RSS28-Day Trial To Wake Up Early
by Celes | |
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This is part of the Early Riser Series. Be sure to check out the other articles:
- 28-Day Trial To Wake Up Early
- 21 Tips To Wake Up Early
- Why I Wake Up Early (And 9 Reasons You Should Do So Too)
- Cultivate Good Habits in 21 Days
Are you an early riser? What time do you wake up every day?
All my life, I have never been an early riser. When I was in university, I would purposely choose classes in the afternoon so I can chat and play online games (namely Gunbound, Ragnarok Online, Maple Story, Warcraft 3) with my friends till the wee hours and sleep in till the late morning. There were often times when I notoriously overslept and had to skip lectures/classes; I was late for tests/exams before as well and even missed a test because of the same reason (as luck would have it, I was able to get the test rescheduled).
When I was working, I would generally sleep at 1~2am and wake at 9~10am, depending on whether I was working in the office or from home (my previous company has a very flexible work culture). If there were 8 or 9am meetings, there was a certain likelihood I would oversleep and be late, as much as I tried not to be. During the weekends, I’d sleep in until 1~2pm.
Generally, whenever there was no external need to wake up early, I would sleep until very late.
Now that I’m not tied to a day-job, my sleeping hours have gone bonkers. Some days when I make a conscious effort to, I’d sleep at 12am and wake at 6am. However, if I have no coaching sessions or activities or with friends for the day, chances are I would sleep at 10:30am and wake up at 5:30pm. I’ve pretty much evolved into an owl!
If you are a regular reader and you read my 2009 goals before, you might recall one of them being cultivating the habit to wake up at 6am.
To be honest, waking up early had never been an interest of mine. I usually turned in late because there was always so much I wanted to do every day and I just hated it when I had to end the day off. By putting off sleep, it made me feel like I was being much more productive than if I had chosen to sleep earlier. Besides, I had friends from all around the world whom I could spend more time chatting with if I was up in the wee hours.
Whenever I heard about my friends waking at 6am, 7am, or even 8am on days where there was no obligation to do so, I would look at them incredulously. To me it was just an impossible task. Uh-uh. Why wake up so early for when you could sleep in late?
I’d long embraced my destiny as someone who slept late and woke up late. And I didn’t see anything wrong with that too. I didn’t see how waking up early or late would change anything about my life or make me any different as a person. I didn’t see how my success or accomplishments in life would, in any way, be hinged on a tiny little nuance like the time I wake up. I had been sleeping in late and waking late for the bulk of my life and it didn’t seem like it had in any way hindered me from achieving success in things I set out to do.
However, whenever I read personal development materials from critically acclaimed authors/teachers/gurus or interviews with highly successful and conscious people, they always talk about waking up early being a key building block for their success. Always. To date, I have never read any one of them mention they sleep in late or that waking up early did nothing for their lives.
As someone who is passionate about being the best I can be, it is simply too hard for me to ignore this. Waking up early sounds like it is part of a gold mine for a more conscious, productive and better life. For a benign habit like this to seemingly be able to generate such powerful benefits – it has made me really curious. As much as I enjoy turning in at a later hour, it would seem that I have to at least try this out for myself, to see if the merits of waking up early are really as good as everyone raves about.
For the month of February starting 1st Feb, I’m going to conduct a 28-day trial to wake up at 5am every day. This is an hour earlier than 6am I initially stated in my 2009 goals, because hey, might as well go all the way if I’m diving into this! 
The main objectives of this experiment are:
a) To identify the benefits (if any) of waking up early, at 5am
b) To identify how to successfully cultivate the habit of waking up early
If waking up early does indeed turnout to be as powerful and life changing as it is purported to be, then I would have found something that aids me in my quest for personal excellence. If it isn’t, then at the very least I would be able to tuck this behind me, knowing that I have tried it and it didn’t work for me. The worst thing that can happen is I had spent 28 days waking up early when I could wake up later. Not such a big deal to me.
As hard as it is going to be for someone like me (nocturnal for the past 11 years of my life) to cultivate this new habit, I’m going to do everything I can to pull this off. This is also going to be a great exercise to train my self discipline, which is also one of my 2009 goals.
I will drop in every now and then with updates on how the experiment is going in, via my site announcement updates and Twitter (if you have Twitter, feel free to follow me as a friend and I’ll do the same! 
) At the end of the experiment, I will determine if I want to continue the habit based on the results and wrap up the findings, results and conclusions of this trial with a follow-up article
Want To Join In This Trial?
If you have been meaning to try to wake up early – hey, why not join in this experiment together? After all, if you are not going to do it now, when are you going to do it then? It will be much easier doing it here as a collective group effort rather than doing it individually by yourself somewhere down the road. We will be using this page will be used as the single platform to update each other on the progress, post learnings and results 
5am is my personal waking target; feel free to select a target that works for you and you consider ‘early’.
Update (12 Feb, 8:45pm GMT+8): The sign up for the trial has officially closed. We have a full team of 20 participants on the trial Stay tuned for the round up of the trial soon!
(It’s actually 4:22am right now on my end as I’m posting this – needless to say, the last of the days when I’ll be sleeping late since the trial starts in 2 days )
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Filed in: Cultivate Habits | Posted on Jan 30 2009
(This comment will be used to update the list of participants for the trial)
Total count of participants = 21 (as of 4 Feb, 11:22am GMT+8)
1) Celestine; 5am
2) sambit; 5am
3) Marcus; 5am
4) yohan; 5am
5) Edward (edwardsuhadi); 5am
6) Matt (matttp); 5am
7) John (gidjin); 5am
8 ) James (james_brunch); 5am
9) RCB; 5am
10) Maggie; 6am
11) shemp ; 6am
12) gynot (gynot); 5am
13) Daphne; 6:30am
14) zUzU; 5am
15) Joseph; 6am
16) Tim; 5am
17) George; 6:30am
18) Matt; 6:30am
19) Tom James; 6:30am
20) Monda; 6am
21) bugbytes; 5am
I’ve stated 5am as the default time for those who did not specify a time. Let me know if you have a separate time target!
The scale is tilted even more heavily in my case. I am an owl for most of my 49yrs. But i am joining you on 1st just to know how it feels any different. Somehow i never felt like trying it earlier.
What about weekends?
sambit@ Excellent sambit, welcome to the club!
There’s a few people who have already joined us as well via twitter!
Brandon@ Hi Brandon! It’s everyday for 28 days!
Are you joining? Join us! 
When unchecked I go to sleep around 10am and wake up around 6:30pm.
When I make a consious effort to wake up early (approx 6:30am) I tend to get all my at-home errands done by 7:30am. Many businesses do not open till 9 or 10 so I often get distracted by TV or video games before leaving the house. If you work a 9-5 job I would recommend getting up this early. If you work another shift you might want to wait till 8am to wake up so that your work gets done before distractions set in.
Strange how I found this piece… I’m on something similar myself right now… a quest for excellence which is going to push me outside my comfort zones. Like yourself, sleeping late has been a habit I’ve developed in a fashion parallel to yours. Will be checking back over the 28 days. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and actions.
i wish you all the luck in the world. Most people do fine with this after some allowance time. We can all be morning people if we work hard enough. For me, since I have a choice, I rather stay up till 2am and wake up at 9am, but look forward to hearing your success Celes!
Wow Celes, I don’t suppose that you played online games. I had a habit like you in the past as well. Playing game till the late morning, a very bad habit.
However, I am still don’t wake up early. I generally wake up at 7.30am. I think you are great to make a commitment like that. Wake up early is also good for health. Keep it up, Celes.
I’m with you 100% – count me in. I’ve been a night owl for the past ~8 years . . . it’s time to take control. Here’s to becoming early risers!
Wow, glad to hear I’m not the only one with sleep issues.
I’m on board. 5:00 AM every day.
Thanks for leaving us a couple days to slack, although if I sleep too late Saturday I won’t be able to get to sleep on time.
I have to stay away from coffee and food in the PM to get to sleep early enough to do this.
Thanks for the inspiration.
DUDE! If i had to write about my sleeping, this post would be it. I’m considering doing this with you.
I already did that.
A – Waking up early allows you get your wits about you sooner in a more tranquil manner. You have a mental upper-hand all day long over anyone who woke up later.
B – Stay up progressively later over 3 days until you’re waking up at 5. Homefries and Coffee are important. The real key here is to wake up and do something mentally challenging. Crosswords are mehh. Download some lectures from Yale of Stanford off iTunes and run down the block. Once you can wake up and be cognizant in under 5 min, your all set.
@Brandon: LOL
My thoughts exactly
Great stuff you have here btw!
I’ll be joining you Celes. People tend to achieve an objective when they know that their fellow friends are joining them. Less reason to give up
Everyone@ Hey guys!! Amazing response so far!
Here’s the participant count at the moment:
Let’s also get everyone else to join us in this experiment! If you have Twitter, pls tweet the trial out to your friends so they can join us!
Here’s the Twitter message for your convenience: ‘Join us in the February 28-Day Trial To Wake Up Early!! http://tinyurl.com/czt3oe’
Please keep your tips coming on how to make this experiment a success! I’m writing a follow-up post now on tips to wake up early successfully!
John, Dave G@ Thanks for sharing your thoughts! So, will you be joining us in the experiment?
Hehe, I played online games in the past! Don’t do that anymore now since I’ve found my true passion in life 
Jay@ Thanks for your support! Will keep you posted on the progress!
Arswino@ Thanks for your comment!!
George@ Thanks for your reaffirmation on our plan and your tips as well!
I will join too with my hubby, gidjin, although he will be waking up at 5 and I will be waking up at 6. I’ve got more sleep needs than him to function properly but we still want to go to bed at the same time. I also need to take into account the possibility of being awake in the middle of the night due to small children, so I definitely need my full 8 hours!
Thanks for the added push, we’ve been talking about getting on a more regular schedule for a while now and it always goes better when I have significant awake time in the morning before the kids are up.
On weekdays, I get up at 6:50 for the train i must leave the house at 7:10. This often leaves me rushed. On the weekends I sleep in until 8 – 10 and waste my time off.
I pledge to get up at 6 for the month of Feb.
Great guys!! All your responses are really exciting me!!
Maggie@ Aw that’s so great that you are doing with your John/gidjin too!
For sure, waking up early in the morning will give you more time to do your personal things before the day starts! 
shemp@ 6am sounds like a great target to me! I’m sure it’ll add more flexibility into your traveling schedule; let us know how it goes when the trial starts
First day into the trial for me – Woke up at 5am, easily (despite being tired from an Ultimate Frisbee game yesterday!)
I find that having a compelling reason to be on the trial (#1 on the 21 tips list) really helps – for me, it is to be more productive/focused. And I’m already seeing great results – 7am currently, but I got a lot on my to-do list cleared. How’s everyone else doing in their first day? 
I have always wanted to do this…needless to say, tried and failed numerous times.. you are right.. it would be much easier to do it now with a grp rather than later, this is exciting, please count me in.
I pledge to go to bed before 12 and get up at 6 for the month of Feb.
It’s still the 31st here, getting ready for bed for 5:00 wakeup!
If anyone wants a mindset hint to help with the new lifestyle I’ve found that just using the mantra – “that’s what I do” – to explain your new schedule has worked for other changes that I’ve tried. If you’ve ever known people who excelled at something or were able to undertake changes that you weren’t they always have a mindset that sets them up to succeed. Things like maintaining a good schedule, exercising, eating right, continuing education, etc.. aren’t limited to certain people for some arbitrary reason, they are choices we make. There are plenty of reasons why it’s good to keep a regular schedule, I’m gonna try harder now, and when asked why I’m going to bed early my answer will be “that’s just what I do.”. Pretty soon it’ll be “Oh, I’ve been doing it for years” !
Oh yeah, the internet is a major distraction so I make a folder titled “Daily Open” with about 20 or so websites that I like to keep up with and open them all in tabs, when I’ve gone through them all I’m done with the internet for that day unless there is some specific research item. Just right-click on your Firefox address bar, (not sure about IE) click ‘New Folder’ and name it daily open or whatever you want. Then you can drag your favorite links into it. After it’s filled you can either center-click it or right-click and select ‘Open all in tabs’.
Good luck everyone!!!
I am going to do the challenge too. I live in Hawaii so it is only 12:33 am now. Must go to bed and wake up soon. Hope I can do it.
Just got up at 5. I can already tell that this promises to be a long day
I’m on my way to go drink some much needed caffeine.
Joseph, Tim@ Great!! I have included you on the list too
Let us know how your progress goes!
RCB@ I LOVE your enthusiasm! Indeed, it’s all about the choices we make – and I’m so sure that in no time, we will be looking back and wondering why we even took so long to wake up early because it’s not such a hard task when you really get down to it!
Marcus@ Excellent!
I’m in on my 2nd day @ 5am – it’s 7am now and I’m getting ready for my writing for the day 
You’ll find that you are likely to sleep earlier today – that’s what happened to me yesterday (slept at 8pm) and I’m all energized and revved up when I woke up!
I just got up at 6 this morning, and already finishing my chores and doing some work on 7 am. Since I like reading The Bible in the morning (used to be one of my favorite spiritual retreat), but never had the time since I busy at work and all the usual reasons
I think I am trying to do that again now. Will keep you updated.
Hi, Cel and Everyone, I am happy to report that I got up at 6 this morning, went out side and jogged for about 30 min.
Since it is a Sunday for me, I didn’t end up doing much else so I went back and took a nap from 9 – 11. I do feel a little guilty about that. I will have to do away with that tomorrow. But I set out to get up at 6 and I did it, first day of Feb, feeling very accomplished
i’m a day late
but count me in for 630!
Edward@ Excellent!
Congrats on your progress! 
I found I became more productive in the past couple of days as well when I woke up earlier.
Joseph@ Congrats on the success on your first day!
Don’t worry about taking a nap; the learning from this is probably to set up an agenda/schedule so you can get going after you wake up.
George@ You’re in and the 17th participant!
Keep us updated!
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HI all
Day one for me and up at 6:30
Kawaii, now I understand why 5am. It’s a very good initiative. Coincidentally, I have been waking up unusually early for the past 2 days to offer food to monks. (In Thailand, we follow Theravada buddhism. We practice “Sai-bat” which is the activity whereby buddhists/ followers can offer food to the monks in the morning) What I notice is waking up early does wonder to my awareness. I feel sharper during the day and much less lethargic. I will join you in waking up as early as I can but for me 5am seems too early. thank you for sharing!