Many of our good habits start vanishing when our lives become more and more hectic.
One of the most important habits we can establish is waking up at a reasonable time each day. This should be one of our biggest priorities, but we often forget about the benefits of waking up early.
Don’t like to read? Here’s a video that sums up the majority of this article.
Let me paint you a picture of why sleeping in later can throw your life off balance.
Not too long ago, I would set an alarm to give me 20 minutes to get ready for work. Sounds reasonable, right? The problem here is I would rush through all my routines and would be one step behind on each of my morning tasks. Because of this, my whole day would get impacted by the foundation that I had set for myself. I would be in reaction mode from making my morning cup of coffee to reading my daughter a night-time book before bed.
Once I was finished with my day, I would think “Ahhhhh, I need to work out!”, but instead would grab a pint of ice cream (I mean, why not? I already ate a bunch of unhealthy stuff while rushing through my day). Besides, this would pair nicely with my show I’m about to binge-watch.
This type of daily routine is typical for most people, but could be easily improved by setting an earlier alarm. Here are the important benefits of waking up early and how this change can impact your day and productivity.
1. Better Sleep
When you aren’t used to waking up early, it can be extremely tiring when making the switch.
This is healthy for our bodies, though. When you wake up earlier, a big benefit is being tired earlier in the evening so your body naturally falls to sleep at an appropriate time.
This will help you get better, deeper sleep than a routine where you force yourself to bed. Yes, I’m talking about those nights where you lie in bed for multiple hours while scrolling through your social media feed.
Do yourself a favor and make this adjustment so your body can get the rest it deserves.
2. Better Diet
Remember my comment earlier about the pint of ice cream? This is exactly how waking up earlier can make or break your diet choices throughout the day.
If you wake up early, you are more likely to eat a healthy breakfast because you have the time to think about what you should eat. In a hurry, we will grab an easy snack like a pop tart.
What’s worse is what happens next. In our mind, we think “I can have a burger for lunch. I already ate unhealthy today so I might as well keep going with the same choices.”
3. More Focus
We need to stop juggling so many stressful thoughts and tasks throughout the day. To be honest, this isn’t healthy for our bodies.
In the early hours of the morning, you have the ability to think clearly and carefully plan your day. This will give you the ability to set yourself up for success and make sure you are focusing on what is most important.
Another benefit is having time for yourself. So many people forget how important this is and how it can help you through challenging relationships between family and friends.
4. Better Hygiene
People who wake up early have adequate time to take care of their bodies in the morning.
If you aren’t rushed, you are more likely to pamper yourself by cleaning your body thoroughly from head to toe. This adequate cleaning is good for your skin and any area that needs some rejuvenation.
In addition to your skin, you will have plenty of time for a healthy, deep clean on your teeth, nails, and shaving.
5. Better Exercise
Another benefit of waking up early is having an opportunity to work out or exercise.
Some people may argue that they can’t work out in the morning because they are simply too tired. I would argue the complete opposite though.
Yes, you are typically a zombie the first week of becoming an early riser, but after that week you are much more likely to have more energy for a workout.
If you were to have a long stressful day at work and try to get a workout in after dinner, it would probably be hard to find motivation. When you do the hard things in the early hours of the day, you will develop a habit and the only thing holding you back is your cozy bed (which you can easily overcome).
Try thinking about your health and how spending 10 minutes each day could drastically help your body.
6. More Productivity
Having peace and quiet will definitely help you accomplish those hard tasks with ease. With little distractions, you are able to get so much more done as well.
I was having a tough time finding a new job a while back and decided to automate my job search by implementing a routine that helped me achieve maximum productivity.
If I tried this strategy at night, I knew I would be destined for continued failure.
7. Better Momentum
This is probably the most important benefit of waking up early.
When you are late waking up, you are more likely to spiral down into a chain reaction of negative events. You may be trying to rush out the door so you spill coffee on your white shirt. On your commute, you get into a road rage battle with the car next to you. I think you get the idea here.
Having positive events in the morning will most likely lead to other positive events. Momentum is a real thing and it would make the most sense for us to start the day off with absolute greatness to help us win the rest of the day.
8. More Success
Studies have shown that a good amount of billionaires would wake up around 5:00am or earlier.
Money isn’t the end-all to success, but I think we can all agree there is something to this data. If you are getting better sleep, productivity, and focused on the most important things in life, the odds of you winning are going to be much higher. In addition to making money, you can also win at the other things in life: healthier relationships and happiness.
It’s funny to think about how waking up early could be the choice that determines if they are going to be successful or not.
9. Less Stress
The outcome of each of these benefits will keep you less stressed and more in control of your life.
We often see the elderly go to bed around 8:00 at night and wake up at 4:00 in the morning. In my opinion, they figured life out.
This routine may sound boring to some, but think about how this reduces stress in their life. Reducing stress from your body and brain is one of the most healthy choices you can make. If a boring life results in lowering stress too, you can count me in!
Final Thoughts
The benefits of waking up early should make everyone want to start right away. The problem is that it takes a lot of self-discipline to keep this up for most people.
I would encourage everyone to give themselves the absolute, best chance of waking up early so they are able to jump-start their day. If you have trouble with this, try watching some motivational videos to help you jump out of bed.
If you have any other benefits you would like to share, leave a comment below!
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