My future starts when I wake up every morning… Every day I find something creative to do with my life.
Miles Davis
There is no doubt in my mind that almost every successful man to have walked upon earth woke up early. People have a general misunderstanding that freelancing entails waking up when you feel like it and working when you want. Professional freelancing is actually more about being your own boss and having the discipline to work when it is most productive and taking breaks when they fit best.
The advantages of waking up earlier are numerous of which one is better productivity. If you have your doubts then try it and you will notice a higher level of productivity along with more hours in the day. If you wake up usually around 10am and then start waking up at 6am, this will give you an extra 4 hours. You may think that these 4 hours are just those from the end of the day, however, these are more productive than 4 hours before going to bed.
There are many problems with waking up early and below I have written about the methods which I implement to wake up before the sun. If you feel that you have a better method, then feel free to tell us about it in the space provided at the end of the article.
The Secret of Waking up Early
As for the five things that corrupt the heart, they are…and the fifth is over sleeping. These five are the greatest corrupters of the heart.
Ibn al-Qayyim
There is a secret of what makes you wake up early in the morning and the secret is a good night’s sleep. You must ensure that you get the best sleep possible to ensure you wake up earlier to a more productive day. Please notice, best sleep is not necessarily long sleep or that of a certain number of hours.
If I were to ask you the best method of getting sleep in order to wake up earlier you may say that it means to go to sleep early. This is not fully true as the following point will illustrate.
Go to sleep when you are tired
Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask, “Where have I gone wrong?”
Then a voice says to me, “This is going to take more than one night.”
Charles M. Schulz
Do not go to sleep when you are not tired with the intention that this will help you wake up earlier. In reality you will stay awake for longer and you will end up not getting up early. If you
Subscribe to our RSS!
go to bed when you are sleepy this will help associate your bed with sleep and eventually you will sleep as soon as you get into bed as opposed to tossing and turning.
One of the main reasons as to why one suffers from insomnia is because of so many sleepless nights they have now associated their bed with everything but sleep. Only go to your bed when you are ready to knock off.
If you are not sleepy and it is time you ought to be, then tire yourself out by reading a book or attempting a few stomach crunches.
No coffee…ever
Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake.
Victor Hugo
Coffee contains high levels of caffeine and you may think that a coffee in the morning will help you wake up and then leave your system by night. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Twelve hours after you have had a cuppa you will have significant levels of caffeine in your blood causing you to not rest properly.
Drinking coffee will cause you to become more restless and end up becoming a zombie who just wakes up and works without creativity or happiness. This is probably down to the fact that with such levels of caffeine swimming around in your blood you will definitely not get any deep sleep.
There are 5 levels of sleep, where 5 is deep sleep and 1 is when you sort of know what is happening around you. Twelve hours after drinking coffee you will not even enter into stage 4 of sleep, let alone stage 5. Stage 5 ensures you have a nice deep sleep and this is the stage in which you have dreams.
Actually Waking up
You may implement the above rules and nothing changes. This is because you will wake up to…
Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep!!!
…naturally turning this infernal racket off by smacking the top of the alarm clock.
So how can you possibly wake up without going back to sleep angry at the alarm clock? Personally I place the alarm clock at such a place in the room where it is humanly impossible for me to reach it while lying in bed. Once I wake up and walk over to turn it off, I realise I ought to wake up now.
How do you wake up early? Please share this with us below by commenting
Want to say thanks? Then do so by socially bookmarking us using the links below
Ensure you subscribe to our RSS feed, you know you want to!
December 16th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
I have absolutely no self-control when it comes to waking up early. I set my alarm and it doesn’t phase me! My only trick to doing so is to stick to a schedule where I’ll wake up naturally early. I get off my computer and wind down hours before bed (this also helps to keep a work life balance in tact, as well as my sanity), and I fall asleep around the same time. I’ve adjusted my body to waking up at sunrise, so its me doing it, not my alarm.
Then again, I’m at a point where I don’t need that much discipline — no family, school, etc at this point to work around. I’m not sure how well my technique will work once my life gets more structured, but at least I’m in a semi-normal state now!
December 16th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
Personally I am always awake before my alarm clock goes off. I think you are right about increasing responsibilities causing more pressure, and this is true. I have recent had a baby daughter (yay!) and that causes sleepless nights and unusual sleep patterns. So, yeah you are right.
December 16th, 2009 at 7:21 pm
Interesting, I’ll give it a try! I think the hardest part for me is convincing myself it’s bed time. I am much more awake at the end of the day so I end up staying up late. So naturally getting up early can be a real pain in the butt.
Thanks for the tips!
Ryan
December 16th, 2009 at 9:24 pm
I apply a very simple and nice technique for waking up early without troubles: I quit being a child about it :D Do you remember when you were little and you scratched your knee and your mother applied a bandage? How about when it was time to pull it off? You knew that would take just 1 second, but still you didn’t want it done. The same is with waking up: if you get enough sleep and if you wake up to do something you like (recommended) it shouldn’t take you more than 10 minutes to get over the nasty sensation. Just like pulling off a bandage :)
December 16th, 2009 at 10:24 pm
I find that a light rather than sound alarm works really well. In the Winter you wake up naturally with the room bathed in light so it resets the internal clock somewhat.
December 17th, 2009 at 12:14 am
I was a Brazilian living in Bismarck ND.
It’s kinda our culture to sleep late and wake up really early, so while a lot of my friends needed like 10 to 14 hours of sleep to handle college pressure, I would stick with four. Till winter time…
Winter came, and I had to buy an alarm clock, so I got the worse alarming clock ever, which later I changed to a three phased one connected to my ipod. That really gave me a boom in getting on time during winter time. It could be programed to play three musics on each alarm phase. so I put a calming one, then a more jazzy and lastly was some techno.
When the techno hit I was jumping and jazzydancing on the shower… In two years I got late for college like once or twice.
December 17th, 2009 at 3:31 am
Terrific article. And perfect timing too…
I just recently returned to freelancing, and although for the first few weeks I was pretty good at getting up around 8:30am, lately it has become 9:45am, 10:30am, sometimes just barely before noon! You’re absolutely right about how unproductive one’s day feels when you sleep in. I feel so guilty about accomplishing so little by the time my boyfriend gets home from work, just hours after I’ve woken up.
Thanks for the little wake up call. I’m going to close up my laptop, hit the hay early tonight. :)
December 17th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
Thanks for this great post, waking up early is always a problem for me!
December 17th, 2009 at 7:46 pm
You’re right when you suggest that freelancing is about working when it’s most productive and taking breaks when it isn’t. But I have to play devil’s advocate here and say that not everyone is most productive in the mornings.
If I try to force myself, I can be moderately productive in the mornings, but I feel like a slower paced, full breakfast + coffee gives me the best foundation to get into “Kickass Mode” *later* in the day.
And yes, I said coffee. Black. And a hefty amount of it. Coffee really is not the soul-crushing, life-ruining, widow-making substance that you’re making it out to be. Those who do drink coffee are more likely to become the “zombie” you mention when they *don’t* drink it… unable to focus and mindlessly staring at what we should be working on.
If you don’t like coffee and would rather use Victor Hugo quotes about God to stay awake, that’s your prerogative. Just don’t go hatin’ on those of us who love our morning ritual of brewing a steamy cup of anti-oxidant packed goodness. I’m sure you’d agree that freelancing *is* about doing what works for you =)
December 17th, 2009 at 8:35 pm
Everyone is different. I’m most productive solo from 1-4am, socially from 5pm-midnight, and I run on autopilot from 2pm-5pm unless I take a nap. The only caffeine I get is from tea, and I’m a 19 year old student who runs 2 companies that together bring in well into 6 figures.
I wouldn’t say I’m anything special, but I would refute that “every successful man to have walked upon earth woke up early.”
December 17th, 2009 at 10:16 pm
Ughh…I’m the worst morning person ever. After reading this, I’ve been somewhat inspired to try to improve it.
No matter what I’m waking up for (and I love my job), I just can’t do it. I’ll even wake up before my alarm, just to disable it.
December 18th, 2009 at 10:16 am
Waking up early is my biggest weakness. No matter the amount of caffeine in my system I can fall deeply asleep at midnight just as well as six hours later, but I will wake up at the same time in the “morning”, which unfortunately is NOT when my alarm starts. In fact I have two alarms that are far away from my bed and I manage to turn them off and go back to sleep without noticing. I even had conversations in the morning (while still in bed) without remembering later.
And I am definitely more productive at night. Look at me now: it’s 11am, I’ve been up since 8:30am and I’m still procrastinating.
The only time I got out of this rhythm was with a 6-hour jetlag.
I do feel bad about it, but I have to admit to myself that I am in no way useful before 11am… I can’t wait to have kids ;-)
December 18th, 2009 at 11:59 am
I usually get up around 7 AM and make myself a cup of espresso and take my time to wake up until 8 AM before getting to any kind of serious work. I found out that this ‘extra’ hour allows me to concentrate on the tasks at hand; getting in the right mindset for the coming day.
Regarding the coffee theory, I’ve been told by an italian bartender that drinking an espresso (a.k.a. real coffee) 30 minutes before going to bed actually improves the quality of your sleep. He told me that sometimes the lack of quality sleep has to do with low blood pressure, meaning if your blood pressure gets to low your body reacts with contractions to increase it again, thus ruining your deep sleep. I’m not a doctor but I consulted one regarding this issue and he told me that I might be up to something here. Regardless, if I need to get the most out of a couple of hours sleep, I have a cup of espresso and go to bed, works every time. YMMV. ;-)
December 18th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
Thank you for this article – actually it is a problem for me to get enough sleep at night. I will try to change some things. Maybe some of these hints are useful for me.
January 2nd, 2010 at 7:00 am
Amazing as always
January 5th, 2010 at 8:46 am
“Drinking coffee will cause you to become more restless and end up becoming a zombie who just wakes up and works without creativity or happiness. This is probably down to the fact that with such levels of caffeine swimming around in your blood you will definitely not get any deep sleep.” –> True, true. I definitely have personal experience with this. Hard to avoid though, when I’m addicted to the stuff :P
Here’s a supplementary article, 5 ways to help freelancers conclude their working day. Hope you find it useful as well :) : http://freelancesupermarket.com/blog/2009/11/26/5-ways-to-help-freelancers-conclude-their-working-day.aspx
January 10th, 2010 at 1:16 am
Thanks!
January 20th, 2010 at 6:05 pm
Wow!
Shoaib does it again – an article that really tackles an important but all too often overlooked issue.
Our minds and bodies are our greatest resources in life and business, getting a good nights sleep is essential for the health and wellbeing of both.
I gained some excellent tips and some great insights. I’m going to try the alarm clock on the other side of the room!
January 21st, 2010 at 12:20 am
Thanks to everyone who gave their supportive comments :)
January 28th, 2010 at 8:24 pm
What irritates me is this: I go to sleep at the same time every night (around 10pm). I wake up at 6 or 7 am, never really feeling rested, by alarm.
On Saturdays, with no alarm, I am up no later than 7 am. I just, simply wake up naturally at that time.
On Sundays, after going to bed at the same time (10pm), I always – always – wake up well around 10 am.
I wish I had some sort of sleep cycle consistency.
February 5th, 2010 at 8:58 pm
lol, yes that does sound odd. You may be going to sleep not relaxed at waking up…but I don’t really know much. That does sound a little irritating! But people have much worse problems so you’re okay! :)
April 25th, 2010 at 9:12 am
Decent website, maintain up the good function
July 25th, 2010 at 5:14 pm
Caffeine actually helps me get out of bed. The night before I make sure I have some sort of drink crammed with sugar/caffeine ready to go beside my bed. I have a bad habit of going back to sleep ‘just for 5 min’ and waking up an hour later. Soon as my alarm goes off I gulp down as much sugar/caffeine as I can and then lay back in bed for 10 min until I feel awake. In the morning your blood sugar levels are at the lowest so I find the sugar helps even more than the caffeine.
August 20th, 2010 at 12:48 pm
I like your point about not going to sleep until your tired. This makes sense to train your body not to lay in bed unless you are sleepy
August 24th, 2010 at 1:15 pm
Good little article, although it assumes every-one has the same sleep pattern and benefits from the same things, which is not the case.
I’ve been an awkward sleeper ever since I was a child. I naturally migrate to 4am bedtimes with 11am wakeups, and am rarely productive in the mornings.
However, I am much more productive the afternoon and even more so on an evening. And yes, I do drink coffee – after not doing for many years, then finding it doesn’t negatively impact my sleep pattern anyway…
Rob