I’ve been getting up at 5am and spending 1 hour to write 1000 words and work on the next product I’m working on for PureOutside. What I didn’t realize was how big of a change that would be to everything in my life.
Getting up an hour earlier in the morning seems like it’s just getting up an hour earlier in the morning but that’s it but getting up earlier usually requires going to bed earlier. That requires a shift in evening activities to make everything line up for an earlier time to bed (which is not working that well right now). I tend to be pretty zombie like when I wake up at 5am so my morning routine has to be fairly rigid. But rigid is good, I don’t have to think about anything. Same thing every day. Same breakfast, same cup of tea, same music. I also have to be very clear on what I’m working on because not many good decisions are made at 5am. I can write but I can’t do a bunch of big picture planning. Everything I’m going to be doing needs to be laid out before hand.I’ve been doing it a little over a month now and it’s made a huge difference in my life. I’m getting much more done on my product. I’m writing a huge amount because of the 1000 words, most of that being in the 5am writing session. I’m forced to think about getting a good sleep and arranging my evening around that. But it would have never worked out if I had been hard on myself.Some days just aren’t perfect. I get up a little later, I get less done than I had hoped, something doesn’t work right on my computer and I have to fix it, or I get to bed late and I’m bagged. After over 26 years (probably less than that, little kids aren’t really hard on themselves) of being incredibly tough on myself, putting down my every decision because it could be better and slagging every performance because it sucked, I decided that that method isn’t working any more.Any time I screw up or I don’t do something right or it’s just not what I thought it was going to be like there’s no judgement, there’s no slagging, there’s no tough talk. All there is now is what happened, and how can I make it better next time. There’s no need to waste time putting yourself down. There’s no need to spend all that emotional energy. There’s just no need.Instead of berating myself every time I had to press snooze an extra time instead of getting up at 5am sharp, I just adjust things so it’s easier to do it and move on. No energy wasted. No emotional backlash.I’m working much better now.*** Photo Credit: Ant1_G