How to Get Up at 5 AM every day ?

[Evil_Jester]

Pay me $5 a day and I'll call you and wake you up

 

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[Harbourmaster]

I am going to share a story from personal experience...

What qualifies me to share this story is the fact that I have successfully quit one of the most addictive substances on the planet. Almost two years ago, I made the decision to quit smoking cigarettes. After spending the better part of a decade polluting my lungs with a pack a day, I quit cold turkey. I was going to be turning 30 and smoking no longer fit with what I wanted from life. What was the trick to not touching a single cigarette for two years? Simple... not putting a cigarette in my mouth, one day at a time. Was the first day shitty? Of course. Was the first week shitty? Awful. First three months? Wait, it's been three months already?! My point is this... if you want to make a lasting change, just make the F*cking change already. I can't tell you how many friends I've seen quit for an hour, a day, a week and then go back to smoking. It's like pulling a bandaid off in the slowest possible way and then sticking it back on to do it again.

Now substitute quitting smoking for waking up early. Set your alarm and get out of the damn bed at 5am when the alarm goes off. If this is important to you, then just get up. No complaining. Do it for three weeks no matter what. You will be tired the first couple days, but after a couple weeks it will become the new normal.

I think we tend to overcomplicate how to make these changes. Like Nike says, JUST DO IT!

PS. I also get up at 5am to workout. It's the only time of day I can squeeze it in. No time at lunch and I like the evenings to work on Fastlane projects.

 

[Philip Marlowe]

Honestly, I might catch some flak for this but why do people care so much for waking up at 4am, 5:15am, 6:05 am like it's some badge of honor?

It's almost like those war stories I hear of people "grinding 48 hours straight".

Listen, stop it. It's madness.

There are 24 hours in a day for everyone. No one gets less and no one gets more.

If you choose to sleep until 11:45am and get up, YOU HAVE NOT WASTED YOUR DAY. Midnight does not define "MY DAY", why should you let it define your day too?

If you get up at 11:45am and feel you have wasted your day, you aren't thinking clearly that a day is a 24 hour time period. When it starts is up to you.

If I wake up at 11:45am, I simply work until 3-4am the next day and go to bed. I still get 7-8 hours of sleep like people who wake up at 5:15am and put in 16-17 hours of "work" ( whatever that might be ) like everyone else.

What the people who wake up at 5:15am dont tell you is, they went to bed at like 9:30pm-10pm. Who cares when this 7-8 hour period of sleep started/ended compared to the 16-17 hours of "work"?

The only time this doesn't work is if you you constrain yourself to letting other people and processes control your time for you each day ( like a 9-5 job ). But even then, what if you worked remotely for a company located in Ireland and had to work those hours anyways because of the timezone difference?

There is nothing glamorous, glorious, honorable, productive, or worth sharing when you talk about how early you rise out of bed and how you self destruct yourself grinding for 3 days with no sleep.

And yes, I've been there and thought it was magical to talk about and plan around too in my past. As I got older, I realized just how dumb it actually is though.

Just sleep for 6-7-8 hours at a time, and then work your 16-17-18 hours at a time.

Grocery stores are still open at noon. Gyms are open at noon. People still read emails and txt and take phone calls at noon. You aren't wasting your day.
.

Getting-up at 5AM is his example, but his real question is about discipline. To your point, getting your work done (no matter the time of day) should be your discipline. That said, if you're looking for a willpower exercise than yes, maybe seeing if you can wake-up at 5AM every week day for a month isn't a bad test.

Implement the tips you've gotten here and see what works.

Once you've proven you can establish a habit, reassess. Maybe a 5AM isn't the best thing for you. Perhaps examine it backwards - when do you do your best work?

Frankly, if you've got something worth waking-up for it won't be that hard. Maybe that's what's missing?

 

[SteveO]

Just asking what is the best way for you to wake up at 5AM every day ?

To wake up at 5 is to set the alarm 2 hours later. That is sleeping in for me...

I feel more alive when the day starts earlier. Ideally, a short nap could be taken during the day.

 

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[RBefort]

Honestly, I might catch some flak for this but why do people care so much for waking up at 4am, 5:15am, 6:05 am like it's some badge of honor?

It's almost like those war stories I hear of people "grinding 48 hours straight".

Listen, stop it. It's madness.

There are 24 hours in a day for everyone. No one gets less and no one gets more.

If you choose to sleep until 11:45am and get up, YOU HAVE NOT WASTED YOUR DAY. Midnight does not define "MY DAY", why should you let it define your day too?

If you get up at 11:45am and feel you have wasted your day, you aren't thinking clearly that a day is a 24 hour time period. When it starts is up to you.

If I wake up at 11:45am, I simply work until 3-4am the next day and go to bed. I still get 7-8 hours of sleep like people who wake up at 5:15am and put in 16-17 hours of "work" ( whatever that might be ) like everyone else.

What the people who wake up at 5:15am dont tell you is, they went to bed at like 9:30pm-10pm. Who cares when this 7-8 hour period of sleep started/ended compared to the 16-17 hours of "work"?

The only time this doesn't work is if you you constrain yourself to letting other people and processes control your time for you each day ( like a 9-5 job ). But even then, what if you worked remotely for a company located in Ireland and had to work those hours anyways because of the timezone difference?

There is nothing glamorous, glorious, honorable, productive, or worth sharing when you talk about how early you rise out of bed and how you self destruct yourself grinding for 3 days with no sleep.

And yes, I've been there and thought it was magical to talk about and plan around too in my past. As I got older, I realized just how dumb it actually is though.

Just sleep for 6-7-8 hours at a time, and then work your 16-17-18 hours at a time.

Grocery stores are still open at noon. Gyms are open at noon. People still read emails and txt and take phone calls at noon. You aren't wasting your day.
.

So much win in this post and fits what I'd say perfectly. My wife sets a 5am alarm to be to work by 7 and gets wide awake that early. I drag a$$, but can stay up until the weeee hours of the morning working hard on something...and be fine with getting up for 10am just before lunch. Do I like being up before the sun? Sure...but you don't have to. As others said, the "why" is the reason to do anything....it's the "why" that gets me up early, but also keeps me up late. Unfortunately, I haven't found something for that "why" yet...so I hate both going to bed and getting up lololol

 

[minivanman]

I'm with eliquid! Back when I had a large cleaning company my girls started showing up around 8am and I would get up at 7:30-7:45am so I could be up before they arrived. We had a large house and worked out of a shop there. Now in the appliance business I make 50% of my sales around midnight. Last night I stayed up until 2:15am selling, woke up at 8am, went back to bed about 11am and woke back up about 1:45pm. Did a little work, messed around, did a little more work, went to eat at the Waffle House (I love our local Waffle House plus I was on my own for supper tonight) and now I'm here. I'll start selling washers and dryers in just a few minutes and stay up until 2-3am again.

Now the question is.... could I make that same 50% of sales if I woke up at 5am? Now let's be clear... I will never find out but I can tell you this, between 7:30am-11am I can't hardly sell anything so I doubt it. Maybe some time I'll stay up all night just to see if I can sell between 5am-8am.

 

[Argue]

Why wake up at 5 AM when you can wake up at 4 PM and watch politics/make your To-do list for the next day?

(Don't forget to grade your progress)

Besides that lol, I'm with @eliquid.

I dislike these kinda threads - no offense - because everyone talks about what works for THEM. Like, we're all different mentally, physically, and have different environments.

Re-read @eliquid post for the cold hard facts.

Just get your 7 and you're good.

24 - 7 = 17 hours of time. Use it wisely?

 

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[Roli]

Hey guys , I want to increase my discipline .

Just asking what is the best way for you to wake up at 5AM every day ?

Is it motivation your main thing that wake up you and what ?

I have advised quite a few friends on how to do this; and for the ones that wanted it to work, it has worked.

You haven't stated your current wake up time, so I'm going to assume, and then go from there...

It is quite simply a matter of using incremental change, as the brain does not notice change on a small scale. Hence the reason, we're always surprised that our friends kids have grown; even though that's what kids are meant to do.

[SPOILER ALERT]
By the way, it is also how David Copperfield made the Statue Of Liberty disappear, he put the audience and cameras on an incredibly slowly rotating platform. Because we do not perceive incremental change, it felt like magic.

OK, so let's assume you wake up at 7:30 am, or in fact let's assume your alarm goes at 7:30 am, and you use two, 5 minute snoozes. So you get out of bed at 7:40.

Day 1 - Set alarm for 7:26 and use only ONE snooze - This doesn't seem massive, but it is; getting rid of that automatic snooze will be the toughest thing about this whole exercise, however you need to. As it is just that, an auto response, that your brain thinks you need.

Day 2 - Set alarm for 7:22- ONE snooze - try and get out of bed before snooze goes off.

Day 3 - Set alarm for 7:18 - ONE snooze - try and get out of bed before snooze goes off.

Day 4 - Set alarm for 7:14- - ONE snooze - try and get out of bed before snooze goes off.

Day 5 - Set alarm for 7:10 - ONE snooze - try and get out of bed before snooze goes off. Tell yourself today is the last day you will use snooze

Day 6- Set alarm for 7:06 - Get straight out of bed, and notice how awake you feel, SMILE, STRETCH - Those two actions will set of a hormonal reaction in your body that will make you feel GOOD, those feelings will be forever associated with getting up early.

I obviously don't need to write out the next 24 days; however you will do this for 30 days; in fact it will be a little longer, because you will give yourself Sundays off.

4 x 30 is 150 = (7:30 am - 150 mins) = 5:00 am

Tips: before you go to bed, visualise how great you will feel waking up early, what a sense of achievement you will acquire. The idea is to attach as many positive feelings, to waking up early as you can muster.

Soon, it won't feel like a challenge, simply a routine.

I don't know you, so don't know how much sleep you can survive on; however I wouldn't recommend less than six. So as well as adjusting your wake up time, you may have to adjust your bedtime. Make sure it's no later than 11.

If you wake up at 7, you can take a whole two minutes off that incremental change.

After 2 weeks, you will feel amazing, stick at it.

Good luck.

 

[Locomote]

Sleep on the floor... no one ever sleeps in when sleeping on the floor

 

[Koen_88]

The only way I can get up early is when I have a strong motivation:
1: When I leave early to go on vacation ;-)
2: when I have something that has to be done on time @ work (luckily this is only seldom)
2: and 1 or 2 times a week I get up @ 5:30 to workout from 6 to 7 at my trainer's gym this gives my day a jumpstart and leaves time to spend on something useful in the evening.

 

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[Delmania]

To cut through all the nonsense, the simplest way to do this is set your alarm for 5 am, and then make a commitment that as soon as you hear it, you will immediately get up and start moving. To be an arrogant a**hole, I wake up at 4:30 on Mondays, Wednesday, and Fridays to go workout. As a result on Tuesday and Thursday, I wake up at 4:30 as well; I just don't get up, so I eventually fall back asleep. The weekends I have a different mindset, so I don't wake up as early.

You don't change your bedtime at first. If you're used to going to sleep at 11 pm, you still continue to do so. What happens is that once you've grown accustomed to the habit of waking up at 5 am, you will automatically adjust your bedtime and start to feel sleepy earlier. Adults need between 7 to 9 hours of restful sleep to be happy, healthy, and productive. Don't be swayed by people who claim they can get by on 5 to 6 hours, you need to pay attention to your physical needs. If you need 9 hours of sleep, get 9 hours of sleep.

 

[AgainstAllOdds]

Work for yourself. Wake up whenever you want.

I go to sleep at 2 to 3am. Wake up at 11am.

I enjoy working at night more than working in the morning. Only reason to wake up early is to accommodate clients or if it works better for you. It doesn't for me.

 

[Marco Cuevas]

Hey guys , I want to increase my discipline .

Just asking what is the best way for you to wake up at 5AM every day ?

Is it motivation your main thing that wake up you and what ?

I have a baby... that's a sure way to be up early! Sometimes even as early as 4 or 3 am... And a baby is perfect motivation to always keep going.

 

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[Carnage]

A light alarm worked wonders for me when i used to wake up early. Used a phillips light alarm, shyt was bright as hell.

Dont use it anymore now that I wake up at 9...

 

[Jamaal]

If you're interested in waking up at 5am, have a read on the Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod...

He'll explain to you the mental steps to take to make waking up at 5am seem like a breeze.

 

[Rammsteinfanboy]

I recently trained myself to wake up at 5. I have a buddy, I give him 5 Euro for each day I don`t send him my todolist for the day before 6. Its hard, you will fail a lot, because it takes a while to train the body to wake up unconsciously because you cannot wake up in time on purpose. You will fail a lot, but you simply must not give up, until its a habit. It definetly takes a while, but the body eventually

That`s the hardcore approach short but efficient. Or you do a lot of preparation, such as fixing your go to bed time, starting with less early such as 5:45 etc. But that takes lots of time. Grind yourself for a limited period of time and then you have that habit permanently in your system.

 

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[Luke Phillips]

I actually used to do this every day until I started working nights.

A really great way to keep motivated, (besides buying an alarm clock):

• Buy a calander
• Post on a wall in your bedroom
• Mark each day that you wake up early, (this is important, it will keep your mind on what you're doing) try to get as many consecutive days as you can.

Generally it takes 21 days for our brains to develop a habit, although it doesn't get easier, you do become more dissaplined.

But none of these tips are going to work unless you do, knowing your "why" for doing anything is always going to be your greatest motivator.

But try it out! Let me know how you go.

 

[Christopher777]

I guess what's more important is beginning the day with the right headspace. If you wake up early but it doesn't make you effective, then it's useless. Waking up early has this good effect though. And doing a jam session that early puts you into the minority that gets things done before most people wake up.

But how are you gonna do that jam session if you're not in the right frame of mind? You won't. You'll end up procrastinating.

 

[sonny_1080]

This thread has been helpful. I've usually go to bed at midnight-1pm and wake up at 7:30-8am. I usually work until 5-6pm because I have my workout, nightly meeting, and I have to spend time with my woman in the evenings so I can't be working all hours of the night like what @eliquid was talking about. I've also noticed that I'm much more focused in the early mornings.

The other day, I coincidentally spoke to 2 people that wake at 5am. After realizing the difference waking up 3 hours earlier would make - an additional 21 hours a week - I decided to get into that habit. Today is day 2 of failing to get up at 5am.

I hear different philosophies on how 7.5-8 is the prime amount of sleep you need. Anything over 8 for me and I'm groggy for the whole day. I also hear that you only need 4-5 hours of sleep. Then you hear those stories about Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan.

I'm going to try these things to develop the habit of getting out of bed earlier:
1. write goals down before bed instead of first thing in the morning
2. leave phone to charge next to the coffee pot in the kitchen
3. when alarm goes off, I'll have to go into the kitchen, start the coffee, and while it brews, get my morning meditation in
4. I also have a calendar next to my bed that I can keep track of the days I succeed or not (extra motivation)

I'll let you guys know how it goes.

 

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[sparechange]

An alarm clock.

But what are the steps?

 

[WabiSabi]

You guys are working waaaay too hard with this alarm clock stuff, hear me out.

Set analog wall timer to a lamp. Incandescent, or halogen not LED. Set it to 30mins before you want to get up. Set wakeup alarm at desired time and place it on other end of the room.

Lamp comes on 4:30, gentle alarm goes off at 5:00. Get up, glass of water, not coffee.

Your body was designed to get up with the rising sun, forcing it to wake up in the dark with loud noises is a horrible practice. If you do this for at least 2 weeks it "clicks" and becomes second nature.

Also ditch the bed, that's right sleep on the ground. Beds are actually bad for you and contribute to posture, muscle and back problems. It might sound shocking or upsetting, but it's the truth.

 

[LordGanon]

This "wake up early, because every rich and successful person does this" tale is bull. People who are successful wake up early because they are tired early because they worked all day and therefore go to bed early.

I wake up really early somewhere around 2AM to 6AM. I have an alarm clock on 5AM, but I rarely need it.

It has advantages, yes. A lot, I think. But it comes natural to me and you shouldn't go against what your body tells you.

What I like most about waking up that early is that you have the world aaaaall to yourself. No mails, no calls, no annoying neighbors, no nothing. Everything and everyone is asleep. Now you can get the stuff done that is important to you, and you alone, and you won't be interrupted. And if you focus, your day's work is done when most people walk into the office.

Also, you really don't miss that much after 8PM. It's TV prime time, and that's what most people will spend their time on.

 

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[The-J]

I used to get up at 4:30 am. But I had a reason to: I had to leave for work at 6 and I needed time to work on my own stuff. I had a reason to get up that early, because if I didn't, I wouldn't be able to do my own stuff.

Now, I'm free of the 9-5 and there's really no reason for me to do that anymore.

I got up at 8:30am today Fine time for me.

So how did I do it? How did I get up at 4:30 am?

I went to bed at 8 pm. Easy.

Well, not so easy. That first night is rough. I laid awake in bed for four hours before I could get to sleep. I drank chamomile tea and took magnesium, and it didn't help much.

But there's something about being forced to be in bed for a long time that shifts when you wake up. When that alarm rang, I knew I was ready. My body had been in bed for too long and needed to get out.

Cue the next day. By 8pm I was exhausted. So I climbed into bed at 8 again and saw it only took about an hour before I fell asleep.

Woke at 4:30 am again, this time much better rested.

Rinse repeat. Some days I woke up later, but I had to make sure not to do it twice in a row. Weekends, I tried to get up early then but it was too hard. So every Monday ended up being a struggle.

Sooner or later, I noticed I was getting up around 6-7am on weekends too.

I didn't sacrifice going out on some Friday and Saturday nights, and those became real rough. I needed coffee to survive staying out till only 2am.

 

[Xeon]

All these 'wake-up-at-3am' is part of the ongoing HUSTLEPORN trend.

I read on one of the youtube comments that the writer of the famous The Miracle Morning book, Hal Elrod aka Yo Pal Hal, got cancer and after that, he toned down the whole 'wake-up-at-5am' thing.

 

[sonny_1080]

You guys are working waaaay too hard with this alarm clock stuff, hear me out.

Set analog wall timer to a lamp. Incandescent, or halogen not LED. Set it to 30mins before you want to get up. Set wakeup alarm at desired time and place it on other end of the room.

Lamp comes on 4:30, gentle alarm goes off at 5:00. Get up, glass of water, not coffee.

Your body was designed to get up with the rising sun, forcing it to wake up in the dark with loud noises is a horrible practice. If you do this for at least 2 weeks it "clicks" and becomes second nature.

Also ditch the bed, that's right sleep on the ground. Beds are actually bad for you and contribute to posture, muscle and back problems. It might sound shocking or upsetting, but it's the truth.

I love all of it except the no bed part. I slept on the ground for the better part of 2 years and towards the end I started waking up with a headache regularly.

Then I got a bed and the headaches stopped. Later... i moved in with my girl who had a hard mattress and the headaches started up again regularly.

Then invested like 3 g’s in a really nice mattress and boom. No headaches, great sleep, no back pain, plus a super comfortable bed.

 

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[WabiSabi]

If it's working for you just do that!

For me, beds always seemed to suck me down, I had trouble moving at all after sleep. I'd just lie there for hours struggling to get up. Floor + pillow solved that, for me anyways.

Sometimes you just gotta try something different and see if it works for you. At the end of the day that's all that matters.

 

[sparechange]

All these 'wake-up-at-3am' is part of the ongoing HUSTLEPORN trend.

I read on one of the youtube comments that the writer of the famous The Miracle Morning book, Hal Elrod aka Yo Pal Hal, got cancer and after that, he toned down the whole 'wake-up-at-5am' thing.

Become unscripted , and wakeup to your natural bodyclock

 

[eliquid]

Then invested like 3 g’s in a really nice mattress and boom. No headaches, great sleep, no back pain, plus a super comfortable bed.

This.

I had slept on whatever bed I could get before I was 30. I think because I was young, it really didn't phase me.

When I turned 30, I got a really expensive mattress just because I could. It was like $3k or $4k. Best sleep of my life. I got addicted to staying in the bed.

After 8-10 years, it got wore out. Really wore out.

I felt a bit uneasy buying another $3k-$4k mattress. Part of me thought it was foolish to do again. Part of me thought, "what if I buy it and it's some fake luxuary brand that's really a $100 mattress jacked up to $3k".

So I bought a few $1k mattresses and slept on them. They felt "fine" the first couple of days. Then my body would ache and it became uncomfortable.

I'm shopping for a new $3k-$4k mattress again.

Let that be a listen for some of you.

.

 

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[Kasimir]

This thread has been helpful. I've usually go to bed at midnight-1pm and wake up at 7:30-8am. I usually work until 5-6pm because I have my workout, nightly meeting, and I have to spend time with my woman in the evenings so I can't be working all hours of the night like what @eliquid was talking about. I've also noticed that I'm much more focused in the early mornings.

The other day, I coincidentally spoke to 2 people that wake at 5am. After realizing the difference waking up 3 hours earlier would make - an additional 21 hours a week - I decided to get into that habit. Today is day 2 of failing to get up at 5am.

I hear different philosophies on how 7.5-8 is the prime amount of sleep you need. Anything over 8 for me and I'm groggy for the whole day. I also hear that you only need 4-5 hours of sleep. Then you hear those stories about Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan.

I'm going to try these things to develop the habit of getting out of bed earlier:
1. write goals down before bed instead of first thing in the morning
2. leave phone to charge next to the coffee pot in the kitchen
3. when alarm goes off, I'll have to go into the kitchen, start the coffee, and while it brews, get my morning meditation in
4. I also have a calendar next to my bed that I can keep track of the days I succeed or not (extra motivation)

I'll let you guys know how it goes.

I get up at half-past four and I immediately jump under a cold shower, have a coffee, drink some water and go directly to the gym. And my goal is always to get to the gym by five, because that's the time it opens. And my motivation is just that I know if I don't make it to the gym in the morning my day won't be as good as if I went to the gym. But obviously I have some days which I don't make it and that's okay but never two days in a row, otherwise it could get a habit.

So apart of my personal story, I would recommend everybody to do a sport in the morning it's the best way to get started into the day.

Thanks to all, learned a lot from this thread, will definitely try timing my lamp. Think that would help me a lot especially in the colder months.

 

[GoodluckChuck]

I hear a lot people say they want to wake up earlier but they never have a reason why. It's just that they think waking up early will solve their other problems. Here's a tip: It won't solve your other problems.

The procrastination habit you have is the same reason why you can't get up at 5am. Notice that I said get up, because anyone can wake up whenever they want by setting an alarm. It's the not going back to sleep part that is hard.

I get up at 5am most days because I like to spend an hour drinking coffee, reading the news, and checking stocks before my obligations kick in and I have meetings to attend and people counting on me to do stuff. If not for these obligations, I would wake up later.

There have been times in my life when I woke up earlier every day as a challenge and exercise in discipline. For a while after The Fastlane Summit I woke up at 4 every day and followed a strict routine. It was great for a while but didn't last because I didn't have a solid reason for being up so early. The best advice I can give if this is your aim is this:

When you alarm goes off, stand up immediately. Do it quickly like you are waking up to find your car is on fire in the front yard. Sitting up can work too. Just getting yourself vertical will wake you up.

You can do other tricks too like putting an alarm outside your bedroom window so you have to go outside to turn it off, but if you're doing this, you probably don't need to be waking up so early. However, I've met people that just have a really hard time waking up in the morning, like moreso than the normal person. In those cases I think it's something like diet or medical issue that is hindering their ability to get up. I know when I did Keto diet for 45 days I slept like a baby and woke up ready and rearing to go every day...