

Why I wake up at 5AM - The value of purposeless moments - bmull
http://elleluna.com/why-i-wake-up-at-5am

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wccrawford
They gain 3 hours in the morning at the expense of 3 hours in the evening.

What did they lose?

Family time. They no longer spend those 3 hours with family. (Or friends, or
however they were socializing that made them waste this time.)

I wake up at 5:30a every morning and have done so for years. I love it. But
then, I work at 7a (used to be 6:30a) so I'm not losing much time in the
morning. Certainly not 3 hours.

That extra 30 minutes I gained recently is mostly wasted. Sometimes I study
Japanese, but mostly I read email, RSS, or just watch TV.

On the other hand, my evenings are filled with things... I program, I game, I
watch TV, I read... Sometimes I sit and think about apps or games I want to
write. Sometimes I practice piano or Japanese.

Why is after work different? Because the deadline of going to work isn't
hanging over my head. I can stay up as late as I want and continue doing
things. When I get sleepy, I go to bed. No deadline.

No, I don't have a family at the moment. I live by myself, and my time is all
my own. But don't pretend to be gaining 3 hours in the morning when you're
actually stealing it from the evening. I'm in the same place they are, but
without having made the family commitment.

~~~
bmull
My guess is that the difference is in the evening, everyone else is awake and
there are more distractions where in the morning, it's more quiet and
peaceful.

Plus, at the end of the day you have thoughts of the day racing through your
head where in the morning, it's a fresh start.

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dotBen
I go to bed often around 4am, and get up at 10:30am. That actually means I'm
awake for 30mins more a day then Elle does with her 5am - 10pm routine. And I
get to work during my most productive hours - late afternoon and after dinner.

So I don't see how this has anything to do with what time you wake up.

If your day is so busy that you need to find 2hrs a week to allow for
creativity, rather than going to bed at 10pm why not hire a cleaner or put
extra money on the table and eat out an extra night each week -- all to save
time doing chores that you can then spend on being creative?

~~~
elleluna
Identifying when you're freshest is a huge first step. You'll get more done,
you'll be more effective, things will be less exhausting. For me, my most
effective hours were the morning, but I was never allocating morning time to
work/think/whatever. So once I figured that out, I went out of my way to get
up early and have repeatedly dedicated myself to that time, which has made all
of the difference...

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bmull
One thing I've found (which I'm not currently doing as well as before) is if I
set one time to wake up each day and actually get out of bed (no snooze), I
start waking up more and more refreshed. It could be 5, it could be 8, but if
I am consistant, it doesn't matter the time, I wake up and am not groggy.

So, could be useful for super early wakeups like 5 AM.

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devspade
I've often had this thought. I am _not_ a morning person at all. But if I
could just sleep 1 hour less M-F I'd have a lot more time on my hands. 5 AM
might be extreme but what if you just made it 6:30 instead of 7:30 or
whatever. You'd probably feel pretty equally rested and have a better start to
every day.

~~~
elleluna
Yes! After 3 awesome, creative hours in the morning, I am a different person
when I walk into the office... It's great.

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mrzerga
Yeah, for the thing with mornings and evenings is that in the evenings i am a
total dumb-dumb. in the mornings i am overflowinh with ideas, projects etc. so
thereis.serious hain for me when

