I am convinced that it is something that I should be doing because of two very important reasons; I am struggling to do it, and I am happier when I put forth the effort.  I’ll give you a little background on myself.  I have two young children, a full time job, I freelance, and have many hobbies.   Nights are quite different from what they were when I was a bachelor.  When I get home at night, typically I help make supper, clean up, play with the kids, and get them ready for bed.  By time 7:30 rolls around and the kids are in bed, my wife and I want to spend time with each other (well, at least that’s what she’s been telling me).  This, by no means is worse than the way things used to be, they’re just different.

I still need time for myself with this schedule, and that is where the beauty and silence of the morning comes in.  My wife once told me that she notices that I’m much happier when I wake up early.  I have been thinking about why that may be, and thought I’d share.  I think the first and biggest reason is that I have time in the morning to be still.  There is a lot of craziness that goes on throughout the day.  I am completely guilty of hitting the snooze alarm for an hour and waking up at the last possible moment and rushing to work.  This involves inhaling breakfast,  getting to work just on time, giving my wife a peck instead of really kissing her, and drinking crappy coffee from our diner rather than the stuff I make.  I get to work frazzled, and I think that that frazzleness many times carries on throughout the day.  Compare this to a morning when I wake up early.  I have time to think, make coffee, sit, and do whatever it is I decide to do that morning.  The unfrazzled morning seems to set the tone for the rest of the day.  Another amazing thing is that when I wake up early and accomplish something, I tend to be more motivated throughout the day.  There are things that I have accomplished in the morning that I am pretty sure I would not have done otherwise.  Mornings involve exercise, playing guitar, writing or doing web work.  Mountain biking is my favorite morning activity followed by reading.  It’s been tough finding time and motivation to do these things  later on during the day.

So, with all of those benefits, why in the world wouldn’t you do the same?  Yes, it is tough, and yes, I am definitely struggling to rise early every morning.  But, with all good habits, this one is hard to start, but easy to maintain.  I have found that accountability has been the most powerful tool by far with rising early.  Forget setting your alarm clock across the room or buying one that is louder.  Your subconscious is way more powerful than you give it credit for.  I have placed 3 different alarms throughout the house and have turned off every single one of them and went back to bed.  However, having someone text you in the morning or give you a call has proven to be much more powerful.  I just received a text this morning from yetbiker, “Almost 5: kick today in its’ butt.” followed by a call from johnlewisii.  How could I not wake up?

johnlewisii over at sixmonthexperiment, others and I have started tweeting about this with the hash tag #5amclub. It’s been great seeing what others are accomplishing.  I’ve found that it’s also super-motivating and an excellent accountability tool.  Even though the name implies it, don’t think that it’s limited to 5amers.  If you’re waking up early before work or your normal morning schedule, tweet away!  So, join our club.  Arise early, and tweet!

Resources

• How to become an early riser on Zen Habits
• How to become an early riser by Steve Pavlina