Hustle culture tells you that you have to spend as much of your day as possible working, and every book on productivity that has ever existed tells you that waking up early is the only way to success.
This is why you have spent month after month curating the perfect morning routine to try to wake up as early as humanly possible so you can get into your girl boss mode. But after months of trying, you still find yourself failing to wake up at five every day and now you’re just wondering if that is just going to be how the rest of your life is going to go- doomed for failure.
Well, good news is I am here to tell you that you do not have to wake up early to be successful. For some of us, waking up too early might even have the opposite effect and make you less productive throughout the day, and I’m here to tell you why.
Table of Contents
Why Waking Up Early Won’t Make You More Productive
Everyone Has a Different Circadian Rhythm
Your circadian rhythm is basically your biological clock.
Everyone’s circadian rhythm is naturally different and unique to each person. While there are definitely some people who find it super easy to wake up at 3am, you’d be glad to learn that those are the minority. Most people actually lean naturally towards sleeping around 11 to 12am, and both are completely normal and one is not better or “more productive” than the other.
Social jet lag is when there is a mismatch between your circadian rhythm and what is required of you socially, ie. at work. You can usually observe this misalignment in your sleep pattern during the weekends, when you wake up much later than you’re required to for work.
So next time you see somebody post about their 3am or 4am morning routine, understand that what may work best for them may not necessarily apply to you, and there’s really no need to beat yourself up for it!
Maintaining Your Energy Throughout the Day
What’s even more important than waking up early, however, is for you to actually maintain that energy throughout the day so that you can function at your best and carry out your work effectively.
We’re always comparing ourselves to influencers online who have these aesthetic morning routines, but we never take into account the fact that it’ll be 10am and they’ll still be doing their makeup to get ready for the day.
It’s unrealistic to be comparing your day with anyone else’s because everyone will be doing different tasks at different times of the day. Does your work require you to stand all day or do heavy lifting? If so, it might not be the smartest decision for you to be waking up super early only to exhaust yourself during your work.
Honoring Your Body’s Need for Rest
It’s important for you to learn between the difference of you just being lazy and not wanting to get out of bed and your body actually needing the rest. This can be a little tricky to distinguish at first, but it may look something like this: do you feel guilty and anxious after laying in bed all morning because now you’re behind on work, or do you feel super rejuvenated and ready to take on the rest of the day now that your body is well rested?
If your answer is the first, then you should probably get out of bed and start the day. If it is the ladder, then know that it’s completely fine to do nothing every once in a while and just let your body get the rest it needs.
Honoring your body’s need for rest is crucial when it comes to avoiding burnout. I have literally stayed in bed for a week just watching Netflix and not felt an ounce of guilt, and that’s how I knew that my body needed rest mentally and physically.
Actionable Steps
Understand Why You Want to Wake Up Early
We strive for earlier wake up times because we want to do something with that extra time. So what is it that you actually want to do? Chances are, most of you reading this right now haven’t even thought of this.
Why do you actually want to wake up early? Because some productivity book told you so? Or is it the aesthetic morning routines that you’ve been watching on Youtube?
Define. Your. Why.
And the why absolutely cannot be ” because i should”, “because its healthy”. No, that is not motivating at all! Your why should be something specific, something along the lines of:
“I want to wake up early to get x amount of studying done so I can get x grade on this subject”
“I want to wake up early so I can focus producing content without any distractions and work towards my dreams to live the kind of lifestyle I desire”
There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to wake up earlier and wanting to get more out of your day. But before actually doing that you need to be clear on why you want to wake up early and what you want to do with that extra time.
Personally, I actually do wake up pretty early, but that’s only because I have to be out the door by 7am everyday, and there are certain things that I have to get done before I leave for work, which brings me to my next point…
List Your Morning Non-Negotiables
What I suggest you to do is to make a list of the non-negotiables that you absolutely have to do in the morning and come up with a realistic time that it will take to get those tasks done.
For example, I have just two non-negotiables in the morning:
- Take my dog for her morning pee before work
- Take the time to look good and presentable for the day
Work on your absolute non-negotiables first, and then if you’d like, gradually build up from there. Don’t try to fit every possible “productive” thing into your morning routine- it’d be unrealistic.
Reduce Friction in Your Mornings
One of my favorite things I learned in Atomic Habits by James Clear is the idea of reducing friction for whatever habit it is that you’re trying to create. In order to have a smooth morning, you have to remove anything that could possibly cause friction- ie, not knowing what to wear, or waking up to a messy bedroom.
One way that I implement this is I lay out all of the skincare and makeup that I’m going to be using the next morning so that when the morning comes, I don’t spend any time hesitating which sunscreen to use or what color to put on my lips. If it’s not laid out in front of me, then I’m not using it. This one trick has done wonders for my mornings.
Tell Me: What are your thoughts on waking up early and productivity?
Until Next Time,
Emi
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