel good I've gotten something
personal for myself done at the
beginning of the day and then by the
time I get home and shower around then
the sun's starting to come up and I can
make a cup of coffee and I'm ready to
actually get to work so it turns out
that waking up at 5:00 a.m. every day
did change my life it just happened to
be in a negative way well I did have
about 7 hours and 53 minutes in bed
every night I didn't get 8 hours of
sleep
in fact it usually takes me about 30
minutes to get to sleep so I probably
got much less than I needed I noticed
that my energy levels weren't as high as
normal and while I did eventually put
together a routine that worked for me
going to the gym in the morning and then
eventually getting to work by 7 a.m. I
did I wasn't any more productive than I
normally am and there was just too much
that I sacrificed you can you can ask
Natalie I mean she sacrificed a little
bit too I thought I was complete bull
I'm exhausted
why are you exhausted because
been waking me up for him every morning
I did not opt into this challenge next
month with meditation
yes I'm rather excited to do that with
you this was another challenge I opted
into I was forced into one of the things
that I love most about running my own
business is having a flexible schedule
I'm glad that I experimented with this
ridiculously strict 30-day challenge
because I know that I'm actually not
missing out on anything and I'm excited
to get back to my regular routine of
waking up between 6 or 7 a.m. because
well life can get in the way thanks for
watching do you want to join me for
future 30-day challenges if so subscribe
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