Hack your productivity by shifting your cycle!

I've always been something of a late-to-bedder. My mom tells me that I always wanted to stay up to watch Letterman as a baby, and as a teenager, I had to watch Adult Swim at least until after Cowboy BeBop was over. So as much as I've been a connoisseur of all things late night, recent years have seen me transition into more of an early riser.

Time tested wisdom says waking up early is good for you. Why would Franklin lead us astray? The sun has been rising on this earth for a lot more years than I've been here, and that four to six o'clock range has always been early and hard to wake up during for everyone throughout history. So what are some of the benefits I've seen from not starting a new movie at 1AM?

First, waking up early gives me a built-in quiet time. I can read, exercise, write, or otherwise start the day in productive peace while all the loud rest of the world sleeps. For me, I need things quiet to be able to get practically anything done, so a couple of hours of it in the morning gives me a great start on the day's work.

Second, my mental energy is almost always in a better place in the morning rather than at night. I used to think night time was the best time to get things done because, again, the house is quiet then. But I find that I naturally gravitate to a passive mindset at night time. Once I get moving in the morning, I feel like working. Midday, I feel like napping, late night, I feel like starting a screen. But early in the morning, I feel like laying bricks.

I like to think about each day as a miniature lifetime. You wake up, like you're coming to life, and you go to sleep which is sort of like dying. And you see the same thing in the world: it goes from dark to light, coming to life, then light to dark, dying. There's something old and resonant that triggers in our bodies when we synchronize them to the cycles of the day. There's a value to this, but it's one that needs to be experienced consistently to acquire a taste for it.

As with everything, your mileage may vary: you need to find what works for you and your schedule in your business. But I do suggest trying an earlier schedule if you haven't for a while as it could be just what you need to punch through with explosive productivity in the next few weeks.