Becoming An Early Riser

A few months ago I read an article entitled How to Become an Early Riser by Steve Pavlina. I haven’t been able to get up early without being a danger to both myself and others since I was 10 years old but I’ve always lamented losing so much of my time.

So, starting last Tuesday morning I began following the Steve Pavlina path to early rising. My normal pattern is to sleep from 1am to 9am. My plan was to get up at 7am and go to sleep when I was tired.

Eight days later and I’ve learned quite a lot:

1. I still sleep about 8 hours a day, I now go to sleep at 11pm. This is annoying as the whole point of this exercise as to give me more time.
2. The first week has been hard. Really hard.
3. Breakfast usually gets me through the first 3 hours of my day until lunch time. My day now starts 2 hours earlier so I’m famished by 10. I now have a stash of apples to keep me going. Five-a-day here we come!
4. My daily routine is now out of sync with Mrs John. She is understandably not happy with being woken up 2 hours early or losing 2 hours with me in the evening.
5. I never knew that there was an actual Saturday morning.

Has it been worth it? Even though I’ve not gained any time by doing this, being able to get up earlier than 9am is a definite skill even if I don’t use it often. Also, gaining half a day I never knew existed has been quite nice.

Will I carry on with the minimum of a month that Steve suggests?

One day at a time.