5 Benefits of Being an Early Riser
Before I go on to share with the benefits of being an early riser let me share with you a typical day for me:
4.30 – 5.00 – Get up looking forward to the day ahead, in fact really excited about the day ahead. No alarm clock to rudely awaken me out of a good nights sleep as I get up naturally.
5.00 – 5.15 – Check in with important emails, prioritising what needs to be answered now and saving other emails for later replies.
5.15 – 5.45 – Check stats and leave comments on Facebook page, this might seem trivial but the Facebook page now has over 3.3 Million likes and there's a lot of comments and readers to keep engaged with.
5.45 – 6.00 – Cup of coffee and walking around the kitchen (I do all my thinking and come up with some ideas whilst walking around), put notes in my ideas book.
6.00 – 6.30 – Check emails, stats for other sites such as blog analytics, 99PositiveAffirmations.com, GuidedMind.com, YDF Blog
6.30 – 6.45 – Meditation or relaxation
6.45 – 7.30 – Take my mental dog, Kara for a walk, Get my son up for work, and get Sharon up and spend some time with her before she goes to work
7.30 – 09.00 – Schedule calls, interviews, write for blogs, create products, update programs etc
7.30 – 12.00 – Work on products for personal development programs and Business programs, 99PositiveAffirmations.com, Blog, Any Interviews,
11.40 – 12.00 – Micronap
12.00 – 12.30 – Lunch
12.30 – 15.30 – Work on Live Shows for #YDFLive and #CYTLive
15.30 – 16.30 – Housework
16.30 -17:30 – Spend time with Sharon
17:30 – 19.00 – Some more work on websites, products, scheduling meetings, connecting, coaching, calls
19.00 – 20.00 – Dinner
20.00 – 22.00 – Spend time with Sharon with a little work in-between
22.00 – 12.00 – Bedtime, chat with Sharon, TV (only watch Tv Series lIke Game of Thrones, Suits, The Originals, The Dome, Crossing Lines etc)
This routine obviously changes at the weekend. Friday night is movie night and we sit in to all watch a movie together or go to the cinema if there a good movie we all want to see.
I still get up at 4.30 – 5.00 on Saturday and Sunday and work a little longer as Sharon doesn't get up until around 9am. So weekends are family time and I'll do a little work when Sharon and the boys are watching TV, later on.
5 Benefits of Getting up Early
1. Start the day excited
I honestly wake up feeling excited about the day ahead and getting up early makes it all the more special as I love the solitude of me being the only person up at that time. I value my alone time and this is the great time to start whilst I have no distractions.
2. Productivity
You can see a large part of my day and a lot of my work is done from when I get up at 4.30 to 6.30 and it's within these hours I get a lot of my online work completed or started. Without getting up early there is no way I would have the time to fit these important tasks into my life without it eating into my family time and work time, so the family/work balance is totally balanced out.
I also get time to exercise and relax with meditation or relaxation, and there is no way I would do this if I was getting up at 7.00 and rushing around getting myself and the boys ready.
I actually enjoy my half hours with Sharon in the morning, just chilling and talking about the day ahead and it relaxes me before going to employed work as it's quite a mentally draining job.
4. Prepared mind
My mind is not all over the place in the mornings. It's actually a serene time, I'm chilled, relaxed, and happy. This is the time I am mentally preparing for the day ahead and before I go to work later on I know exactly what I have to do for the day ahead which means I can cope with unexpected events which happen at work much better.
5. Work on my life goals
I have to admit to being extremely lucky in that I have a job I love doing in the addiction work field and I love, even more, my online work: coaching, writing, blogging etc If I hated my job it would be a lot harder to cope and I think I would feel more anxious, but for now I have time to work on my goals of doing my online work full time.
There are many more small benefits to being an early riser but for me the 5 above shine above the rest.
There are ways to train yourself to become an early riser and my research has shown I unconsciously meet all the right conditions to help me become an early riser.
How do you feel in the mornings, are you an early riser or do you dread getting up out of your warm, cosy bed :)? Would love to hear your thoughts on this, leave a comment below.