How to become an "early bird" (Part II)

Honestly, when I posted the first part of Steve Peacock 's article “How to become an“ early bird ”,” I did not expect that so many people would be interested in this topic. Therefore, I decided to continue and publish the continuation of the article. I also realized that it is difficult to master a large piece of text at once, so the second part I shortened and highlighted the important points in bold. You can read the full version of the translation of the article in Sergey Biryukov’s wonderful blog - thank you very much for the translation! So let's get started ...

First, let us return to the question of going to sleep only if you want to sleep ... To do this correctly, you need some awareness and common sense.

If you go in for vigorous activity before bedtime, this may ward off drowsiness for a period of time. In college, I used to play poker until dawn, after which we often went to breakfast. I can stay awake longer than my usual schedule, if I work, relax with friends, or do some other vigorous activity.
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But this is not what I had in mind when I talked about drowsiness. I mentioned the test when I cannot read more than a few pages without losing attention. This does not mean that you need to wait until you fall from exhaustion.

The appearance of sleepiness , which I am talking about - this is the moment when the brain begins to produce hormones that put you to sleep. Do not confuse this with normal fatigue. You feel like you begin to nap. But for this to happen, you need to create the right conditions. Give yourself some rest before bed. I made sure that reading is a great way to relax. Some people say that reading in bed is a bad idea that you need to sleep in bed. I have never had a problem with this, because when I feel sleepy, I just put the book aside and fall asleep. But you can read in the chair, if you so convenient.

Another test example. Ask yourself: “If I go to sleep now, how quickly can I fall asleep?” If you think it will take more than 15 minutes, I would advise you to wait a while and continue to stay awake.

When you set a fixed wake-up time, it may take a little practice to determine the correct time to go to sleep. At first, large fluctuations are possible if you go to bed too late one night and too early another. But over time, you will learn to feel the moment when you can go to sleep, while instantly fall asleep and wake up the next day, well-rested.

To protect yourself from getting enough sleep , set a deadline after which you go to sleep no matter what, even if you don’t want to. I am well aware of the minimum amount of sleep I need. 6.5 hours is quite acceptable for me, but I can sleep 5 hours and feel normal, if it does not happen every night. The maximum time of my sleep is 7.5 hours. Until I started to get up at the same time every morning, I often slept for 8-9 hours, sometimes even 10, if I got very tired.

If you use caffeine during the day , it can affect the rhythms of your sleep. The first article assumes that you do not use anything like this to be awake. If you are addicted to caffeine, first get rid of this habit . You should not expect that natural sleep will come at the right time, if you chemize with your brain.

You can always sleep longer than usual when needed. If I do not go to bed until 3 o'clock, I will not get up at 5 am. But I will return to my regular schedule the next day.

I recommend getting up at the same time for 30 days in a row to fix the habit, after which you will adapt so much that it will be difficult to sleep more than usual. I wanted to sleep a little longer one Saturday morning and turned off the alarm, but automatically woke up at 4:58. I tried to fall asleep again, but I could not. Like this. When a habit is developed, getting up is not at all difficult if you fall asleep when drowsiness appears.

If you can't get out of bed when the alarm clock has rung, this is most likely a lack of discipline. If you have order with discipline, you will get up no matter what. Motivation also helps, but it is short-lived and can last only a few days. Discipline is like muscle. The more you develop it, the more you can rely on it. Everyone has a discipline (calm, ok?), But not everyone develops it. There are many ways to develop discipline - I devoted an entire chapter to this topic in a book that will be published soon. Basically, it all comes down to taking on simple tasks, performing them and gradually moving towards more complex ones. It looks like strength training. As discipline is strengthened, such tasks as getting out of bed at a certain time will become a mere trifle. But with an undeveloped discipline, this may seem like an insurmountable obstacle.

Why get up early at all?

I would say the main reason is that you have more time for things that are much more interesting than a dream.

Again, I purchased 10–15 hours a week by doing this. Extra time is very noticeable. By 6:30 I did the exercises, took a shower, had breakfast and was ready to go. I can give productive work more hours a day, and usually I finish work by 5:00 pm (this also includes personal “work”: answer letters, pay bills, pick up a daughter from kindergarten, etc.). It gives me 5-6 hours of free time every evening, which I can devote to my family, as well as books, magazines, various hobbies, etc. And most importantly, I still have enough energy at this time. When I have enough time for everything that is important to me, it gives a feeling of harmony, calm and optimism.

Think about what you could do for this extra time. Even 30 minutes a day is enough to do exercises, read a couple of books a month, blog, meditate, cook healthy food, learn to play a musical instrument, etc. A small amount of extra time per day is reduced to significant values ​​in the scale of the year. 30 minutes a day is 182.5 hours a year. This is more than a month of working time (at the rate of 40 hours per week). These numbers can be doubled if you save 60 minutes a day, and triple if you save 90. I did it about 90 minutes a day. It’s like getting a free prize year every ten years. I use this time for cases for which I had neither time nor energy before. And it is beautiful :)