The Little-Known Benefits of Waking Up Early
How waking up early can transform your productivity and save you time and money.
Do you hate waking up early?
I know I used to. In fact, I'd always look for reasons not to get up early, including almost convincing myself that late starts were for creative types — and early starts were for losers!
While there certainly are some creative night owls who succeed in life, my observations over the years show that the vast majority of successful people have made it a habit in their life to wake early and start their days early.
I'm one of those early birds now, and I can honestly say that getting up at the crack of dawn has significantly boosted my health, energy and even my finances.
The habit of waking up early really does offer a myriad of benefits — some of which I'll talk about in a moment.
How Early Should You Wake Up?
This question doesn't have a single answer, as we are all unique individuals with unique circumstances.
However, as a general rule, waking up between 5am and 7am would be what I define as waking up early.
If you can comfortably wake up earlier than that, then even better. But for most people somewhere close to 6am is the perfect time to wake up and to begin their day.
How to Wake Up Early
Before I share with you some of the little-known benefits of waking up early, let me just say a few words about how to make waking up early a pleasant and automatic task.
It all starts with building the correct sleeping habits.
Here's what I recommend:
Finish eating at least three hours before your bedtime.
Wind down before going to sleep by reading a book or listening to a podcast.
Ensure your bedroom is dark and quiet.
Set an alarm for your chosen morning waking time.
If you follow the above simple techniques, you should find that after a few days (and nights) you begin to find that waking up early becomes easier and easier.
In time — usually after a month — you'll develop a natural habit of waking up early.
The Benefits of Waking Up Early
Most people seem oblivious to the benefits they could gain by waking up early.
It's a shame really, as I could write a whole book on the many benefits of waking up early. (And I may well do this.)
However, as a taster, here are eight benefits you can expect from regularly getting up early:
You'll have time in the morning to read a chapter of an inspiring or motivating book.
You'll have time to meditate or simply think about and plan your day ahead.
You'll have time to make yourself a coffee and breakfast at home, saving you time and money compared to going to a coffee shop.
You'll be able to drive to work on quieter roads, saving you time and money. (Especially with the cost of fuel at the moment!)
You may be able to grab free parking spaces near your work, again saving you money.
You may be able to take advantage of free EV charging at work (if you have an EV and your employer offers this benefit), another financial gain for you.
If travelling to work by train, you'll likely be able to get a seat, enabling you to get a head start on your working day — or you could work on your side hustle.
Arriving at work early means you'll be able to have a relaxing start, as well as being able to get on top of your work before your colleagues come into the office. This will also help you stand out as an organised and productive person — someone ready for promotion!
In addition to the above, you'll also have more time in the morning to dedicate to your hobbies, as well as more time to spend with your pets and loved ones.
Waking Up Early Will Save You Time and Money
Most people — including myself a few years ago — think that waking up early is a drag. Certainly not something desirable or beneficial.
However, as I've hopefully demonstrated above, there are multiple benefits of getting up early. These benefits include saving you time and money. You'll also likely see a boost to your health and wellbeing.
So if you feel like you're not making progress in life, please try waking up early for the next 90 days.
I'm confident that at the end of the 90 days you'll find that tuning into the early morning energy will help you be more productive and successful — and you won't want to go back to your old schedule.
“Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” — Benjamin Franklin
Happy sleeping, happy waking!
Hey Craig, I have no doubts on the benefits. But when you live together with other people where usage of mobile apps is high, the challenge is real.
If you can make more posts in the future on How-to - I'm interested.
I like reading life-hacks in general a lot. In theory you could embed 30 second videos from TikTok about the topic of your posts at the start or end of the post. Substack supports embeds from TikTok.