12 lessons from someone who learned to wake up at 4:30 in the morning

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

A motivating story for those who want to learn to get up early, but still can't.

We invite you to read the story of Filipe Castro Matos, who trained himself to wake up at 4:30 in the morning in 21 days.

On April 2, I threw myself a new challenge. The task was simple: 21 working days I had to wake up at 4:30 in the morning. I'm used to waking up early (at 6 a.m. almost every day), but this time I wanted to go even further. I wanted to test myself and find out my limit.

And at the same time, I wanted to share my achievements with other people so that they can follow my example. I also wanted to refute some of the misconceptions that society blindly follows.

I decided to observe this regime only on weekdays, because weekends and holidays are a separate conversation. Of course, I don't have time to do some things on weekdays, so I have to postpone them to Saturday-Sunday, but mostly weekends are a time for fun and night out.

Yes, of course, I could observe such a regime every day, but in that case I would upset my life balance. Since I had planned to keep waking up that early and 21 days later, this would have turned into a real torture, not an advantage.

Why exactly 21 days? Well, I relied on an old idea from Dr. Maxwell Moltz, who claims that you need exactly 21 days to form new habits. I don't know if this actually works, I just needed to set a goal.

I have one rule that I try to adhere to: always set yourself a specific goal, because only in this way can you understand whether you succeeded or failed to achieve what you wanted.

What was the ultimate goal of all of this? Increased productivity. I wanted to get the most out of each day. I always think about how to improve my work, how to improve my life, and I like to think about all the details and take actions that will help me achieve what I want.

I always knew that I was an early riser, and my goal was to get up even earlier and see if this would increase my productivity.

So what have I found out during this time? A lot of everything.

1. If you want to change something in your life, you need support

This will help you stay on track when you have (and it will certainly appear) the desire to give up everything. I decided to share my observations with friends and acquaintances on Facebook. I knew that I needed to tell someone about this, because this is an additional incentive to move towards the intended goal.

When people find out about your new habit, they will become interested and ask questions. The most useful thing is that you will be afraid to show your weakness, and this alone is enough not to give up what you started. Moreover, I wanted to spark someone else with my idea. Of course, I understood that if I didn't succeed, it would not be a tragedy, but the thought that other people could follow my example helped me move on.

2. People are attentive to details

Some people think these early awakenings are not entirely normal, so I had to very actively defend my position in the comments. People were worried about me. They asked a lot of questions. And yet they believed that they themselves would never be able to train themselves to get up so early.

I had long and meaningful conversations with people who read my posts, and I am grateful to everyone who responded. These people made me think about a lot, and this article that you are reading now is largely due to these conversations.

3. People do not want to wake up earlier because they think that because of this they will sleep less

In the beginning, many were actually very worried about me. Most of the questions asked boiled down to one thing: when do I sleep? Of course, I planned everything in advance.

I knew very well how long it took my body to get enough sleep. And since I changed the time of my awakening, it was also necessary to change the time at which I would go to bed. It turned out to be easy for me. I need 6-7 hours to get enough sleep, and I was not going to sleep less.

So if the time is 9:30 or 10:00 pm, then I know it's time for me to go to bed. To my surprise, most of the people who asked me when I sleep actually slept much less than I did. And I started getting enough sleep much better than before.

4. Remove obstacles that come your way

People are very fond of saying that it is impossible to do this or that. Yes, of course, there are certain circumstances that can become an obstacle. But I believe that many people are simply lazy and don't want to put in extra effort to improve their lives. They just go with the flow, not really thinking about their real capabilities.

Yes, maybe it's easy for me to say, because I had suitable conditions: I am not married, I have no children, my life belongs only to me. But, on the other hand, a lot depended on my desire and motivation.

If I lived with my parents, it would be much more difficult to do this, because I would have to reckon with my family, with their habits and rhythm of life. So, I started this path, making sure in advance that nothing would hinder me.

Think about everything that prevents you from achieving your desired goal.

This applies not only to the desire to wake up earlier, but also to the desire to quit smoking, start going to the gym, or, say, eat more fruits and vegetables. How to get rid of all the obstacles that prevent you from reaching your goal?

I knew that I needed the following: complete independence, the ability to fall asleep whenever I want, the ability not to wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, realizing that I have a lot of unfinished business, the ability to work anywhere and anytime … Fortunately, I had it all.

I usually work in startups, which means I have a free and flexible schedule, which is why I can start work at 4:30 in the morning. This schedule allows me to return home earlier. Besides, no one depends on me, and I do not depend on anyone. And despite the fact that seven other people live in the same house with me, it was easy for me to fall asleep so early.

5. Your physical condition will help you a lot

If we talk about sleep, then I am very lucky. I fall asleep very quickly (on average, it takes me 5 minutes). I sleep well (I rarely wake up at night). There are no problems with waking up either: I get up immediately at the alarm clock.

Of course, this is a consequence of my lifestyle: I eat well, I go in for sports every day, there are no constant and global worries in my life. And I believe that most people can also wake up earlier if they decide to change their lifestyle.

All changes start with small things, but after a few weeks or months, you realize the benefits of all these small changes.

6. Forget the phrase "10 more minutes"

Many of us sin with this: we do not get up immediately at the signal of the alarm clock, but rearrange it for another 10 minutes later. Fortunately, I rarely did this, and now I am finally convinced of the futility of this exercise.

If you want to wake up at a certain time, then please forget about this eternal "well, another 10 minutes." This will seriously affect your day: you will not get enough sleep in these 10 minutes, moreover, you will feel more tired, and this will negatively affect your affairs.

7. I love to sleep, but my body only needs 6-7 hours to get enough sleep

After 6-7 hours of sleep, I can no longer sleep, I just toss and turn in bed. Better to get up and do something interesting and useful. I'll sleep in the next world.

8. More time left for work

After I started waking up at 4:30 in the morning, I had two extra hours to devote to work. How? As I said above, I'm a morning person and after 6 pm I can't do anything particularly useful, my productivity drops already in the afternoon.

So these two evening hours, which I was uselessly surfing the Internet, I rescheduled into the morning and devoted myself to work. Now I could finish work earlier and rest exactly when I needed it.

9. I had time to sort my mail

Typically, in those two hours, I have time to answer all the emails and plan my day. Seeing the number zero in front of your Inbox at 6:30 AM is great. Most of all, I am glad that very few people can answer my messages at such an early hour. This is especially true of Facebook - this is the worst enemy of our time. Message after message, we might get hung up all day.

And if you think about it, you will notice that most people do not need immediate answers to their questions at all, and nothing bad will happen if you answer emails tomorrow.

10. More time for training

I went to the gym before I decided to get up early. But since I started waking up at 4:30 in the morning, I decided to add one more workout per week. Before that, I had enough classes three times a week, but now this is not enough: I need 4-5 workouts.

Early awakenings help me with this: I do not come to workout tired, as it usually happened before. Plus, I go to the gym with a sense of accomplishment - I have already managed to work for two hours.

11. A new look at the world

My early awakenings allowed me to notice details in the world around me that I had barely paid attention to before.

Going for a run or a walk before the sun had risen was not possible before, when I was living on a standard schedule.

12. And of course, you need willpower to restructure your daily routine

If you don't have willpower, then it is more than likely that you will give up. Train your willpower, learn to achieve what you want.

In the end, if you really want to, then no one can stop you!