> Fascinating, I can’t believe I never really noticed that effect before. Notch another point for the early birds.

Yeah, I only barely noticed it myself. I woke up in the afternoon for a few days in a row and had good days when I jumped immediately into action, but bad days when I didn't. Then I woke up at 4:30AM and had a really leisurely morning, but still had an awesome day. I had a think on it and I've seen this trend before - waking up late is fine, but then you've got to get momentum quick or the day is hosed. Waking up early makes it a lot easier.

I just switched to this a couple months ago and it just feels better. I have kids, so I spend most of my afternoons into the evening getting them ready for dinner, dressed for bed, teeth brushed, playing games and generally just being a Dad. So when 9-10PM comes up, I don't feel like doing much of anything; if I do, it takes me so long to get into the flow that I'm already tired and end up going to bed too late or not having completed anything.

I now get up at 5AM and love it. Make some coffee, write , get dressed, and go. It's an excellent schedule, and it really sets the pace for the whole day.

If you want to make the most of your morning, I recommend writing or just organizing your thoughts a bit while sipping some coffee or just futzing around the house. Then go into work knowing something you want to do, with a vague idea how you're going to get there, and just get it done. With any luck, you'll accomplish one significant thing for the day, so whether or not you get 10 more things accomplished you can walk away knowing you did something with your time that was genuinely productive.

Excellent stuff.

Hey Sebastian,

Awesome post! Do you have any advice regarding actually waking up? I've been struggling with this problem for a while now.

In the period between when the alarm goes off and me actually waking up, I'm a completely different person. I have mental battles like "I should get more sleep so I'm not as tired for my day *SNOOZE*, etc, *SNOOZE* etc, *SNOOZE* and when I actually wake up I beat myself up.

I set multiple alarms but my "other self" turns them all off.

Do you have any suggestions to overcome this problem?

> Plus when I sleep a lot I tend to be very sleepy, tired and unproductive during the day, and surprisingly, quite the opposite when I wake up earlier. It’s great!

Yeah, that's the strangest part about sleeping very much... I have a couple friends big into memory and sleep science, I'm going to ask why this is next time I chat with one of them.

I have to agree. Recently I used to go to sleep at 1:00 AM and wake up at around 11 AM. Usually, after all the preparing, I'm ready for work at 2 PM - leaves me 11 hours per day for my duties.
Now, following Steve Pavlina's advice, I go to sleep when I'm really sleepy, which is around midnight and wake up every day at 6:30 AM and usually I'm ready to go at 8 AM - leaves me with 16 hours per day. And it's just like you said in an older post, it feels like two consecutive days! And the feeling is awesome!

Plus when I sleep a lot I tend to be very sleepy, tired and unproductive during the day, and surprisingly, quite the opposite when I wake up earlier. It's great!

What time do you usually go to bed? I was on the 5am schedules a few times before and loved it, but then there are events that require me to stay up late, knocking me out of the cycle.

My sleep schedule is all over the place due to travel and collaborating with people back in the USA. 10PM-ish to 5AM is one of my favorite sleep schedules to be on, but not always possible. Right now I'm semi-nocturnal since I'm on calls to the USA during the daytime a lot. I don't really like semi-nocturnal unless I'm in a city that's decent at night like NYC or Tokyo, though. It's no good if I want to go work at a cafe or get some food, not much open.

Oh, I had a lot to do on deadline, so I was doing 1AM to 5AM for a few days, with a short nap in the afternoon. That's what made me write this post - it's not a bad schedule either, though I'm not able to consistently run on 4 hours of sleep. (I wonder if it's possible to run on that much sleep with training and exceptional habits? I bet it is, I'd like to do it that way)

Wow EXCELLENT point. I had never thought of this before.

Really striking. I woke up at 1 O'clock yesterday. 7 hours into my day, I was winding down, even though I didn't actually go to bed until 1 AM.

I woke up at 630 today. Right now I'm 7 hours into my day, but I feel like I'm just getting started! Barely after lunch!

And you're spot on again, I was able to take it easy in the morning, ease into the day... but then not feel rushed when I realized it was noon and I'd barely done anything.

Fascinating, I can't believe I never really noticed that effect before. Notch another point for the early birds.

Or even better - wake up early and get momentum quick, it will pay off twice, except if you do any quite tiring work.