“Get up early; it's the best part of the day.” George
Allen
In our
frenetic world of activities, I think the most natural and suitable time for us
to do serious personal thinking about our lives, goals and ambition is the
earliest part of the day.
At this
time, most people are asleep, the atmosphere is serene and the weather is usually
calm. More importantly, your mind is clearer due to the accompanying freshness
of a good night slumber.
Therefore, get
up early enough to pinpoint your day’s priorities before everyone else forces you
to run most of your day in a reaction mode. Put off everything until you have
figured out the critical tasks for the day. This, I believe, you can consistently
do well, only when you choose to adopt the idea of being an early riser.
This
article is meant to help you make that choice!
Waking up early
is the habit of many resourceful people in history. Whether we are looking at
movers in business, religion, science, philosophy and arts, the number of men
and women who employ the tool of wee hours to their benefit is legion.
While I am
not dismissing the reality of night owls (people who do their best work at
night), my bias in this article is for the early risers; the vital few who
generally do more before noon than most people do all day.
Even if you
are a night owl, how you start your early morning can significantly affect how you
will spend the rest of the day. And repeating this everyday is how you create your
whole life.
However,
for anyone who cares to become an early riser for real, the next idea needs to
be taken very seriously.
Fix
Your Bed Time
In his
book, “Why We Sleep” Mathew Walker, a professor of neuroscience at the University
of California explores many ideas on the concept of good sleep. And to ensure
that we are having a quality standard of sleep, he suggests that we keep a consistent
snooze schedule. He writes:
“If
you can only adhere to one (thing)…everyday, make it going to bed and waking up
at the same time of the day.”
By
extension, I think this is a powerful way to set ourselves up for waking up
early as a matter of habit. In other words, if you seriously desire to be an
early riser, always go to bed early, at the same fixed time.
Meanwhile, in
the entire book, this one idea is about the most important tip for anyone to
hold on to; the professor emphasizes that pretty much, himself.
So, my dear
reader, figure out the average sleep hours your body needs per night to be well
rested; and set your sleeping timer accordingly. Then keep to that time, every
single night. By doing this, it will soon become a habit. And when it does; you
will no longer be someone who mostly rises early but someone who always rises
early, no matter what.
If you aim
for the good quality of life, then you can’t neglect the crux of this writing:
there is power in rising early, every single day.