Still Not There! But Finally Waking Up At 6 AM - What's Working For Me?
I have been struggling to wake up early for several years now. On a typical day, I used to get up at 8:30 - 9 AM.
And trust me when I say this - I’ve tried a lot of things to wake up early - hitting the bed early, stay away from mobile and laptops an hour before going to sleep, reading a book, taking a shower before bed, etc.
These things would work for 2-3 days, and then I was back to my routine wake up time - 8:30-9 AM. And then no matter how much I used to stick to the schedules, the earliest I would wake up is 8:30 AM.
But there’s something that has been working for me for past month or so. Thought will share it with you too.
A friend of mine used to wake up between 5:30 to 6 AM. I asked him to wake me up at 6 AM. He calls me up every morning at 6 AM and does two things - repeat a task from my Trello side-project board and mention anything motivational and different.
Some days, he repeats what Rocky Balboa said, “It ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward..”
Some days, he would mention names of people who woke up early. And some days, he would blurt out, “Wake up you lazy ass… Don’t you dare sleep now. I’m calling you again in 10 mins to check on you…”
For whatever reason, it worked. For nearly a month, I have been waking up at 6 AM.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/5ki7roj40b6ghds/stj-6am-streak.jpg?dl=0
And that’s when I thought. Why not have a service whereby an unknown person wakes you up every single day at your selected time and reminds you of your goal.
That’s what 4:30 AM Club is all about. To gradually wake up at 4:30 AM.
Would love to hear your feedback on the service. It's on https://430amclub.shalintj.com/
I think this is a great idea, but maybe change the name to something without 430, it might have more appeal.
You should also test this on the reverse side, would people pay for others to call them and make them go to bed? You could offer both services if there is a need.
Great idea. Will test it out.
Also, I'm thinking when you want to wake someone up, one of the thing that surely works is to have a surprise element to it - making them guess something, asking them some question, some trivia, etc. Essentially, something that awakes the brain.
But when it comes to retiring to bed, a lot of times, it's the habit that needs to be formed (good) or some bad habit that needs to be broken. For instance, glueing to mobile past 10-11 PM. Or you are reading some interesting article or browsing through random gifs and need another 15-20 mins.
What do you think?
P.S. But yeah, the reverse case has merits.
Have you tried those alarm apps where you need to complete a task or puzzle to shut it off?
Yep... I have tried that... I used to solve them and go back to bed.
IMO, what they miss is the human element - the sentiment of being accountable to wake up and complete that one task (echoing the sentiment of ship something everyday)
Makes complete sense to me. Let me think about an alternate name.
Once I have a basic validation of the idea, I will anyways have to move it out from shalintj.com
I had a similar idea for an app. I wanted to called it Rise and Grind. @shalintj Feel free to take the name and use it.
What’s your objective with waking up that early? My goal is to wake up at 8am.
I have kids. My goal is also to wake up at 8am.
I get the joke :)
One day, when they get older.
Hahaha.. I get it now :)
And thinking.... how did I miss it the last time...
Do you want to wake up at 8 AM? Or you are already up by then?
Sorry, I was joking. I'd love to still be in bed at 8am, but it's more like 6am for me for the foreseeable future!
Valid question.
I run a content marketing agency and as you can imagine, amid all hustle-bustle of the day, I was just not able to work on side-projects, write content, give thoughts on growing the business, read 2-4 pages of a book, etc. Those 2 hours really helped me with that.
So, I think it depends on how the rest of the day looks like.
But above all, from an emotional perspective, if I compare to how I feel now when I wake up at 6 AM vs. that 8:30 schedule, I feel like I'm on top my schedule. You know that feeling of you trying to catch-up vs. you getting to stay on top of the schedule. It's bliss.
BTW... At what time do you currently wake up?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_ain't_no_such_thing_as_a_free_lunch so those 2 hours come from somewhere. I've always been curious, what exactly is the benefit of getting up early versus staying up late?
I'm glad you mention that. Just 2 days back I had a similar discussion with my colleague. The whole idea of waking up early is not to add those 2 hours back to that day.
It's the effectiveness with which you can get a lot done in those 2 hours. The exact same reason why a lot of guys prefer to walk into office an hour before the rest of the guys are there. Solace and starting earlier help psychologically... at least in my case.
And I can wrap my work earlier...
Thanks for continuing the discussion with me. The no free lunch comes into play with your last statement: you wrap up your work earlier. Which means that there are 2 hours at the end of the day where your co-workers cannot consult you for help. Which means that your team "suffers", but you personally gain. Is that the real answer?
I think if the team cannot function even for 2 hours without me, that's even a bigger problem rather waking up early.
I would fix that first.
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I hear ya. I typically wake up around 9ish in the morning and start my day (errands, work, exercise, etc). I typically get a lot of work done around 6pm to 12am because I have no distractions (friends or family) and I can pump out more quality work at a faster pace. I've been blessed to have work that allows me to have a schedule like this.
You play a different game (the agency game) and I can see how those 2 extra hours may definitely benefit you to come out ahead.
Yep.. . I roger that...
Hey, you shot me a tweet asking for me to take a look at this and talk about why Morning Person failed. Sorry for the delay!
After the first month using morning person only ~15% of users picked up their phones. The people that were answering were all working on some goal (quit smoking, studying for some test, launching a side project). They liked the accountability aspect. What I learned from doing the project is that people are self-motivated or motivated by something they're working on or they're not. A phone call didn't work in the long run.
Congrats on the launch and I'm interested to hear how things work. I like this concept and hope it works out for you!
How are you connecting the callers? Just giving each caller the other person's number? Or using an API like Nexmo to conceal the other person's number?
What is the mobile app you used in your dropbox screenshot (with the streak)? Did you made it? :-)
By the way, your story is cool. You should put it on your website. People might better understand the story of this product and if it fits their needs.
Yep.. Will add it to the website. Trying to validate if I can have enough people to whom this service can be of help.
And here's the link that app.. Pretty dope...
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.isoron.uhabits&hl=en
Feels so good. Just sent out emails to people who applied for the membership...
If there's something I learnt from this project, it's JUST LAUNCH. It can be a software project, a service or anything else. Don't over-analyze or think of every possible moving piece of the puzzle.
Launch and figure out as you go along.
Very similar idea to wakie, an app where a stranger calls you when it's time to wake up. Though, it seems like wakie has pivoted a bit, to more of a socializing app where strangers can call each other.
Yep.. Wakie has pivoted... Not sure was it the scale issue or "vc-money-at-play".
Did you try Wakie in its earlier avatar?
I think this is a really interesting idea and would love to see it explored more. I think it would be great to have some sort of group where everyone held each other accountable for checking in a X hour in the morning.
I started waking up at 6am about a year ago to work on side projects in the morning since all my energy was drained by the evening after work and I have loved it ever since.
Two things that I have found help me wake up and stay motivated in the morning:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL24FThstnPuK-VaAB1IE1_yrmBvElUcZh
Best of luck with your flushing out your idea!
Many thanks for helping me out here. You are right on about the group thing. I replied on the same lines over here: https://www.indiehackers.com/forum/b5b896136b?commentId=-L8csFdfQnLJ9eBk-1HA
A quick query. How do you recommend I proceed with the group thing? I had some apprehensions about starting with that approach first vs. calling the members.
Appreciate your help!
No problem! And I don't know for sure how the group dynamics would work but I was imagining possibly something similar to how Work in Progress works but scaled down so it's smaller communities of people waking up early, checking in when their awake, and sharing what they accomplished when they signed off so their being held accountable.
Definitely excited to see how the site progresses and I requested membership to the site.
There is a typo in How It Works step 3 - https://430amclub.shalintj.com/#how-it-works
In the above text "thing you need" is repeated.
Neat idea. I am up between 2:30 am and 3:00 am mountain time.
Cheers!
Awesome. By what time do you go to sleep?
And thanks for note on the typo. Fixed!
np.
No earlier then 8:30pm. I typically go to bed between 9:30pm and 10pm.
I maintain this schedule over weekends as well. My motivation for doing so is that I have a wife and kids and I don't want my startup / side projects interfering with family time. So I do all of my work early in the morning before I start my day job.
I find that if I pre-make coffee and leave it in a thermose it helps motivate me to get up. I don't have an automatic coffee maker, I have a chemex. On the otherhand I have always been good at getting up early.
That's a good idea. These are the things that make me think there should be a group... a community where we share ideas like these. So much to learn and experiment with.
I have talked about that approach here: https://www.indiehackers.com/forum/b5b896136b?commentId=-L8csFdfQnLJ9eBk-1HA
I like it!
It's great that you have a friend that is willing to do this for you. I'm just not sure how effective it would be having a stranger call me at 4:30a. This is purely speculation though.
Side note: I've recently started going to bed when my toddler does (9ish) and I'm now starting to wake up naturally between 4a-5a. I find that I am far more productive when no one else is awake in the house or on social media.
I agree. Those couple of hours in the morning can get a whole lot done. Blissfully and effectively!
Brain... If you don't mind sharing, would love to know the routine you follow after you wake up. What you like and don't like about it?
I'm also in shalinATshalintjDOTcom
It's not that it couldn't work with strangers, but I am supposing that friends make better accountability partners. It's the "If I screw up, one of my friends is going to know and I can't let that happen" kind of mentality.
As for my basic routine, it starts the night before. I want to figure out one thing I need to do the next morning before I go to sleep. That way I'm not sleepily trying to come up with something and can just focus on getting that one thing done. By the time I get that done, I am awake and motivated enough to figure out the next thing and then the next, until I have to go to work.
I will say, my routine is hit and miss right now with a toddler and 2 newborns. 👶👶🍼🍼😫 Hopefully I can get back on track once they start getting sleep through the night.
Brian, I was just looking at your Twitter handle.. Really adorable babies!
When the idea for 4:30 AM Club first hit me, I believed the community is the right way to help people wake up early. Because, everyone in the community would be familiar with each other and they will hold them accountable.
But then I convinced myself, it's this classic chicken-n-egg problem. So, I thought to myself, let's first bring together people who have the intent... the longing to wake up early. From thereon, will setup a Telegram group and start curating the community (discussion, sharing ideas, etc.).
Also, another thing I that ran in to was the same thing you talked about. After you wake up, the worst thing to do is thinking what needs to be done first (you get into the whole making decision, weighing choices, priorities, etc. gets in to play). So, I thought why not let the caller remind me what I need to do first.
Would love any suggestions, ideas and feedback you have on the service.
I love these posts because there are people like me who think "Hmm. Waking up at 9AM every day? That would be quite an accomplishment for me!"
I definitely have streaks where I'll work until 5AM and then wake up at noon. It's extremely disruptive to adult life.
I'd maybe use something like this .. it's an interesting idea.
Thanks John. If you want to give it a try, do signup. Would love to see how it works for you.
Right before I joined an MBA program, I used to be fast asleep way before 11:30 PM. But MBA changed that - assignments, reports, discussions and late-night chatters. Since then, I have always been a night-owl. I could stretch it till wee hours but hell if someone asked me to wake up before 7-8 AM. And that just got worsened. Didn't realise when that 7 AM became 9 AM. The only exception being if I had to catch a flight or a train.
I knew this has to be fixed. I'm sure many won't agree with me on this - but working late night for long stretches (weeks, months and years is just not good for body. I don't think our bodies and emotion are designed for it).
I'm still way off from the target of 4:30 AM but I think 6 AM is a good start.
Would love to see if I can help you wake up early.
P.S. I see 4:30 AM Club (the name's definitely gonna change) evolving into a community where we help each other out on this. Would love to see how that shapes out.
Hey guys... Thanks for the amazing response. Got 2 signups...
::elated::
I absolutely love the idea. I woke up at around 6 am all this month. But since last week, i have been behind on the schedule. Waking up early in the morning means waking up really fresh with a clear thought process of what i'm going to be doing. As a kid, i used to wake up 3am to start my studies and play around all day. Kept me balanced.
As far as the side project goes, you, my friend are spot on. Time has been the number one issue. I am signing up for this. I remember there used to be an app for this. :)
Changing the name from 430am makes all the sense considering i've to put the time to wake up in your doc. :)
One problem - I don't want to share my trello, should be okay though, right?
Thanks for the positive note. Means a lot when you're trying to validate the idea.
I agree. Need to change the name. Will think more about it.
I think making Trello optional should not be a problem. A quick query - would you want the person waking you remind you of that one task you need to get done?