30 Days of Waking Up at 5 AM – Day 4

4/24/2011 SU 5:27 AM Pacific Time
30 Days of 5 AM – Day 4

After a beautiful Saturday with friends in the Huntington Beach sun, taking myself to see the inspiring Limitless, and writing until 1 AM, waking at 5 AM this Sunday morning should not have been easy. Honestly, I didn’t return to consciousness despite a blaring alarm until 5:27 AM but getting up required little thought or will power. Now I find myself debating whether I should give myself more sleep to allow my toe (and now finger) more recovery time. While my body could certainly use more sleep, a good compromise instead is to not beat myself up again today. I’ll save continued acrobatics for next weekend.

Lesson Learned: Each night before bed, reflect on planned morning tasks.
The most important lesson I learned this morning that I’m going to be sure to leverage for the next 25 days is that I need a reason for waking up at 5 AM. This morning, the only support the just-go-back-to-sleep voice had was that I had nothing to do; it’s Easter Sunday and I have no plans. From here on out, each night before I go to sleep I’ll reflect on what I want to accomplish first thing in the morning. This way I can tunnel vision on my planned task when I wake up delirious each next day.

Update
4/24/2011 SU 11:46 AM Pacific Time

Without pre-planned morning goals or an out-of-bedroom or out-of-home destination, I managed to write a couple blog posts, eat breakfast and wrap my toe and finger with ice and proceeded to pass out for 4 and a half more hours. My toe and finger don’t care; time wasted and falling asleep early tonight will surely be more difficult. I’m driving the lesson home for you and myself: each night before bed, reflect on planned morning tasks; and I want to add another.

Lesson Learned: Include out-of-bedroom or out-of-home tasks in your morning plans.
As long as you’re not accustomed to falling asleep at the wheel or taking naps on park benches, this lesson learned is a good one. Minimizing effort while we establish our new good habits is definitely helpful. Don’t try to wake up at 5 AM to drink Sleepy Time Tea and meditate to sounds of white noise and running water with the sheets pulled up to your chin and your mother reading you a bed time story. Get out of bed and get out of your house; it should be as simple as that.

30 Days of Waking Up at 5 AM
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