You don’t have to wake up at 5am to be successful. But you probably should.
Here’s why waking up early is the life-hack that I hate to admit – works.
(Voiced over this newsletter if you’d rather listen to my antics and me attempt to sing Jill Scott) lol
Today I woke up at 7am, took a shower, made the bed, put on gym clothes, let the nanny in, attempted to drink my detox tea (it was nasty), made breakfast, took my vitamins (vitamin C, vitamin D + K2, and a synbiotic), walked the dog, went to the gym, went grocery shopping for the week, picked up lunch, came home, ate lunch, put the groceries away, planned my week and started working.
I thought to myself, “Wow, she’s really getting the hang of this adulting thing.” (Cue Jill Scott: Woke up this mornin’, with a smile on my faceeee.)
Until I realized it’s freaking 2:30pm and I’m just now starting my work for the day.
What the heckkkk.
So here’s my take on waking up early.
Take 1: All successful people aren’t morning people. But they’re all disciplined.
I’m so over the narrative that all successful people wake up at 5am. We’ve got influencers drowning our timelines with 5am morning routines that they recorded on the single day of the year that they actually did it. Oops, I probably wasn’t supposed to say that out loud.
I just don’t think there’s a linear approach to what makes someone successful. If you’re a night person, cool. Success is more about having the discipline to get the tasks done that will actually push your life forward. And that is why it seems like all successful people wake up early. Because they have the discipline to – not because waking up early is actually the thing that made them successful. If you have the discipline to wake up early, that discipline transfers into many other areas of your life.
Take 2: Waking up early literally buys you more time.
The best part about waking up early is the feeling of getting to noon and thinking, “wow, it’s only noon?” – instead of, “ugh, it’s noon already!” That’s when I know I slept too late. It’s crazy because I thought there wasn’t enough time in a day before I had a kid. But now, tuh! My entire day is basically 4 hours long, the other 20 just get dissolved into the abyss of parenting, cooking, straightening up the house, and a bunch of other random tasks. We literally had to buy ourselves time and hire a nanny so we could increase that to about 9 hours. Basically, waking up early is a non-negotiable if I want to hit any of my goals before I’m 80 (or just have a moment to myself). With a fresh night’s sleep, my creativity and focus are at 100. As the day progresses, they steadily decrease. I’m able to knock out tasks 4x faster than I would if I started even 3 hours later. It’s beautiful. Why don’t I do this more often!?
Take 3: Because you go to bed too late. That’s why you suck at waking up early.
The quality of your morning is 100% dictated by the quality of your night. I believe we need to give the night routine a lot more shine because she is the only road we can take to a good morning. I habitually go to bed late. After putting River down for bed, my goal is to clean the kitchen after dinner and “get a few things done” while I watch a show and ineffectively wind down. My version of a night routine looks like watching Bachelor, while scrolling on social, while also trying to finish a newsletter or attempting to outline content, while pumping and thinking about what I can have as a midnight snack. Until I finally release the idea that anything will actually get done, so I close my laptop, shower, get in bed, and scroll until I fall asleep. Awful. But hey, at least I’m being honest. The first step in changing is admitting where you are. I know good and well I ain’t the only one. So anyway, this usually puts me to sleep around 12-12:30. That said, there’s no way in hell I’m waking up at 5am. I’m a 7 hours of sleep per night kinda gal.
Take 4: Think of every minute as a dollar.
The thing about successful people is that they don’t take time for granted. Not a single minute. Ryan Serhant (one of my favorite entrepreneurs to follow) shares his 1000 minute rule. In the video, he explains how time is not only our greatest resource and asset, but our currency. They don’t say time is money for nothing. Each day consists of 1,440 minutes (roughly 440 are spent sleeping, eating, showering, etc.) so we have 1,000 minutes to work with. He thinks of these 1,000 minutes as a bank of $1,000 that he starts his day with. So if he wastes 100 minutes, that’s $100 taken from his time bank. Wasting time wastes money. Our time should have a positive ROI. We should be adding to our banks throughout the day. Time should be making us money.
I’d never heard time broken down in this way but it definitely is making me think more granularly on how I’m spending each minute of my day. Honestly, if you don’t value a minute, you won’t value an hour, or a day… or a year.
So, it’s not about becoming a morning person. It’s about maximizing your time.
Discipline is the root of consistency. It’s the mentality and consistency as the action. One literally can’t exist without the other.
Simply put, my goal is to shift my identity to become a morning person. Not for the optics or to make a vlog about it. But to genuinely feel my best throughout the day. To gain discipline around time so I can become more consistent in my life’s mission.To train myself to value time more deeply and consistently. To allow my time to have an ROI.
This is a work in progress and I plan to gradually bump up my wake-up time until I find a time that’s optimal for me.
I hope this post encourages you to take control of your time! Every minute counts and is a blessing to experience.
Are you a morning person? If so, what time do you wake up?! Let’s chat about it!
In love & creativity,
Erin
P.s. - No but seriously, what time did Jill Scott jump out of bed to do all that before she grabbed her keys, grabbed her purse, grabbed her jacket and was off to work? Probably 5am lol
On the channel:
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Detox drink ... "But it was nasty" lolololol
Also, I was all in until you said, "But you probably should" 😂 ... I am not a morning person but discipline is necessary and I will become a morning person!
I'm currently creating my own 30 day journey for April and waking up earlier is part of my plan...pray for me as I try this new lifestyle. And!! I'm looking forward to the new perspective of, "The best part about waking up early is the feeling of getting to noon and thinking, “wow, it’s only noon?” – instead of, “ugh, it’s noon already!”
Thanks for sharing, Erin!
If you're looking to create a more productive lifestyle, read this post!
“All successful people are not morning people but they are disciplined.”
Also yay to letting the nanny in! That means yall found someone! How exciting.