How I started Waking up Everyday at 5am

The day I started waking up at 5AM my life changed.

Did it change drastically? No. But each day I’ve noticed an increase in the quality of my day. That, to me, is exactly the essence of life — small incremental changes that is done every single day. Perhaps in five to ten years you’ll notice the difference; but without those small daily improvements there’ll be no difference.

Why wake up at 5AM?

The reason I started waking up at 5AM is because someone recommended to me that I read the book by Robin Sharma: The 5 AM Club: Own Your Morning. Elevate Your Life. After struggling through the first few chapters, I finally came to understand why waking up at 5AM was so important to me.

For a long time, I had what I’ll call “Sporadic Motivation”. Motivation that comes and goes. I’ll be exceptionally motivated on a Monday morning but feel gassed out by Tuesday evening. That certainly did not feel the way I wanted to live my life.

Waking up at 5AM is certainly not the exact ‘silver spoon’ for motivation — but it does provide a pathway for consistent motivation. Much of what is done between the hours of 5AM to 7AM has nothing to do with the ‘work hard’ culture that we have so been pushed into. Instead, it focuses on mental rejuvenation, daily motivation and a series of reflections.

How to wake up at 5AM?

Well, let’s get to the crux of the matter of the post. I’ll break down three ways I woke up at 5AM top hopefully inspire you to do the same. The first thing you need to know about me is that I usually woke up at 7–8AM daily, without fail. So, waking up at 5AM was at least a two-hour difference. Here’s how I did it and still to this day do:

A wall checklist

That’s the first thing I did — I took an A4 page and wrote down the words Big “The 5AM club” To the side of that, I created 21 checkboxes, with the calendar days from Monday — Sunday. I read somewhere that it takes 21 days to create a habit — so naturally I put down 21 opportunities for me to make this a habit.

That immediately placed me in the frame of mind that it is a tangible goal. To make something from a ‘wish’ or a ‘I’ll do it one day” to goal is for you to write it down and make it visible. I placed this above my desk where I work everyday. The important thing was to “TAKE ACTION” immediately. There was no need to make a beautiful wall poster of a 5AM checklist. Those are what I call “nice distractions” which makes you feel productive but actually delays the process because it does not add that much value — however it makes you feel that you are “doing something”.

The Dreaded Alarm Clock

It became clear in the book that to move towards the 5AM club, you need to wake up eventually without the use of your alarm — at least that is how I interpreted it and the goal I wanted.

So, to force myself to wake up at 5AM I set my alarm for two times — the first being 4:55 and the other being 4:57. The first one is 5 minutes before to allow myself to get up from my bed. The second alarm was a safety alarm to ensure that I don’t oversleep.

Here is the trick — kept my phone on the other side of the room. In this way, I did not digitally distract myself the night before in bed. I fell asleep without a screen in my face. It also forces me to stand up and turn of the alarm.

As I got more sophisticated, I used the alarm on my FitBit and also bought a physical alarm clock. I always ensure to use two devices just in case the one does not work.

Intention

This was probably the most important step that got me waking up at 5AM — Intention. I knew that I wanted to wake up at 5AM and so I had to mentally tell myself in the mirror the night before “You are waking up at 5AM”. This mentally prepared myself for waking up at such a strange hour.

Furthermore, the first rule of the 5AM club is to start with exercise first thing in the morning. So, I placed my running shoes just outside of my bed. I had also prepared the clothes I was going to wear the next day. All these ‘signifiers’ helped me wake up at 5AM.

Waking up at 5AM is not easy if you have not been doing it all your life. But it is possible with these three methods. And believe me, it will automatically improve the rest of your day — and ultimately your life.