Inspire to Run Podcast
Inspire to Run Podcast
How to Wake Up Early: Simple Changes to Reach Your Goals Faster
#129 - Have you ever wondered how waking up at 5 AM could transform your life? Join me as I share my personal journey exploring the power of early mornings. Discover how quiet, focused hours before the world wakes up can supercharge your productivity and personal growth.
From changing caffeine habits to minimizing screen time, I offer practical advice to help you become an early riser. Gain insight into the struggles and triumphs of adjusting to an early routine and maintaining it consistently, even when weekends tempt you to sleep in.
Topics Covered:
- Why I decided to change to a 5AM wake up time
- What are the benefits of waking up earlier
- How to be successful in waking up earlier consistently
- What are the potential challenges and how you can overcome them
Your Host
Richard Conner
Richard is a strategic marketing professional with experience in B2B marketing. Richard is the founder of Inspire to Run and is passionate about helping others reach their goals. He is a Connecticut native, a husband, dad, writer, Star Wars fan, and, of course, a runner!
Resources:
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What's the one thing you can accomplish today that will give you momentum for tomorrow? If you were to wake up just one hour earlier every day, what could you accomplish in a week? What is your big goal, and how will waking up early bring you closer to it? Well, these are questions that I challenge you to ask yourself, and I'm going to share with you my experience pros and cons of waking up early and, of course, tips on how you can wake up early. Hope you enjoy.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Inspire to Run Podcast. Here you will find inspiration, whether you are looking to take control of your health and fitness or you are a seasoned runner looking for community and some extra motivation. You will hear inspiring stories from amazing runners, along with helpful tips from fitness experts. Now here's your host, richard Conner.
Speaker 1:Hey, my friend, welcome to Inspired to Run Podcast. Today is the first day of February and I'm recording this. I can't believe it's already February. January flew by, although I think a lot of people would feel that January is a really long month, but for me it really flew by, and what I've been doing for this past month is I've been waking up early. I've unofficially joined the 5 am club, which I'm sure many of you are familiar with. Robin Sharma, the author of the 5 AM Club, own your Morning, elevate your Life.
Speaker 1:And I just decided at the beginning of this year that not only do I have my specific health and fitness goals, but I have a few other goals in my life and a lot of it's really centered around work and family and really helping support and better serve you, the Inspire to Run community. So I just realized that if I got up a little bit early every day, what could I really accomplish this year, more so than I was able to accomplish last year. And I know I've been really focusing around sleep and really getting good sleep, and I've been monitoring that with my Oura Ring, but I just felt like gosh. I feel like I'm getting pretty good sleep now and I've been monitoring that with my Oura Ring, but I just felt like gosh. I feel like I'm getting pretty good sleep now, I've got pretty good rhythm, but I'm just not getting up as early as I'd like and I feel like it could be more productive. And I always say that my brain works best in the morning. So if I'm trying to do something that's after work or after my workout, it's just super hard for me to do. So how can I just get up a little bit early and just really kind of get after some of those priorities? This year and I'm really excited because I'm working on something big that I'm going to launch for the Inspire to Run community and I just wanted that dedicated time in the morning, when my brain works best, to be able to accomplish that and bring that to you. So that's what I started at the beginning of January. I took a few days off at the beginning of January and then got to it when I got back and it's worked out really, really well. So I felt like this was a good point in time to just kind of sit down and share this with you in hopes that this can help you as you progress through the year.
Speaker 1:Now I will say that it was not easy to wake up early, and this is something that I tried some time ago and I just really felt like it was a good thing for me to do. I was meditating and I was journaling and I just felt like it really helped me. But I fell out of that routine a long time ago and I've been saying I'm going to get back into it. I'm going to get back into it, I'm going to wake up early. I just never did it. So this year I said no kidding, I'm going to do it this year. And I have to say that it was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. I thought that I was just going to be fatigued all day. I thought that I just was going to miss days, and not much of that happened. And again, it wasn't easy, but it wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. I felt more alert, especially as I started the day. I've made big progress on my priorities, which I've just shared with you, and some of the cons are, you know, my sleep did suffer a little bit, so I'm going to talk a little bit about all of those things, but in general, this has really worked out a lot better than I expected in terms of just consistently getting up every day, doing the things that I said I was going to do and how I was feeling kind of throughout the day. All those things worked out better than I thought. So I wanted to share my experiences with you again in hopes that this helps you as you progress through the year.
Speaker 1:And I'll just start with what are the benefits of waking up early? So for me, I'm waking up at 5 am. So I'm just kind of reference that what are the benefits of waking up at 5 am? But it doesn't have to be 5 am, right? If you get up even earlier than you're getting up today, I assure you that you are going to benefit from it. And if you're already getting up at 4 am or 5 am, then you know that's great. You know I'd love to even hear from you, like what are your tips and tricks and what's kind of worked out for you if you do that? But for those of us who traditionally have not done that, you know this is really this conversation is really for you.
Speaker 1:So the first benefit here is more productivity. You know, early mornings are usually quieter, I'm sure, for a lot of folks, and it really allows for deep work and fewer distractions, and that's especially true in my case. So if I wake up at 5am, I'm definitely the first one awake in the house and then I just go downstairs and then I have my quiet time to do the work that I need to do. And it's been great for me because, again, my mind works best in the morning and it's quiet and can really focus on what I need to do. Now I would say it also gives the potential for me to waste time on social media.
Speaker 1:So I wake up in the morning, I grab my phone, I go downstairs, I get my water and I have my phone and I'm just kind of staring at it and then I have this inclination to go on to Instagram or Facebook, which has been terrible. So I will say that that's one of the things that happened to me very early on, as I just kind of turn on my phone, I check my messages, I go on Instagram and then all of a sudden it's like 515 or 520. I've already lost 20 minutes in the day and that's super annoying. So I've been more conscious of that that. You know, I really try not to check my messages. I really try not to spend time on social media and I you have more productivity in the morning, but don't squander that time with social media or other things that can kind of take you away from what you're doing. And for me, I have work to do, so I'm going to get right to it because these are my priorities. But, you know, for you this might mean something else. This might, you know, give you time to reflect. This may give you time to meditate. This may give you time to journal you time to meditate. This may give you time to journal. So I'm giving this an example of kind of what I do, but really this is space and time for you to do what's important for you and will set you up for success for the day.
Speaker 1:The other benefit is better time management. So, you know, starting early just gives me extra time during the day where, like I said, I have pretty good sleep. Today I have a pretty good or consistent work schedule. I have a pretty good workout schedule, which we talked about right, kind of making sure that your workouts are on your calendar. So I have a good, consistent way of doing that and I have a good, consistent way of just doing the other things I need to do in my life related to the family and the house. So all those things are good. So this just gives me a little bit of extra time to pursue the goals that are important to me, especially this year, especially this time where I'm trying to create something and launch to support the Inspire to Run community.
Speaker 1:Another benefit is it supports a healthier lifestyle. So you know, waking up early or waking up at 5 am encourages better sleep habits. It encourages morning exercise. If you like to exercise in the morning or wish you could exercise in the morning, it could help you do all those things. So if you don't have good sleep habits today, I assure you this will force you to do it. So I'll talk a little bit about tips on how to do it. But it's recommended that you go to sleep at a certain time and you're consistent about that. And again, if you're not doing it today, knowing that you have to wake up at 5 am in the morning, that's going to be in the back of your mind as you're making decisions on how to spend your time in the evening. So it really helps you with a healthier lifestyle.
Speaker 1:And then the last benefit here is reduce stress. So this is especially true in my case, where you know it just really helps you start the day and avoid feeling rushed. And I can't tell you how many times where my alarm went off I hit the snooze button. I went back to sleep for another 20, 30 minutes. I woke up. I thought I felt better. I probably didn't. And then I'm rushing to get to the office or do the things that I need to do and the whole day feels rushed. And I'm telling you, for the last 20 or so days that has not been the case.
Speaker 1:I get up at 5 am, I do the things that I need to do and then I get ready and I get out the door. Now I still could move a little bit faster in the morning, so I'm still kind of working on that or prep a little bit better the night before, but I don't feel like I'm always rushing to get out the door or I didn't feel accomplished, kind of, in the morning. So those are some of the key benefits of waking up early. Now you may say, well, how do I do that? How do I get up early? Because I've tried this before and it doesn't work and I assure you, I've tried this before, I've tried this for years I set the alarm and I ignore the alarm and I just go back to sleep. So how can you wake up early, even if it's not 5 am?
Speaker 1:So the first thing is you could take the approach of a gradual adjustment so you could set your wake-up time just a little bit earlier, like 15 to 30 minutes earlier, every night until you reach, you know, 5am. I personally did not do that, I just wanted to just go cold turkey, set my alarm for 5am and just do it and just force myself to get out of bed, which has been super hard because it's winter. You know, in the Northeast it's winter, it's cold, it's dark, so it's been super hard to do that. But for me, I'm just like I'm going to do a cold turkey and then I'm just going to force myself to do it. But if that's not the way you work, if that's not how you operate, you could definitely look to set your wake up time 15 to 30 minutes earlier and until you get to your desired goal.
Speaker 1:The next tip is to have a consistent bedtime, so you want to go to sleep and you want to wake up around the same time every day, even on the weekends. So this was really interesting because, you know, when I first started doing a little bit of research and looking up the benefits and the tips, one of the first things that I looked at was, if I wake up at 5am every day, let's say during the week, do I need to do the same thing on the weekends, because I really, really want to sleep in on the weekends? I don't want to get up at 5am on the weekends, and I'll tell you what I'm so glad that I didn't do that. I'm so glad that I set the same wake up time every day for the last 20 or so days, because that put me into the routine. We talked a little bit about that 21 days versus 90 days and building habits Absolutely helped me with my habits to wake up at the same time every day. I get downstairs, I go through my routine and I work on what I need to do, and it gives me a couple of extra days to progress on my goals, which are really important to me. So if I set a different time on the weekends which is, you know, kind of what I used to do, maybe I still would get there. Maybe it still would, you know, benefit me and I would still build that habit. But I feel like the best experience that you're going to have is to kind of set that same time every day and you'll just be better for it.
Speaker 1:Now I personally avoid late nights, and this is not new. I feel like since my twins were born, I go to sleep when they go to sleep, and now we're at the point in time where I go to sleep way before they go to sleep. But I just started going to sleep, you know, just a little bit early. So I go to sleep maybe around 930, 10 o'clock, definitely try to get to sleep before 10 o'clock. So that's what I do. So it's not as difficult for me to go to sleep at a reasonable time, to get to seven to nine hours of sleep and then I wake up at 5 am.
Speaker 1:But I haven't had those opportunities or, say, those situations where I have to stay up a little bit later. So let's say I'm going out and I'm going to be out late, or whatever the case might be, I haven't had that happen yet. So, in full disclosure, in the last 20 days I've been really consistent with the time that I've been going to bed. So when that happens, it's just something I'm going to have to deal with and be conscious of. If I stay up late, I know, hey, I got to get up at 5 am in the morning and maybe it's just one night, so it's not terrible. But that's something that I have to be conscious of and just for something for you to think about. So don't feel like you can't stay out late or do things late at night. But if you do it consistently, it's going to be really hard for you to get the amount of sleep that you need to get. And this is not about sleep deprivation or sleeping for less than seven hours, or getting four hours of sleep and getting up in the morning. This is not about that. So get the appropriate amount of sleep that you can get and then wake up early and get on with your day.
Speaker 1:The next thing that I've gotten really good at and I'm really pleased about is preparing the night before. So just about kind of that 9, 930, when my brain starts to shut down anyway, that's the time where I start to get everything I need for the next day. So you know, most days for the last three or four weeks I've been going to the gym right after work. So what I'll do is I'll just pack my clothes for the gym, I get them in my bag and I'll just pack. You know, just take out my work clothes and I'll just get everything ready. Because it's also like I said, it's winter and it's dark and I don't want to be fumbling around in you know five, six o'clock in the morning to get ready for work. So I start to just kind of clean up and I take out everything that I need for the next day. And there's certain things that I'll just do in the morning as I'm getting ready to get out the door. But I'm sure it could be a little bit more efficient about. You know kind of how I prepare. But that is one thing that's really important. It's just prepare what you need the night before.
Speaker 1:Next is limit caffeine and any kind of screen time. So I've done a lot better with caffeine. So I try not to have caffeine late in the day. Typically I'll have two cups of tea, which isn't terrible. Some days I'll have a third cup of tea, and if I do that, I've been drinking green tea instead of black tea, which has a little bit less caffeine, and then sometimes there's a little bit of caffeine in kind of my workout drinks or hydration. So I get a little bit there. But you know, really try to reduce the amount of caffeine or at least have it not so late in the day. And then I really try not to use my phone. But, like I mentioned to you before, like at night and in the morning, I haven't been the best at it. So you know, my advice to you is to try to avoid it, although in full transparency, it's something that's been super hard for me to do.
Speaker 1:Next is, you know, use your alarm clock, and in the best possible way. So I know there's a lot of tips out there on what to do with your alarm clock. You know, putting it across the room and it's not any other. I don't do any of that stuff. But one thing that I don't do anymore is I don't snooze Like that is just. That's not going to help you. The snooze button is not your friend. You think it is. You hit the snooze button, you get that, you know, additional 15 minutes and maybe 20 minutes. It's not your friend. So just try to avoid snoozing at all. I felt a lot better when 5amm hits. I wake up. Now, there's been a couple of mornings where I've kind of dozed off a little bit and then got right back up, so maybe like five minutes or so, but what I really just try to do is just 5 am I just wake up, stretch and I just try to get out of bed as quickly as possible to avoid going back to sleep or having to hit that snooze button.
Speaker 1:The next one is really important and honestly, for me this was the most important is to have a morning purpose. So, whatever that reason is, whatever it is getting you out of bed in the morning, that's what you need to be successful here, out of anything else. Because I assure you, if you don't have that purpose or you're not excited to do it, what's the first thing you're going to want to do is to go back to sleep. You're like I don't want to deal with that, I'm going back to sleep. So, whatever it is, have that purpose, be excited it, and that's going to help motivate you to get out of bed. So again, whether it's meditating, whether it's journaling, whether it's learning, whether it's exercise, whatever it is, that's going to get you excited to get out of bed and you could use that little extra time in the morning to do that. That's going to be your morning purpose. So give that some thought.
Speaker 1:And the next is expose yourself to light. So, whether it's natural light or any kind of light, natural light would be the best. But again, if you're waking up at 5 am and it's in the Northeast and it's winter, that's going to be hard to come by. But that's something that's going to help you out versus kind of walking around in the dark, because then your body is going to still kind of think. You're kind of in that sleep mode. So those are some tips on how to wake up early.
Speaker 1:Now. For me it took a little bit to adjust Again, not as long as I thought it was going to be. I really thought that I was going to be moody, cranky and upset about doing this the last few weeks and it hasn't been easy. But I think I well adjusted to it and I feel really good. So at the point of this recording, it's been about 21 days since I started and it can take about two to four weeks to adjust, you know, depending on your sleep schedule. And again, for me it was probably a little bit easier because I was already going to sleep a little bit early. So if you typically go to sleep a lot later and you typically sleep in, it may not be as smooth of a transition for you. And this is a case where you want to gradually kind of make those changes to go to sleep a little bit early and then earlier and then get up a little bit earlier.
Speaker 1:Now I've already talked about some of the downfalls and objections to what we're talking about here, which is to how to wake up early. And the first one is lack of sleep. And if you don't sleep early enough, go to sleep early enough. Waking up at 5 am can lead to sleep deprivation. So for me, I'm okay because I go to sleep around 9, 9.30. I waking up at 5am can lead to sleep deprivation. So for me, I'm okay because I go to sleep around 9930. I wake up at 5am. My aura ring tells me how long I was in bed and how long I was actually sleeping for, and it's still over seven hours Now. I will say I do feel it like. I do feel like gosh. I really want and need a little bit more sleep. So there's some nights where I just go to sleep just a little bit earlier, or maybe I take an extra rest day to give my body a little bit more rest. So just make sure that you're being really conscious about getting enough sleep.
Speaker 1:Another downfall could be an impact to your social life. So maybe you go out a lot at night and it may just be hard to do that if you're waking up at 5 am. So this is not a conversation to say just don't do that, just ignore your social life and don't go out late and don't do this and don't do that. It's really just a conversation about, if you do it, just be conscious of getting up at 5 am and just kind of working it into your schedule so it's not a frequent thing and doesn't disrupt you waking up early. Now another thing to consider is this may not work for everybody. So I said in the beginning that my mind works best in the morning and I always say that, and not everybody's like that. So not everybody's a morning person, which I wouldn't consider myself a morning person. I'm not necessarily the happiest person in the morning, but I'm definitely the most productive, so for me this works out great. This may not work for everybody. So I'm saying I get up at 5 am, so maybe 5 am is not for you, but maybe waking up just a little bit earlier gets you that jumpstart on the day that you need.
Speaker 1:The next kind of issue or potential challenge is just your energy level throughout the day. So this is something that you need to kind of manage and I know myself pretty well. So I know that even if I didn't wake up at 5 am, just right after lunch is just not the best time for me. So I'm going to eat and I know I'm going to get sluggish and I know I've got a full day ahead of me. So what I do is I normally have my tea in the morning, so typically around eight o'clock, eight, 8.30 is when I have my tea, and then I will have tea right after lunch because I know right after I eat is when I take a dip. So I have my tea ready to kind of keep me going and then, just kind of depending on the day, I might have a third cup of tea, you know, mid afternoon, but I really try not to do that and I also cut out all the sugar I put in my tea. Like it's gotta be a really rough day for me to put sugar in my tea, but it's something I used to do all the time Three cups of black tea, probably two spoons of sugar or two packets of sugar right in every tea, and I just cut all of that out.
Speaker 1:But I kind of know myself pretty well and that's kind of how I time the caffeine and that's been really helpful in getting me through the day. And then, you know, I mentioned it a few times just about the winter right. So you have dark, cold mornings. It just makes it really hard to get up. So one of the things that I do is I have hoodies, so what I do is I just throw on my hoodie and I turn up the heat a little bit and I just get really comfortable and that just kind of helps me. Knowing that I'm going to be warm and comfortable that kind of helps me get out of bed versus snuggling a little bit more in the bed and not wanting to get up. So those are just some of the you know kind of challenges to getting up early and those are some of the things that I've done personally. That's helped me kind of accomplish that and waking up at 5am.
Speaker 1:So you've heard me talk about all these things and you may be like if Richard, does it have to be 5am? Like I don't want to get up at 5am and the answer is no, it doesn't have to be 5 am. Like I don't want to get up at 5 am and the answer is no, it doesn't have to be 5 am. Again, I've shared with you you know why I do it. I get up at 5 am, I work on my objectives till 6, my priorities until 6, and then I get ready to work and I try to get to work by 7 or 7.30. So that's my schedule. So if you have a different schedule and maybe you don't need to get up at 5 am, maybe you get up at 5.30 or 6 am and even that gives you that jumpstart on the day. That's a winner right there.
Speaker 1:So it's really about what's going to work for you, but, more importantly, having that purpose and being consistent about the time that you get up and, of course, getting enough sleep. So that's the story I wanted to share with you today. You know, wake up early, even if it's not 5 am. Whatever, it is that kind of works with your schedule that makes you more productive and helps you reach your goals. Productive and helps you reach your goals. Speaking of goals, make sure that you have that specific goal or purpose that gets you excited to get out of bed. That for me, absolutely positively.
Speaker 1:The most important Next is be thoughtful about all the things that can kind of get in the way of a good night's sleep. How late are you having caffeine? How late are you eating dinner? Are you having anything else that's going to kind of disrupt your sleep? So just really be intentional about those things and I know life isn't perfect and so many things get in the way. But if you think about these things and prepare, you're going to have a much better experience. Better experience and, like anything, it's going to be hard. At first You're not going to want to do it. You're going to come up with all the excuses as to why you can't do it, why you don't want to do it. But I assure you that you're going to see the benefits of doing that if you stick with it and you do it over time.
Speaker 1:So that's the story I wanted to share with you the benefits, the tips and kind of what's been going on with me over the last month about waking up early. So I hope this was helpful for you. I'm really excited because February it really kicks off race season for me. So I've got a couple of races this month that are important to me, just because races themselves are important, but also it's going to help me see kind of where I am fitness-wise as I'm kicking off the year and then help me kind of adjust my training and my workouts and my mindset as I kind of go into the year. So I'm really excited to see how I perform this month and then we'll just kind of take it from there.
Speaker 1:So I really hope you enjoyed this episode. I'd really love to hear from you. So if you have tips on how you wake up early or how you kind of manage your time, you know, go into the show notes and there's an option there to send me a message. I'd love to hear from you. Or you can come to Instagram and inspire to run podcasts on Instagram. Send me a DM and just let me know what are your tips, what do you do, and I'd also love to hear what you're excited about this year in terms of races, training or any of your goals.
Speaker 2:So with that, I really hope you enjoyed this conversation and I wish you a great day. That's it for this episode of Inspired to Run Podcast. We hope you are inspired to take control of your health and fitness and take it to the next level. Be sure to click the subscribe button to join our community and also please rate and review. Thanks for listening.
