How To Become A Morning Person Like Me
The Lies I Told Myself
- Getting up is hard.
- Don’t talk to me before 10 am.
- I need 15 more minutes of sleep.
- I need to make sure my alarm is going off every 15 to 30 mins for several hours before getting up.
- I work better at off-hours.
- I need to have my clothes ready the night before to save time.
Go Hard Or Go Home
You may have heard of the popular phrase “Go Hard or Go Home” repeated by various entertainers, coaches, and famous people. This is absolutely the wrong way to attack anything and it took me 36 years to realize that. Going hard just applies more stress on yourself. Refusing to go hard, doesn’t mean you need to go home. This is because you shouldn’t be “going home” in the first place.
I came up with this acronym of S.I.P. I would rather take S.I.Ps versus Going Hard. S.I.P. stands for Small Incremental Progress. Instead of doing a lot of something try to do 70–80% of that more frequently.
- You lose in the short term, but you win in the long term by getting more practice and by not burning yourself out.
- Burning yourself leads to longer recovery times.
- You will get less practice or experience over a year if you decide to Go Hard or Go Home.
So how did I counter going hard or going home? The answer to that question is to enforce boundaries.
Enforce Boundaries
I evaluated my lifestyle and located good times to enforce work boundaries. Any work or goals that took place between 9 pm and 7 am was work that just wasn’t going to be completed that night, done well or would have burned me out. Being burned out increased the probability that the following day’s work would be at risk of being down poorly. This meant the work’s quality would decrease drastically or the amount of completed work would be minimum.
Both of these scenarios led to a build-up of stress and uncompleted work. Setting boundaries also prevented me from procrastinating on work by forcing me to complete my work within a certain time span. Any work that could not be completed within the same day would be allocated to another day.
Having boundaries allows me to know when to stop. The closer I approach my time boundary the more I can access how “worth it” it is to continue working. It allows me to manage the risk of starting new work.
- Psychologically, it brings me a sense of peace knowing the wear and tear of work will no longer be an issue for the remainder of the night.
- It allows me to plan how much sleep I can get throughout the week.
- It empowers me to shut down and reboot myself to start the next day with a fresh start.
- Having that knowledge makes me feel absolutely amazing.
Proper Dieting
- Get 8 hours of sleep.
- No sugar/caffeine late at night to keep you up at night.
- No late exercise.
- No late-night snacks.
- No late-night arguments.
Having The Right Amount of Energy At The Right Time
Having a lot of energy at the wrong time is highly problematic. It serves no purpose to be super energetic late at night during a time when you have fewer people to communicate the right information to when it counts. Having low energy during peak times means you are less productive with other people who need you the most. This is a recipe for disaster.