Become an early riser

I didn’t use to be an early riser. In fact, I used to be a late riser – very late riser.
In the past, I was consistently a late riser. […] The only times I ever woke up early were when I absolutely have to: for school, appointments, work. Even then, I’d wake at the very last minute, scamper around the whole house to get ready, rush out in disarray, have to resort to taking a cab to cut down commuting time and barely make it in time. […] During the weekend, the waking hours would hover between 12pm to 2pm.
I never once thought of cultivating waking up early as a habit. Why should I wake up early for? I never understood why people would even want to do that. If there was anyone who voluntarily woke up early, I would look at them with a look of bewilderment. I saw waking up early as some act of deprivation. If we could sleep in late, shouldn’t we just let our body rest rather than obligate ourselves to wake up at a certain fixed timing? At worst, it seemed like a borderline masochistic act. (excerpt from Why I Wake Up Early)
But then after a while, things changed. I became interested in being an early riser because I was reading so much great stuff about it. While I could have just brushed this off, I couldn’t conclude anything for sure until I experimented it myself. I started an early riser trial last year, together with TPEB readers, which you can read about in 28 Day Trial To Wake Up Early.
After sufficient experimentation, I was ready to make the conclusion that waking up early was better (than not). I’ve shared my story on changing from a late riser to an early riser and the key benefits I’ve experienced: Why I Wake Up Early (And 9 Reasons You Should Do So Too) (Read the article first before moving to the next section)
Are you an early riser? Whether you’ve been trying to wake up early without success, or you’re a semi-early riser, or you’re a dominant late riser,

I invite you to join me in waking up early, starting tomorrow. From tomorrow onwards, we’re going to wake up early together, for the next 2 weeks to the end of 30DLBL. Take this as a personal experiment. If you try it and you like it, you’d have gained something new from this trial :D. If you try it for 2 full weeks and feel it doesn’t work for you, you can walk away from this experience knowing that it’s not your cup of tea. Nothing to lose but everything to gain :D. Are you up for it?
Day 17 – Become an Early Riser
Part 1: Wake up early tomorrow
Start on a new page of your 30DLBL workbook. On top, write down “Becoming an Early Riser”.
Set your target time to wake up tomorrow, ideally before 6:30am.
5am is a very nice time to start the day and do your personal activities. When I wake up at 5am, I get to do the usual email/social media checking, do work, go exercise, and have breakfast, when most people are still in bed. By the time people are up, I’m already on to other things for the day. It’s a great feel-good factor to get you moving forward.
From there, set your target time to sleep tonight, based on the usual hours of sleep you need.
How many hours do you need to be well rested? Set your alarm as you do that.
From my experience, many people sleep a lot longer than they think they need. I found with a proper, healthy diet, exercise, meditation and activities to clear your mental clutter, it’s possible to be well-rested, energized and good to go with just 5-6 hours of sleep.