Sunday, February 24th, 2008...12:06 am

Getting Up Early: Week 4 - One Month Reflections

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First of all, let me comment (make excuses) for this week’s performance:

1. I went to a rockin’ NBA game in the middle of the week which kept me up late that night so that threw off the next day by a lot.

2. I didn’t have as many days to average out that day because I lost Monday to the President’s Day holiday.

So this week should be an anamoly, an outlier, if you will.

That said, let me note that before I even started this experiment, I used to average getting to my desk at around 9:30am. If that. I don’t have an exact number because what crazy bastard keeps track of when he gets to work every day? But that’s a well educated guess. So all in all, I’ve made some modest progress.

Also keep in mind that over the past month there have been many days when I’ve gotten to work right around 8:00am. But, like I said last week, an equal number of days getting into work past 9am serve to quickly push the average up. Finally, I should mention that on average I workout before getting to work 2 weekdays per week. It’s hard for me to get to work by 8am on those days because I have to wake up ridiculously early, but I’m getting there.

So those are my excuses.

Here are my reflections for this month of my getting up early experiment.

1. It isn’t easy. Getting your weekly average down significantly that is.

2. I definitely sleep a solid 8 hour average per night, which means to wake up earlier I have to go to bed earlier.

3. In light of reflection #2, my eventual, kind-of-secret goal of waking up at 7am is not realistic.

4. Getting an early start on work when few people are there is awesome.

Overall, this experience has validated my reason for doing this experiment: Work in the morning is more effective and feels like less suffering than work in the afternoon/evening. The second reason is the key reason I started the experiment. I realized that working for hours before lunch felt like no big deal; working in the morning doesn’t feel hard for me. Whereas, working into the evening gives me a psychological feeling of suffering.

I will average getting to work by 8am. Oh I’m determined. Oh you just watch.

Getting Up Early: My Experiment
Getting Up Early: Week 1
Getting Up Early: Week 2 - A Pathetic Performance
Getting Up Early: Week 3 - I am a Tortoise

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2 Comments

Filed under getting up early

2 Comments

  • kkkkaty
    August 27th, 2009 at 5:34 pm

    Dear Gradhacker,

    Years later, what time are you getting up? I’m trying to get up early to go swimming, but they pushed the morning practice from 7am to 6am. I’m finding getting up at 5:30 a LOT harder than 6:30. What are those links about un-natural waking times, again?

    Thanks

  • Grad Hacker
    September 11th, 2009 at 2:27 am

    kkkkaty,

    My schedule now is varied. Some days I get up around 6:30 to hit the gym, but other days, if I’m up late the night before I wake up later, say 9. The weekend is totally free to do anything. I’m starting to believe these ideas about unnatural waking times, but I have little more than my own anecdotal evidence. In general though, I’ve realized that the best thing for general happiness and productivity is simply being well rested, regardless of what you need to do to get there. Days when I have no inkling of taking a nap and am full of energy are irreplaceable.

    Here is the link to the old grownglife post on not getting up early: http://TheGrowingLife.com/2008/02/healthy-wealthy-and-dead-5-reasons-why-getting-up-early-might-be-harmful/#more-50

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