On April 2, I put myself to a new challenge. It was one of
the biggest life hacks I’ve ever done.
The challenge was simple: waking up 21 consecutive workdays
at 4:30 a.m., a challenge I gave the name of #21earlydays. I was already used
to waking up early (6 a.m. almost every day), but this time I wanted to go
further. I wanted to test myself and be more aware of my own limits. And at the
same time, my idea was to share my progress with the world and try to change
some preconceived ideas that society obliges us to follow.
I chose to do the challenge only on workdays, because I knew
that weekends and holidays are radically different for me. There are times that
I work even on these days, but most of the time I have other plans that include
going out at night. Yes, I could do the challenge every day, but I thought that
it’s a question of balance in life. As my idea since day 1 was to continue even
after the 21 days, this would be more a struggle than a true benefit.
And why 21 days? Well, I based it on the old idea of Dr.
Maxwell Maltz that says you need 21 days to form a new habit (not necessarily
true for many habits). I didn’t know if it’d work, but for me it was more for
the sake of establishing a goal. One lesson I always apply to life is to always
establish a goal when you want to change or reach something because only in
this way will you understand if you succeeded or failed.
But what was the final goal in all this? It’s all about
productivity and making the most of my days. I’m always thinking of ways to
improve my work and my life and I like to think about details and take action
if I think I could improve. I’ve known for a long time that I am a morning
person, and so the goal was to increase my morning time to see if it would
increase my productivity.
So, what have I learned from this? A LOT:
1. If you want to change something in your life, it’s always
better if you have support along the way.
It will be this support that keeps you on track when you’re
about to give up. In my case, I opted to share my journey on Facebook with my
friends and acquaintances. I knew that I would need this, because if no one
knew I was doing this, no one would hold me accountable for failing.
But when you share your journey, people will ask you how
it’s going, whether they agree or not. And in my head, I could not give up and
show weakness. I knew I wouldn't disappoint anyone, because this isn’t such an
important thing. But if I could inspire at least one person in the end, I
couldn’t give up for that person's sake.
2. People like to see different things.
And someone waking up so early is definitely not a normal
thing, so I had huge engagement in my posts! People concerned about me. People
asking a lot of questions. And people stating that this would be impossible for
them. I had great and deep conversations because of my posts and I couldn’t be
more thankful to everyone that interacted with me. You made me think about many
things, and part of this post is also a result of these conversations.
3. People don’t wake up earlier because they think they have
to sleep less.
In the first days, some people were really concerned about
me. Most of questions were about only one thing: the time I sleep. Of course, I
had this well planned. I know very well what my body demands, and as I changed
the time when I wake up, I changed the time I go to bed, too. Simple.
Usually I sleep between 6 and 7 hours during the week, and I
maintained exactly that during the #21earlydays. So when it’s 9:30 or 10 p.m.,
it’s time to go to bed. To my surprise, the majority of the people that asked
me the time I sleep, sleep less than me. And me? In fact, I’m sleeping even
more now than before!
4. Eliminate the obstacles along the way.
People always say that doing something like this is
impossible for them. Yes, there are a few situations that can make it harder.
But I also believe that many people just don’t want to go the extra mile to
improve their lives.
Society in general is lazy, and many people go with the
flow. Yes, I have some conditions that helped me do this: I’m single with no
children, and I have complete control over my daily routine. But I have most of
these things because I created this situation.
When I lived with my parents, this would have been way more
difficult, because I had the context of the family environment. So, I started
this challenge when I knew I’d extinguished many of the struggles along the
way. Think of everything that’s getting you down and preventing you from
reaching that goal you’ve wanted but have never achieved. This is applicable to
stopping smoking, going to the gym or eating more fruits and vegetables.
Getting rid of your obstacles makes it easier to achieve
your final goal. In my case, I knew that I’d need several things: total
independence in my life, i.e., over my working hours or dinnertime; the ability
to go to bed anytime I want and to not be interrupted during my sleep; and the
ability of working anywhere and anytime I want. I have all of this.
I usually work in startups, which means that I have huge
flexibility in my time and that’s why I can be working at 4:30 a.m. This
flexibility also allows me to come back home earlier. In addition, no one
depends on me and I’m not dependent on anyone. And despite living with 7 other
people in a shared house, I reach sleep easily at such an early hour.
5. Your physical condition helps a lot.
Regarding sleeping, I’m clearly a fortunate guy! I fall
asleep really fast (5 minutes on average), I sleep well (rarely wake up during
the night) and anywhere if needed, and I have no problems waking up (when the
alarm rings, I get out of bed instantly).
Of course, this is also a consequence of my lifestyle: I eat
well, I practice sports every day and I don’t have big and permanent worries in
my life. But even given this, I believe that there are many people that could
improve their sleeping. It’s always about changing little things, and after a
few weeks or months, you’ll feel the impact of all those little changes. I’m at
this point as a result of years understanding how my body behaves and what I
could improve. I didn’t change yesterday.
6. Forget snooze!
Fortunately, I rarely used such thing in my life and these
#21earlydays only help to convince me of the uselessness of it. For me, snooze
is one of the worst inventions ever, and it doesn’t help people. If you want to
wake up at a certain hour, please do and don’t delay it for 10 minutes!
One simple snooze will seriously affect your day — studies
show that you’ll be even more tired after sleeping that 10 minutes and this
makes people delay several other things. Nothing good comes of snooze.
7. I like to sleep, but my body only needs 6 or 7 hours.
After that, I don’t take any special pleasure in being in
bed and I prefer to go out and do the interesting things that exist in the
world. Because when I die, I’ll have a lot of time to sleep!
8. More working hours.
Since I started waking up at 4:30 a.m., I won 2 hours of
work per day. How? As I said, I’m a morning person and after 6 p.m., I don’t do
anything valuable (even my afternoons are less productive). So, with this hack
I took out 2 unproductive hours of my night, when I usually was on my laptop
passing time, and I won 2 hours, when I get lots of work done. A rested mind
and 2 hours of complete silence while the rest the world is still sleeping are
extremely powerful and make miracles.
9. I get messages out of the way.
Usually, during these 2 hours, I answer all my emails and
messages and plan the rest of the day. Having an ‘Inbox Zero’ at 6:30 a.m. is
great, but the best part for me is the fact that I have no instant answer to my
emails and messages. Especially on Facebook, this is something that can destroy
your productivity, as it’s perfectly possible for you to spend all day chatting
with people. And if you think twice, you’ll see that the majority of people
don’t need an urgent answer and nothing bad happens if you wait to answer them
tomorrow.
10. More time at the gym.
Before these #21earlydays, I was already going to the gym.
But since I started waking up at 4:30 a.m., I’m going more times per week.
Before, three times was good, but now I can’t live without going at least four
or five times. I truly believe that the fact I wake up earlier helps this, as I
don’t go to the gym so tired and when I go, I have already worked 2 hours. This
helps on those days when you think you don’t have time to exercise.
11. A new view on the world.
Waking up so early allowed me to see details around me that
I’ve never seen before. Going running while the sun is rising or exploring
different places in Lisbon during unexpected hours were impossible things with
a “normal schedule.”
12. Yes, you need the will to do it.
If you don’t have it, no one will have it for you and it’s
highly likely that you’ll give up. Otherwise, if you have the will, no one will
stop you!
