Mohamad-Ali Salloum is a Pharmacist and science writer. He loves simplifying science to the general public and healthcare students through words and illustrations. When he's not working, you can usually find him in the gym, reading a book, or learning a new skill.
Why should you wake up at 5 AM?
Mohamad Ali Salloum, PharmD • January 3, 2022
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Getting your way into productivity!
You have always heard about the benefits of waking up early and follow the habits of the rich. IT'S NOT ONLY ABOUT THAT. It's also about how it will make you feel.
I bet that you tried waking up early at least once in your lifetime, but you felt that it did not work out and quit it after few tries. You felt sleepy and did not do much work. WHICH IS NORMAL AT THE BEGINNING :D
To wake up early, you should plan it well and make your body and mind ready for it. It is not an easy task.
There are several ways to overcome this challenge and start your early mornings with high energy. One of the most important steps to do before deciding to start waking up early is to know WHY you want to do that. If you did not search for the “why”, you will not be able to discipline yourself to do it.
1) Enhance your cognitive function.
It doesn’t need science to prove this (although research backs it up). Cognitive functions refer to multiple mental abilities, including learning, thinking, reasoning, remembering, problem solving, decision making, and attention. Once you start the habit of waking up early (and of course, sleeping early) you will feel the difference in your cognitive functions. You will be able to focus more during work or your class, memorize better, and even your thoughts will seem clearer and not foggy.
2) Enhance Productivity
First what does being productive mean?
It means to do MORE with LESS.
Technically, it is the output generated from a system divided by the input that is used to create the output.
So to increase our productivity, we should work on increasing the output (results) with less input (effort).
Suppose input is the effort and the output is the result. As mentioned above, our cognitive functions enhance when waking up early. This means that we can focus on what we are doing, which means that we take less time in doing tasks that usually take longer time to finish. So that we are able now to do more tasks with less time.
So as you can see, hypothetically, productivity increased from 2 units to 5 units. This means that we need less units of effort (2 units) to do 10 tasks when we wake up early (due to enhanced cognitive function).
This doesn’t only include work tasks, but It also means being able to catch up to your mental, physical, and spiritual needs.
3) More Energy
Our bodies evolved to sleep early and wakeup early. There is no discussion to this. When we give our bodies what it wants, it rewards us with energy. The first week you may feel de-energized since your body needs some time to adapt to waking up early and to adjust the circadian system within your body. After some time, you will start feeling energized the moment you wake up.
4) Time for Yourself
One of the best features that come with waking up early is the free time you will gain. There is no more freeing feeling to owning your time and do whatever you want to do. You can wakeup and enjoy the sunrise with a cup of coffee. You can paint or go for a nice walk. You will enjoy this time more if you have kids and need some time alone. This “time for yourself” thing is very beneficial for your mental health and your ability to continue accomplishing your daily tasks without reaching to burnout.
5) Apply 20/20/20 rule (movement/reflection/learning)
Robin Sharma talked about this method in his book “5 AM Club”. He explained this method in detail and how to apply it. Briefly explained, when you wake up at 5 AM the first thing to do is to sweat up for 20 minutes. Do any exercise that makes you sweat. After those 20 minutes, you have another 20 to self-reflect. The last 20 minutes should be used to learn something new, like reading a book. You can adjust the minutes as much as you have time. For example you can do it with 40 minutes intervals and not 20 minutes.
Concerning the self-reflection part, I just want to stress on the point that Self-reflection is the habit of intentionally paying attention to your own thoughts, emotions, decisions, and behaviors. Here's a classic example: We should from time to time reflect back on an incident and how we handled it hoping that we learn something from it and make better decisions in the future.
6) Plan the Day
Do you know that it only takes 1% of your day to plan your whole day? 1% of your day is only 14 minutes, which all of us can afford to plan. Trust me it’s worth it. Once you establish the habit of planning your day, you will learn how to organize your tasks and so that you will be able to do more tasks with the same 24 hours you’ve always had. Magic, huh?
To Conclude...
These are the 6 why’s you should wake up early. If the mentioned above steps don’t motivate you to start waking up early, you should start looking more into the reason behind your inability to feel motivated.
For example, if you are stressed out because of work, you can consider waking up early an escape from your work. Enjoy these 2 hours before getting to work, and even better you can start developing skills that will allow you to change your career to a position you like more.
If you are a student, waking up early and applying the 20/20/20 rule will allow you to start your day with momentum. Also doing sports will increase the release of BDNF (Brain-derived neurotrophic factor) in your body. This chemical will increase the neurogenesis in a region in your brain called the hippocampus. One of the responsibilities for the hippocampus is the conversion of short-term memory to long-term memory. Briefly, your memory retention will enhance and you will be able to remember things more! Not to forget the increase in your focus. (read the 1st point discussed above)
My last advice for you is to always look for the “why” when you want to achieve something. This will make you disciplined through out your journey to your ultimate goal.
You can also watch the below video about the importance of waking up early.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mohamad-Ali Salloum, PharmD
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