I Wake Up at 4 Am Every Day — Now I Regret It
You shouldn’t try it if you are a weak person!
Waking up at 4 am is only for tremendous people.
It seems impossible for the people who have a terrible sleep routine — like me. What bad my sleep routine was? Imagine this: I stay up late, sleep at 3 am and wake up at 1 pm. Horrible!
You might be thinking I’m doing something important that’s why I am staying up late until 3 am.
The answer is: No.
As a mediocre Indonesian uni student at that time: I started playing games after my study hours (at 10 pm), watching anime, and watching a *you know what* movie before bed. General, I’m doing sh*tty things until 3 am. Embarrassed!
However, after being a corporate slave, I changed my sleep routine to be better. Start sleep at 11 pm and wake up at 7 am. Not bad.
But last month, I experimented my myself to start waking up at 4 am every day. Here is what happened to me:
I felt exhausted and lack of sleep on the first week
It was a disaster!
My body seems slapped by a truck during my working hours (9 to 5). My back neck was stiff, my eye bags were dark, and I was constantly yawning all the time!
It was freaking me out.
I know my body is in the adaptation stage. My body was still shocked at that time. My brain wants to wake up at 4 am, but my body still wants to sleep and wake up at 7 am. They were fighting each other, lol.
Starting a new habit requires a strong willingness — I’m aware of this. So I don’t give up. I enjoyed the pain.
My body is getting used to it on the second week
I don’t feel forced to wake up at 4 am on the 2nd week. It looks like my body and brain already train for it. They adapted.
I wake up with a fresh body. Within five mins after waking up, I can start doing my day without feeling forced and tired. Yeah, sure, I’m still yawning, but I’m not feeling the same bad experience as the first week. If I felt my back neck was stiff in the first week, I didn’t feel it in the 2nd week.
Anxious feelings and stress are far away from my mind because of this habit of waking up at 4 am. I can plan my time on that day more efficiently because of this peaceful mind.
The fresh air is posses my body. It feels so good when I take a deep breath. I don’t understand why the 4 am air feels different from 9 am (onward) air. Maybe it is because of the pollution?
I can write one hour daily before I go to work
The most important thing is I can start my daily writing habit. In the past, before I start this habit, it was hard for me to find the right time to write.
I’ve tried writing after office hours. It just doesn’t work for me. I felt so tired and lost any concentration. My blank page keeps blank for 30 mins long. Even I only can write no more than 600 garbage words in 2 hours. It’s not efficient.
But I found it different when I write at 4 am.
My brain is connected to my fingers very well. They can produce 500 words within one hour. I can write better with a benign condition and coffee at 4 am.
I always limit my time to writing only one hour in the morning before I go to work because I need to save my creativity and energy for handling complex issues at the office.
Hail yeah, corporate slave! Lol.
Again, I can write consistently in the morning because of waking up at 4 am.
“Success isn’t always about greatness. It’s about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come.”
I have more time for doing anything else in the morning
I have a daughter.
And it’s required me to spend an hour of my time taking care of my daughter before I go to work. Such as helping my wife prepare our daughter’s food, taking bathe her, preparing her clothes, and more.
I will not have time to do those activities if I wake up at 7 am. Even at 6 am!
Waking up at 4 am also gives me more time to prepare myself before work. I can take a bath peacefully; I can enjoy choosing which clothes I should wear on that day, I can go to work without worrying become late.
I have many benefits because of this waking up at 4 am routine.
I don’t know what happened, but I became more focused at work
“Always remember, your focus determines your reality.” — George Lucas
This is the weird but good side for me: I can be more focused at work.
On the first day, I started this routine; I was afraid I couldn’t do my job properly because I was still sleepy and lacked focus. I’m anxious this routine will ruin my performance.
Surprisingly, starting from the fourth day, my focus level has increased. My eyes become eagle eyes — I can keep looking and solve complex issues correctly. I feel more productive because I can shorten my time but produce more quality work.
My office hours are a bit flexible. So if I come to the office early, I can go home earlier. With these flexible office hours, I often go to the office in the morning when nobody isn’t. Even they still sleep at their house, lol.
I wake up at 4 am > Finishing my home tasks earlier > Go to work earlier > Can handle many complex things in the morning > Stress-free> My boss happy > I can go home earlier > My wife and my daughter happy > I am happy.
It’s all connected and related.
Everything has become more effective for me because of this habit of waking up at 4 am.
I go to bed early at night
As I mentioned earlier, I always go to bed late. At 1 am is the earliest time for me to go to sleep on that time. And wake up at 11 am, until 1 pm at the latest.
In the past, this bad sleep habit has affected my health and my productivity. Imagine, most people work from 9 to 5, but I start working at 2 pm, which means I only have 2 or 3 hours to contact my colleague.
Because we have different working hours.
I often face the situation that I need to contact someone related to my project, but he didn’t respond because I got him late: at 8 pm.
With this waking up at 4 am habit, I can go to bed earlier. At 9 pm, I go to bed daily. I never feel tired when waking up because I have enough sleeping hours. Seven hours daily is enough for me.
If I’m thinking now, “nothing” changed from my life. I still sleep 7 or 8 hours a day. But the difference is I wake up at 4 am and sleep at 9 pm instead of waking up at 9 am and sleeping at 1 am.
Final thought
As per my post title: I regret it!
I regret why I don’t make this habit earlier.
This waking up at 4 am habit gave me so many benefits for my life. Maybe it also gives you benefits!
Let’s have a try!
I don’t say this will be easy; waking up at 4 am is hard! But it’s worth trying.
I know the other people will not agree with my statement (f that, don’t care, lol) but in my opinion: Waking up earlier will make you more productive.
Final word,
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