Becoming an early riser isn’t about trading sleep for productivity. It’s about taking back a part of your life by trading tired evening hours for productive and wakeful mornings.
You probably can’t tell your boss that you’ve decided not to work between 9-11am because you need productive time for yourself and personal projects. You’d be laughed at. What you can do is make a habit of waking early and add hours of productivity to your every morning!
Here are just five of the benefits you’ll enjoy as an early riser:
1. Freedom from distractions -
Whether you have a house full of kids or a phone that never stops ringing, the early morning is the best time to escape the distractions of daily life.
2. More time for personal projects -
If you’ve ever wanted to start a blog, save your marriage, write a novel, get more exercise (one of my early-morning heavy-hitters), or paint your kitchen, do it in the morning. You’ll get more done in an hour of early morning productivity than you could ever hope to accomplish in the evening after a long day of distractions.
3. A change in perspective -
Have you ever gone for a swim in very cold water? At first, the temperature is shocking. Then you become accustomed to the coolness and begin to find it refreshing. Getting up early allows you to approach your life with the same technique. Instead of leaping into your day and stroking furiously for the other side, starting early leaves you with enough time to paddle around a bit and enjoy the process of wakefulness.
4. The Sunrise -
I’m entirely with Leo on this point. I’m usually a mile into my morning walk by the time the sun makes it over the horizon. There is no greater primal joy (except holding one’s child for the first time, perhaps) than experiencing the warmth and light of another new day beginning.
5. Starting the day off right -
When you begin your day by acting in a way that says, “I am going to take care of my body, mind and spirit” you set a precedent for the rest of your day.
So how do you become an early riser? Just follow two simple steps:
- Read 5 Steps To Falling Asleep Easily and practice the steps each evening at a time that will give you plenty of rest before the start of your day.
- Subscribe to Primal Stride so you don’t miss upcoming articles with great tips to help you start your day with a spring in your step! We’ve already done one seven-day challenge with an early-riser component. Stay tuned for the next!
If you’re already an early riser, sound out in the comments with something you enjoy about the early morning! (And no, staying up until 5am doesn’t count… although it is fun.)
I am a morning person already and love taking a walk into the heart of the city when the streets are dead quiet. Only the other morning folk are out and about and it’s kind of cool when we actually smile and even say a quiet hi to each other.
I do suffer a bit of withdrawal and my day gets all messed up if I stay up too late the night before and loose that early morning quiet.
I am NOT a morning person by nature and find that I’m the most productive in the evenings. But, as you stated, it’s hard to find people that will work around a schedule just to accomodate. I started waking up as part of the first week’s challenge and have found that I feel much less ‘frazzled’ in the morning.
I normally wake up later than I want, rush to eat, change clothes a couple of times because things aren’t ironed or particularly flattering today, rush out the door and realize I’ve forgotten something 7 miles into the trip. It has been nice to start each day more relaxed, with time to check and double-check for all the items I’ll need that day and eating properly rather than grabbing a breakfast bar on the run.
So, thanks to Primal Stride Challenge, I’m a believer. I still hate it when I hear the alarm, but I appreciate the value in the early rise now that I’ve accomplished it.
I think I need to start waking up earlier, I feel like my day is so rushed when I sleep in. However, it is a challenge for me to get to sleep early, I seem to get VERY distracted at night and end up doing a million pointless things before falling into bed. .
Normally, I’m a fairly early riser. I like getting up at 5 and going for my morning walk around 6 when the streets are still empty.
But during exams, my day is upside-down. The rest of my family are also early risers, so I don’t really get the peace and quiet I need for studying early in the morning, so I end up going to sleep at around 6 PM and waking up at midnight.. does that count as “early”?
Great advice! I’ve never been a morning person, even as a child. But you make very good points; each I’ve experienced but some reason I never really thought about those reasons as a whole…maybe because of my 10am rule: I may be up and mobile long before 10am but brain sure doesn’t wake up until 10. Please keep all your great advice coming…I’m learning a lot and getting very inspired by you!
I agree with you, I am a morning person although on dark winter mornings it is more difficult to get going. But being out at my field feeding the animals when it’s quiet is such a peaceful way to start the day.
And my thoughts have cleared overnight meaning I have lots of fresh ideas first thing in the morning. I like to have a notebook around to scribble down thoughts. They may be fairly random but they’re usually pretty good and much better than when my head gets full of the clutter of daily life.
And finally I’m a better Mum too, when I’ve time to get organised rather than trying to rush everyone. Good advice!
Great post. As you mention, Leo has a good strategy to make this happen if you are not a “morning person.” Start small. Even waking 15min earlier than usual will be an effective way to allow you to reach your goal. Overall fitness levels can assist in this process as well.
Historically, I have always been a night owl…but over the past couple years, since I started doing freelance work full-time, I have definitely found that the morning is the most productive time of the day! When I first started freelancing I fell into the trap of sleeping late just because I could, and I found that the rest of the day felt like unproductive “catch-up” time. I always felt rushed and uninspired. I can’t believe how much I can get done between 6:30 and noon — you’re definitely write that the morning is just naturally a more productive time.
Now I just need to apply this principle to my workouts! I’ve set a new goal of working out at least a half an hour a day, and I know that morning would be a much better time to squeeze it in. When I tell myself I’ll work out in the afternoon or evening, somehow it never happens.
Thanks for the really nice article on getting up early. I have been an early riser all my life. Recently it has been tough because my job teaching fitness classes and personal training clients keeps me up late. But I still manage to get up before sunrise and do the sun salutations or surya namaskaram. Exercise in the morning is the key to keeping your fitness resolutions.
Only recently found your site, enjoying reading it!
Thanks for the inspiration. I plan to be walking first, then running, before work in the mornings.