How Waking Up at 4 am Changed My Life was updated on the 31th of August 2020.

There’s a french saying that goes like this “l’avenir appartient à ceux qui se lèvent tôt,” which means that those that wake up before the sun have more time to work. I remember reading an article about how waking up at 4 am was beneficial. The blog explained the benefit of it, and I decided to try it.

It has been about a year and a few months that I wrote this post. Being consistent with waking up at 4 am is fantastic, my life hasn’t been any better! Now here’s an update on how I kept waking up early and tricks on how you too can become a morning person.

Let’s go back in 2019 for a minute.

Back in late 2018 – early 2019, I wasn’t a morning person. Personally, I hated waking up early. However, my mind was the one that kept waking me up around 5 am. 

When you wake up early, you must do something to get you out of bed. What I unintentionally did was, working out, eat my breakfast and clean or read. The sudden routine helped me handle a long day of work because it was all over the place.

In 2019, I usually woke up 3 hours before my shift, which helped me during the day. I didn’t feel tired, and I could accomplish something for myself. However, when my work schedule changed, I had to wake up earlier than 5 am because my shift started at 6:30 am. 

I tried waking up 3 hours before my 6:30 am shift. I remember how hard it was. I was usually tired and even had to drink coffee (I’m not a coffee person). Taking public transit is my way of commuting. Therefore, I had to take into consideration that it took me around 30 minutes to bus.

Do everything intentionally.

That’s when I stumbled upon a blog post that talked about waking up at 4 am. The writer’s story made sense to me and motivated me to try it. Just like waking up at 3:30 am, waking up at 4 am wasn’t easy.

One thing that changed about my early mornings was that this time, I was intentionally waking up at 4 am. When you deliberately do something, you have to plan everything. I planned to go to sleep as early as 9 pm, which was hard because that’s when I noticed that I had noisy neighbours.

Regardless, I kept on being persistent, and I realized how beneficial this was for me. After a week, I didn’t hear my noisy neighbours anymore. I would be deeply asleep and wake up to my alarm. I work from 6:30 am to 2:30 pm. After my shift, I had plenty of time to do what I wanted! From working out, shopping, and writing!

Fast forward to 2020

Many things have changed since early 2019. I have a new job, I moved back to my parents, and then I found my apartment. It was easy for me to stop waking up early since I worked from home because of the pandemic.

So, yes, it wasn’t easy to keep waking up at 4 am. Sometimes, I didn’t even want to wake up at 4 am. When I stumbled upon waking up at 4 am, I found my days shorter and couldn’t figure out my priorities.

Knowing how good this routine was for me, I decided to bounce back to good habits. After a few months, I started creating a new routine.

With my new employment, I had different schedules. Sometimes I start at 7 am, sometimes at 10 am and sometimes at noon. All three options were great for me; I always found time to write, work out, socialize and read. 

However, I realized that I didn’t use my day at its full capacity. After reading the book “Can’t Hurt Me” by David Goggins, he made me realize how I was wasting my time. In his book, he suggested to write down everything that we do during the day and then cut things that are not beneficial (especially surfing the web or being on social media).

I took David’s advice and wrote down my daily habits. I wouldn’t say I liked how I managed my time; there was a lot of procrastination during the day. So I decided to create my full-day schedule starting at 4 am.

An example of my day waking up at 4 am when I work at 12 pm:

4 am to 5 am = read

5 am to 6 am = Work out

6 am to 6:30 am = Personal care aka shower etc

6:30 am to 7 am= Meditate

7 am to 8 am = write

8 am to 9 am = socialize

9 am – 10 am = eat/online course

10 am- 12 pm = online course

12 pm – 8 pm = work

8 pm – 9 pm = read/ personal care aka shower etc

9:30 pm- 10 pm = bedtime

Of course, I wasn’t following everything by the rules. Sometimes the book that I’m reading is so good that I spend more than an hour on it. However, to come up with this schedule, I had to try different ways every day. For example, I found that when I meditate when I wake up, it makes me stay in bed. So I had to switch things around.

If you also want to wake up at 4 am, here’s my advice for you:

If you also want to use your day at its full capacity, you must know why. What stops us from starting something is the reason behind it. I wake up at 4 am every day again because I have goals to achieve.

I love the quote, “work harder on yourself than you do at your job,” this doesn’t mean that when it’s time to work, that’s when you work on yourself. It means that you need to prioritize your own goals.

What I tell people when they ask me why do I wake up so early is, my life doesn’t revolve around my work. My work revolves around my life. It would be best to build your own lifestyle; this will make you less depressed and live with purpose.

My second advice would be to find the right routine that works for you. Test your days until you fall in love with the one that makes you more productive. Like my list above, I’m still trying to figure out how I can be more productive when I work at 7 am or 10 am.

My third advice is, when you wake up, make your bed and leave it alone. You probably love your bed as much as I do. It’s hard to leave it, I understand. However, know that it will always be there, cozy, waiting for you at night.

Therefore, find the right activity that will wake you up. Do something that will help you leave your bed. When you wake up at 4 am, you MUST have things to do right away. Or else you will drag yourself around wondering why did you do that to yourself.

What I wrote when I started waking up at 4 am:

I think that waking up at 4 am did positively change my life; I feel like my days are longer (after my shift, of course), and I can manage my time for my side jobs and activities.

Before, I would say that I am not suggesting to wake up at 4 am. Today I say that it’s a must. If you have a vision for your life, I highly recommend that you wake up early. If you don’t have a vision, find it. 

Remember, all you need in life is faith. So have faith that you too can wake up at 4 am. 🙂