The 5 am club: Does waking up early really make you more successful
Introduction
Welcome to the 5 a.m. club!
Recently there has been a lot of speculation about the benefits of waking up at 5 am while some say that waking up so early is not required. Opinions are divided on the matter.
The popular Canadian author Robin Sharma has penned a book called ‘The 5 AM CLUB’, which is an international bestseller. It is based on his daily morning routine.
What happens when we wake up at 5 am
Neuroscientists state that when we awake in the morning, we are in the theta brainwave state (a state in between daydreaming and active brainwave activity). This is when we are at our calmest and able to think up many more ideas, and we are at our highest creative levels. The calm makes the mind focus better, and we are at our productive best.
There are certain daily activities that we can carry out, which, we otherwise “don’t have the time” for during our busy day.
- Physical activity: Rising early motivates us to begin our physical activities like walking, jogging, exercises, Yoga, aerobics, gym training, Zumba, or whatever activity we prefer.
- Reflection: Rising early gives us time to write our journal, morning affirmations, and gratitude lists and practice mindfulness. It gives us time to reflect on the day ahead. Some may mediate too.
- Planning: Rising early gives us time to plan for the day ahead and list out the activities in a to-do list. We can keep crossing out the activities when completed.
- Prayer: Rising early gives us sufficient time for prayer, be it chanting, praying, listening to mantras, singing hymns, reading scriptures, doing the Rosary or any other spiritual or religious activity.
- Pet care: Rising early for animal lovers is how they can feed the strays in their area, take their pets for a walk, bathe their pets, or indulge in pet care activities.
- Breakfast: Rising early gives us time for a hearty breakfast, enjoying it mindfully, thereby improving our health.
- Energy: Rising early keeps us energetic and we can achieve our daily tasks efficiently.
- Concentration: Rising early, fresh as a daisy, we can concentrate better and maybe achieve more than planned.
- Sleep: Rising early in the morning makes us fall asleep early at night. So we get our required quota of sleep. This improves our circadian rhythm.
- No stress: Rising early fills us with positivity and we find that, as we go through the day, we are calm even under considerable stress. We take time for self-care, dress up, have breakfast, and reach work on time. No hassle about skipping breakfast, speeding to work, and reaching work with full stress mode on.
- Do more: Rising early makes us achieve more as we have sufficient time to complete our tasks, we may end up doing more than required!
- Positivity: Rising early, we go about our day with a positive mindset. The calmness and stress-free state of mind makes us feel happier and more confident. There are no mood disorders, anxiety, or depression.
- Error-free: Rising early keeps us alert and there are possibilities of committing no errors or minimal errors in our tasks.
- Music: Rising early gives us ample time to drive to work, and enroute we can enjoy some music to further make us feel better.
- Punctuality: Rising early gives us sufficient time to take the early bus/train and arrive punctually at work. And we get full marks for our punctuality, thereby making us value time even more.
- Cooking: Rising early gives us enough time to prep for and prepare our meals mindfully that turn out delicious.
- Low risk: Eating mindfully lowers the risk of contracting lifestyle-related diseases like obesity, hypertension, high blood sugar, gastric issues, and cholesterol.
- Me time: Rising early gives us time to complete our chores leaving us with enough time on hand to continue our hobbies. It gives us time for self-care routines and makes us more confident.
- Children: Rising early gives us ample time to plan for our children’s schedules and take proactive steps for the same. Be it a carpool a trip to the dentist or any such chore. With time in hand, we can ensure that their bag is ready, homework done, clothes pressed, shoes polished, and nails trimmed. We can prepare a healthy breakfast and tiffin for them, get them ready for school and drop them off at the school bus/carpool.
- Volunteer: Rising early gives us time to complete our daily chores on time and we can utilize the remainder by volunteering at an NGO, pet shelter, religious place, or any other institute. This way we can do our bit for society.
Seeing the plethora of achievements that we can accomplish by waking up early, some nay-sayers beg to differ and counter all these achievements.
Everyone reacts differently to any given situation. Some may not be early risers; some may not believe that they can achieve more by awaking early; some may be over-stressed at the thought of an early day; some may not be used to staying calm; some may not be able to reflect or plan; some may not prefer sleeping early at night; some may say “who wakes up so early;”
The only way to check if this works is to try it. Attempt it for a month and see the results for yourself.
- Begin by sleeping 15 minutes each night, to wake up early. Do this gradually, so your body gets into the rhythm of sleeping early and rising early. Slow and steady!
- A morning walk in natural light suppresses melatonin, thereby acting on your circadian rhythm and making it easier to sleep early and rise early.
- Morning exercises make you energetic and feel good. Late evening exercise may make you sleep late, thereby not solving any purpose.
- Eating early meals can benefit you by keeping you healthy, aiding in better digestion, managing body weight and preventing over-eating.
Simply waking up at 5 am will not suffice, you need to eat healthy, eat timely, exercise, have adequate hydration, meditate, practice gratitude/mindfulness/Yoga, practice deep breathing techniques, sleep early at night and take no stress. The combination of all these will make you more productive and healthier.
Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.
