This is part 2 of a series chronicling my attempt to become an early riser. For the first part in the series, click here.

Last week I wrote about finding an extra hour or so each day just by getting up earlier. I also mentioned, in a practice what you preach mindset, that I was going to do the same.

I truly believe that one of the powers of blogs is the ability to share the results of experiments like this in real time, so here’s an update as to how the first week went.

As I’m sitting here writing this at 5:15AM, after already having eaten breakfast and making lunch, there has definitely been some success. However, there have also been some minor failures, but I really don’t have a problem with those, as I’ve learned something from each of them. As an aside, regardless of whether you’re interested in mind maps or not, Tony Buzan has an excellent chapter on the role of failure in success in his book, The Ultimate Book of Mind Maps. But back to the main topic, here are a few of the things I’ve learned this week.

Successes:

  • When I got up at or around my target time of 4:30AM-5:00AM, it really wasn’t that hard.
  • As I haven’t modified my work schedule, I still leave the house at the same time each morning, leaving me an extra hour or more to get a few things done.
  • Some of the things I’m getting done in the morning are things I would normally do in the evening, thus freeing up more time then for whatever I’d like.
  • This extra hour not only means that I’m doing a few extra things, but it also means that I hit the office more relaxed, and better prepared for the day.

And some lessons:

  • I probably shouldn’t have started on a week with an extremely varied morning schedule.
  • Also, especially to start, I really need to work on ensure I’m getting up at my target time five or six days a week, if not all seven.
  • I also realized that I need a new alarm clock. Some might think this is unrelated, but I discovered that my alarm clock uses the buzzer even if it’s set to use the radio. While I’ll wake up one way or another, I worry far less about it waking my fiancé or the dog if it’s the radio. This has caused the last few hours of my sleep to be more restless, as I want to make sure I’m up before my alarm. It’s like having complete trust in your system in GTD; if you don’t have it, you’re always worried and thus not fully realizing the advantages of it.

So, week one is done, and I’m armed with some more experience and knowledge, and daylight savings time is on my side this week as well. I’m going to keep this up, and I’ll make sure to update everyone next week as well!