Getting up at 5 AM can pay off. Experts explain how to do it
Getting up at 5 AM is a habit that is often talked about in the context of successful people's habits. Recently, it has become a Tiktok trend. Getting up early can indeed be associated with certain benefits, but one must prepare for it properly.
Waking up at the crack of dawn not because we have to, but to be more productive, isn't really anything new. This is a habit that is praised by many famous entrepreneurs, like Apple's CEO Tim Cook, who reportedly gets up at 3:45 AM. Howard Schultz, founder and former CEO of Starbucks, claims that when he was running the chain, he would start his day at 4:30 AM and Amazon's founder Jeff Bezos has admitted in interviews that he wakes up around 6:00 AM.
As noticed by fortune.com, the popular social network TikTok saw a trend where people show how they exercise, read, and prepare for the day between 5 AM and 9 AM before they start work from 9 AM to 5 PM. The videos described with the hashtag #5to9routine have already received millions of views.
Does getting up at 5:00 in the morning really increase productivity?
Experts, cited by fortune.com service, argue that it is primarily a kind of achievement. It gives a morning boost of confidence and can positively affect the rest of the day. Moreover, thanks to getting up early, we lose the feeling that we are constantly in a hurry.
Slowing down helps our nervous system rest and regulates our thoughts. If you can use these extra hours for activities that calm you, it will improve your performance and make you feel less tired at the end of the day - says Samantha Snowden, an expert in mindfulness, in a conversation with fortune.com.
When considering getting up at dawn, however, one must remember a few important issues.
1. Do not deprive yourself of sleep
Getting up very early should not be at the expense of sleep. Insufficient number of hours slept can lead to anxiety, depression, and heart disease.
Snowden emphasizes that depriving ourselves of sleep can cause us to have trouble with emotional regulation and maintaining concentration. Without it, there's no talk of productivity and properly performing our tasks.
2. You can "slow down" your morning without having to rise at dawn
To alleviate the feeling of morning stress, you don't have to start the day at 5 AM. You can start, for example, by reducing the number of things you have to decide in the morning.
According to psychiatrist Dr. Nikole Benders-Hadi, quoted by fortune.com, it's worth considering such simple things as, for example, preparing your clothes for the next day in the evening. You might also consider preparing your morning meals in advance.
3. Make sure you need this
Benders-Hadi also recommends that we be honest with each other about whether a few "extra" hours in the morning will really improve our mood and allow for better work organization, or will only make us have more duties, and our schedules will extend.
4. Do not expect that you will adjust immediately
- The circadian rhythm of the body, i.e., the natural clock, needs time to adjust to the new routine - says Snowden.
If you're a person who enjoys sleeping in, getting up early at the beginning might be uncomfortable for you and require a lot of self-discipline and patience.
5. Have strong motivation
There are days when waking up early is particularly difficult for us. It's precisely at those times that remembering our intention is useful - the one that guided us when we decided to change our habits - we read on fortune.com. So, before we set our alarm for 5 AM, let's think about whether we're doing it because we really want to improve our performance, have more time for reading or exercising. The mere desire to follow a TikTok trend may prove to be insufficient.
