How Waking Up at 6AM Changes The Trajectory of My Day

Over the past few weeks, I have began to feel a little more "normal" with my previous normal routines, such as getting my workouts done at fitness studios, eating at restaurants, and simply being around humans and friends again.Since then, I began to implement an old (and good) habit of mine, which is waking up at 6am each day. Initially, it felt extremely difficult--I was groggy in the morning, I was snoozing my alarms, and trying to find an excuse to stay in bed. But because I intentionally set workout classes at 6:30am, I knew I had to get my ass out of bed or else I'd pay a fee for missing the class.Today is the fourth week that I have implemented this old morning wake-up time of mine and is also the "aha" moment of why waking up early has always been beneficial for me.Not only did I finish my workout for the day by 7:15am, I had a lovely cup of coffee from Philz and finished editing a podcast episode by 8am, right before hopping on a conference call for my corporate job. Talk about productive morning..right?Now, I am all for productivity, but I don't measure how "good" a day is by productivity. I will say though, I personally believe that when we are able to accomplish the important and most valuable items on our mental to-do list, we feel our best internally. So, I guess for me, it's getting a workout in, finishing urgent projects and to-do's, and reducing overall anxiety.What I recognize is the feeling of good energy, work flow, and disciplined focus I felt after coming home from my workout + coffee run. This energy and mentality ultimately set up the rest of my day to continue to be focused and effective. On the other hand, during the peak of the pandemic in April or so, I recall feeling sluggish at 7:50am, merely ten minutes before hopping on a work call, and by the time I wanted to work out in the afternoon or early evening, I was honestly...over it. I didn't feel like it anymore and I just felt very meh. I felt very lazy and wanted to just do nothing, which I do think there was nothing wrong with, especially considering the context of what was going on at the time. But, seeing how great my energy feels now after specific changes and going back to good habits I implemented previously, it's something I don't want to steer away from again.So maybe you're not a morning person and don't want to wake up before 9am--totally fine. But if you're experiencing a sluggish feeling each day and just poor energy, both mentally and physically, then just try this experiment for a week and wake up one hour earlier than your normal time. That can't be too drastic, can it? Write down each day how you're feeling mid-day or at the very least, take mental note of it. How does your energy feel? How are you reacting towards yourself and others? Do you feel more inclined to do something better today?Trust me, I love sleeping in too. But there's some secret sauce to waking up early and getting shit done before 8am, like a good workout. Give it a try.xx