Objective:
To wake up one hour earlier every weekday, and see if that gives me time and energy to pursue my personal projects. You can check out the full objectives of this LifeTest here.
Methodology:
Every weekday, I’ll be setting my alarm to go off 5 minutes earlier every weekday morning, until I hit my target time of 5.50am.
When the alarm goes off, I have to be out of bed and headed straight to the shower. No switching off the alarm and diving back to bed. I’m not imposing any rule that says that I must do something productive in the mornings, but I simply have to stay awake.
Monday, 10 June 2013
Woke up at 6.45am
The alarm buzzed and pretty much jolted me out of bed. I was dreaming that I was Neo about to fight Agent Smith on the subway, but it was way too dark to fight. I really wanted to get back to sleep to see how the dream would pan out, but I had a LifeTest to take care of.
Two things that helped me to get out of bed today:
1. The fact that my alarm (my phone) was located far away from my bed, requiring me to get up and switch it off
2. An automatic “script” in my mind telling me to head towards the bathroom instead of back to bed (my default).
Let’s see if these still work as I get up earlier in the next few days.
Tuesday, 11 June 2013
Woke up at 6.40am
Had this crazy real dream that I was taking an English exam, but the invigilator stopped me after I wrote the first sentence because I forgot to bring some sheet of paper showing I was eligible for this exam. I got really stressed about it, and then I woke up and remembered that I’ll probably never have to take another English exam for the rest of my life (or at least, I hope not hahaha). Unfortunately, this woke me up at 5am so my awesome 6+ hours of sleep got interrupted. Them crazy dreams are outta control.
The trick of placing the alarm clock far away is working. It’s a lot easier to go straight to the shower once I’m out of bed, which rocks. I still feel a little tired though, and it might be due to the fact that I haven’t been sleeping 7 hours for the past 2 nights. Gonna try getting to bed earlier tonight with the techniques learnt in LifeTest #2.
Wednesday, 12 June 2013
Woke up at 6.35am
Deliberately went to sleep earlier last night, which helped a lot in feeling less tired when I got up this morning. In fact, after showering I had a whole chunk of 30 minutes to do some research, which was awesome. The benefits of waking up earlier are starting to show 🙂
Thursday, 13 June 2013
Woke up at 6.30am
Woke up a little woozy today, maybe it’s because I’ve been sleeping around 6hours 50 mins for the past couple of nights. Just realized that I might have trouble going to bed early on Wednesday nights, because I usually go for a run and dinner with the girlfriend, ending my day around 10.45pm. By the time I shower, it’s usually 11-ish. Going to have to find a way to leave work earlier on Wednesdays so I can take this into account.
Friday, 14 June 2013
Woke up at 6.25am
The body wanted to get up somewhere around 6.15 – 6.20 ish, but I forced it back to sleep. Wow, this could probably be the first time in my life I’m consciously made the decision to go back to sleep hahhaha. Waking up really wan’t all that bad today, but it might be because it’s Friday. Let’s see how we do on Monday.
Monday, 17 June 2013
Woke up at 6.20am
Something strange happened this morning: My body kept wanting to wake up. It’d be like 5.45am, and my mind would be subconsciously telling my body: Stop rolling around in bed already, you’ve got work to do! It was as if it couldn’t wait to jump out of bed and work. Maybe it was yesterday’s newspaper feature that got me more motivated, but it would be awesome if I could sustain this drive to work every day!
Tuesday, 18 June 2013
Woke up at 6.15am
Woke up feeling tired today – dang. Spent last night watching a TED Talk (which was super interesting by the way, but I could have left it till this morning) which caused me to sleep 25 mins past my 7-hour mark. I need to get serious about going to bed on time. Starting tonight, I’m instituting a social media ban (email, Facebook, YouTube, delicious) effective 10.30pm every night. Hopefully that’ll help.
Wednesday, 19 June 2013
Woke up at 6.10am
The social media ban worked! I slept just 5 minutes late, and found myself waking up naturally around 6.10am this morning. I kind of just lay there, getting used to the feeling of being awake, before the alarm rang at 6.10. Great way to start the morning! It’s also getting to a point where I’ve got enough time to actually do some work in the morning – I completed half a blog post in the 50 minute chunk I had, which was awesome.
Thursday, 20 June 2013
Woke up at 6.00am
Made the 10-minute jump to the round number of 6am, with no adverse side effects. Singapore was covered with an incredible haze with PSI level of 290 last night (sparking off a whole host of hilarious memes and facebook statuses), so I had to sleep in air conditioning. Woke up with a dry throat, but the practice of downing a glass of water once I woke up worked great, and helped me feel less groggy.
Friday, 21 June 2013
Woke up at 5.55am
Oof. It’s Friday. No time to blog and I’m late for work!
Monday, 24 June 2013
Woke up at 5.50am
It’s actually really hard to get to sleep before 10.50pm. I ended up sleeping only around 11.30, but it might be because my body was really tired from the weekend. The past weekend saw me stay up for 2 consecutive late nights, with just 4 hours of sleep on Saturday night. Fast forward to Monday morning and I find myself waking up at 5.50 feeling extremely exhausted. Maybe 6am is my maximum, but we’ll see what happens this week.
Tuesday, 25 June 2013
Woke up at 5.50am
Oof. Went to sleep at midnight last night, because I was trying to finish off a blogpost I was working on. That left me with less than 6 hours of sleep, which can’t be good. Waking up at 5.50am this morning was painful, but I think it was partly psychological since I knew I had less than my ideal amount of sleep. I’m feeling a lot more awake now after hitting the showers and starting work. Still, sleeping for 6 hours every day just isn’t sustainable, and I’m gonna have to find a way to hit the sack earlier tonight.
Wednesday, 26 June 2013
Woke up at 6.37am
Epic fail today! My alarm went off at 5.50am but I turned it off and crawled back into bed because I was so exhausted. I slept at 11.30 last night because I was doing a project (which you’ll soon hear about!), so that’s why my body was craving some much-needed sleep this morning. I didn’t manage to hit my target time this morning – maybe sleeping at 10.50 every night just isn’t possible after all.
Thursday, 27 June 2013
Woke up at 6.20am
Decided to go slow by moving my wake-up time back by 20 minutes – so I slept at 11.20pm, and woke up at 6.20pm for my first night of 7 hours of sleep in days. My body is still fatigued at this point – I had 2 consecutive late nights last weekend plus only 6 hours ish of sleep for this week. But it was at least possible to wake up without feeling like killing myself. I’ll aim for 7 hours of sleep tonight, and to wake up at 6am tomorrow for the last day of the LifeTest.
Friday, 28 June 2013
Woke up at 6.00am
Success! Last night was a great example of a perfect work night – Worked on a project till 10.20, showered, and was in bed by 10.50pm. Then I chillaxed till I fell asleep around 11.10-ish, which gave me almost 7 hours of sleep. Woke up this morning feeling rested and ready to work, which is an amazing feeling. So while I’ve regressed back to 6.00am somewhat for the past week, perhaps this is my “sweet spot” time to wake up after all and get some real work done.
Results
Check out the results of the LifeTest here.