How rising early will help you to be more productive

To be productive is to be active and have a fully functioning mind to combat mental tasks. This means you are able to get important things done, things that are connected to your top-level goal. Staying productive isn’t always easy but you can attain a high productivity level.

I have seen people that have a mindset of luck. There is nothing like luck. Preparedness that meets opportunity is what people regard as luck. People that want to get lucky do not put in the hard work and usually do not prepare for their day.

When you take care of little details of your daily activities you will win the battle of life. There is an adage in my culture that talks about little wins.  Small consistent wins are what usually turns to a tsunami of success and big achievement over time. Become discipline with your time and you will be more productive and feel happy.

There are habits if executed correctly and consistently will help increase your productivity and will help you to be happier and fulfilled.

Now for my number one watchword that will increase your productivity.

THE POWER OF EARLY RISING

Different people think in different ways and we all form different habits over time. Some people believe they are night owls and that’s what works for them. However, for every rule in life, there is always an exception.

Stay with me for a few minutes and I will show you why you need to form a new habit of waking up early if you don’t already do it.

Look, I am not talking here about medical professionals, IT, and Security professionals etc. who have to work night shift because they have to. I am talking about people that work a normal day job or in a business.

I cannot stray from proverbial words of the culture where I was raised. I was thought early on in life that ‘owuro ni ojo’ (the morning time is the most important period of the day).

A pearl of wisdom I found in a book by Malcolm Gladwell, ‘Outliers’ which motivates me is, “No one who rises before dawn 360 days a year fails to make his family rich.”

This wisdom came from ancient Asian rise plantation culture. The wisdom also relates to having an advantage over the morning time to do valuable stuff.

Research by Christoph Randler, a biologist from Harvard found that “morning people” are often more positive, more optimistic and more likely to experience satisfaction in their lives.

It can also be argued that several night owls are known for their creativity. The truth, however, is that they can also pay the price by becoming more likely to succumb to depression and other psychological problems. The mind too likes to calm down and refresh.

If you wake up early consistently every day you could have up to 15days advantage in a year than an average person.

Think about this

Chris usually wakes up at 7am while his friend Luke wakes up at 6. Let us assume Luke makes most of the 1 hour between 6am and 7am, this means Luke has 15 days advantage in a year than Chris.

A lot of people in the world do the minimum to just make a living. However, making your life a masterpiece and contributing something meaningful to the people around you and the world requires something more.

Waking up early to plan your day and do some of the things that can help you move towards your goal is more than the minimum required of a human being.

A large percentage of people of the world stay late in the night watching TV, playing games or partying and then wake up late in the morning to join the craze of rush hours. Things do not happen without you having the right strategies to make them happen.

When I talk about rising up early and how it increases your productivity, I am not talking about rising up early to watch television or just sitting on the couch doing nothing. What I am talking about here is rising up early to do the little things that help move you towards your top level goals.

It is easy to give excuses like, “It is difficult”, “I do not think I can get up early”, and “I just love my sleep”. But the truth is anybody can do it. Anybody can be an early riser; it takes just dedication and sacrifice.

Sleeping late is a habit and old habits are hard to stop. In fact, new habits are equally as difficult to form. Based on research it usually takes about 66 days to form a new habit, which is roughly 3 months. Don’t worry if you struggle in the beginning. Just think about the benefits in terms of increasing your productivity and happiness.

Common Tips To Help You Wake Up Early

There is no denying that cultivating a better sleeping habit can significantly improve your productivity.

I know, some of you are thinking these tips are basic and common sense. But you need to understand that common sense can be very difficult to apply and an average human does not practice common sense.

Tip 1. Go to bed early.

If you want to wake up early and have an advantage in the morning and get more things done, then you need to go to bed early.

How early is early? It varies from people to people. For me, if I go to bed at 10pm, when I wake up at 5.30am I feel very fresh and full of energy. That five hours and thirty minutes of sleep work wonder on me. Sleep is good for the body and brain but you don’t need too much of it.

Waking up early, however, does not mean sleep deprivation so going to bed early helps you maintain the quality and amount of sleep your body needs.

Remember, good quality sleep is more important than the amount of sleep. UK National Health Service (NHS) recommends 8 hours sleep for an adult but some people need more or less. What this means is that people like me can afford to sleep for five hours thirty minutes and wake up fully refreshed while certain people will need the standard seven to eight hours of sleep to feel as refreshed as I am.

Tip 2. Detach yourself from your phone

This tip should come as no surprise to you really. Our lives presently revolve around what we can or cannot do with our phones. So detaching yourself from it should be a great idea.

Before the invention of the artificial lights that we all enjoy today, people used to stay in darkness during the night time. Light during the day is good for boosting our attention, reaction times, and mood but at night, it’s very destructive, distractive and can affect our sleep.

Blue wavelength light is very common in an electronic device with a screen including your tablets, smart mobile phone and computers. We are all increasingly exposed to this blue wavelength. Blue light which comes from our mobile device can affect sleep. This blue light is the reason why a lot of people do not get enough sleep at night because they have their phone with them while falling asleep.

What then can you do to prevent the blue light from disturbing your sleep?

Again, this is not rocket science. I started this not too long ago. I stay away from my phone at least 30minutes before I go to bed and I do not have my mobile phone with me by my bedside.

It is difficult to do but it is possible for you to do this. In the age of mobile phone addiction, you just have to use your willpower to detach yourself from things that will not let you have a good quality sleep.

Tip 3. Set Your Alarm To Wake You Up

 It is very important to put your alarm away from your bedside, well that is unless you a very deep sleeper. When the alarm rings and you have to get up from the bed to stop it then you are already up and it is then easier to get on with your morning routine.

The trick here is you need to make sure you wake up at this same time every day. After some time you will be surprised how your body will get used to it and you will not need an alarm to wake you up.

This is what has happened to me after years of practice. I now naturally wake up between 5am and 5.30am without alarm. By 5.30am I am usually up from the bed.

I have used the power of early rising to get more things done and to be more productive. I am now a better person. If you don’t already, I hope you will form a new habit of early rising and improve your life.

Advantages Of Waking Up Early Are Highlighted Below

• Waking up early will give you more time to exercise which in turn improves your health.
• When you wake up early it means you have enough time to plan your day, you are not rushing, therefore, you are able to be more productive.
• Waking up early will help your mental health because you will be more relaxed because of the advantage of the early hours
• You also have the advantage of not skipping breakfast because you are in a rush in the morning. Breakfast is a very important meal and will help you maintain a healthier diet.

Cultivate the habit of sleeping early and rising early today and you’ll be surprised at how productive you are about to become.