Tips for waking up earlier and increasing productivity

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https://open.spotify.com/episode/4pG6RUeEoyGzrGU2x2DvGE?si=3b9gyipkS7SP6qK1Xw8PeA&nd=1

Hi everyone, welcome back and today we’re not going to waste any time with a tacky ( in bad taste) intro. I just want to get into the heart of today’s topic. How to wake up earlier and why it could be beneficial for you. I say could because well we are all different, our bodies all function differently.

Not to mention, we have all different responsibilities, ambitions, and goals that naturally won’t exactly all align together. That said, I think this is important topic to discuss because you always hear people saying “ oh if only I had more time in my day” or “ I would love to, but I just don’t have time” or “ how about we put it off until next week, I’m just too busy right now”. I want to make this clear from the beginning as well that waking up earlier may not be for you, it may not be the magic answer to all of your problems of lost time. But I genuinely think that regardless of your lifestyle, there is always a reward in sacrifice. It is just whether the juice is worth the squeeze. In other words, if the effort is worth what you are going to get out of or acheive from the sacrifice. We all have responsibilities, we all have aspects of our lives that we wish we could change or that maybe we would like to have more control over.

In Stoic philosophy, the importance of determining what you can and cannot change is really emphasized. Something that I think is fundamental in a world full of ever-more distractions and sure that provide you with a broadened perspective of the world and your surroundings; but consequently leave you conflicted and in a constant race against time. Being organised and efficient is becoming increasingly important as the tasks we need to complete on a daily basis are multiplying.

The more that we digitize our lives, the harder it gets to keep up ( maintain the same rhythm). Deadlines are more and more rigid, more is expected of us and in a short period of time. I’m sure many of you are probably thinking to yourselves, well Nick, that sounds like it sucks ( informal, not good), I don’t want any part of that. To which I would answer too late my friend, we are all in this together and we have to recognize that there are some aspects of our lives we have no control over. If you want to eat, you have to earn money. If you want money, you have to have a job. If you want a job, you have to use a computer to make a resume in most cases and send it to the employer.

I’m not by any means encouraging you to give into society's expectations of your demographic of course there are also many conscious decisions you can make in your everyday life to support things you believe in like buying locally, for example or being vegan or not going to amusement parks. I’m simply suggesting that rather than get discouraged by all the time in your day that is subjectively wasted doing menial ( boring) tasks that either give you no immediate pleasure or fulfillment ( comes from verb to fulfill, to satisfy a desire or obligation) or that don’t align with a long time goal of yours, carpe diem (seize the day) in Latin. Or rather seize the time in your day that is yours and nobody else's. Today I’m going to give you three tips on how to maximize your free time to be productive, get things done, be on top of things you need to do or simply to be able to do things you have always wanted to do but could never find the time for.

I’m also going to talk a bit about my personal experience. I consider myself more of an early riser than a night owl so someone’s whose body generally works better in the morning than at night. I like getting up early unless I couldn’t sleep for some reason that night or if I stayed up later than usual. Of course in those cases, it is a lot harder to get up and have the same level of energy. I’ll start this off by saying that everyone needs to determine what works best for them. My schedule is not suited for everyone but it will at least serve as an example in this episode. Especially for those of you who don’t know where to start. You will get an idea of why it could be beneficial for you to change up your sleep habits to maximize your free time and ultimately be more productive. I usually get up at 6 (six) in the morning and lights are out ( the lights are turned off) by about 10:30 (ten thirty) at night. So I have determined that I need at least 7 (seven) hours of sleep to not be totally exhausted and unable to move when the alarm goes off the next morning. I actually made this routine habitual when I was still in high school because I figured ( I thought) I had to wake up pretty early anyways you know by like 7:30 ( seven thirty) at the latest so I told myself why not try to get up at 7 instead of just hitting the alarm ( informal, to turn off the alarm) at 7 then sleeping in till 7:20 ( seven twenty). Around this time, I was really into learning French and Italian specifically. These podcasters I would listen to being Johan from Francais Authentique and Alberto from Italiano Automatico would talk a lot about personal development, putting new routines and positive habits in place. I must say their content really had a big influence on my motivation to want to wake up earlier and be more ambitious. So after a couple weeks of constantly listening to their podcasts, I told myself hey why don’t we give this a shot? ( Why don’t we try doing this) So I told myself no matter what when that alarm goes off at 7, I’m jumping out of bed, running to the shower and getting the day started no questions asked. I’m not going to lie, the first couple weeks were tough. I was grumpy ( irritable), tired and in doubt “ why am I doing this to myself” I would say. After I got past that initial hump ( figurative in this case, obstacle), once getting up at 7 became a routine, I would wake up ready to face the day with a big smile on my face without wanting to rip my eyes out ( Informal, to rip out means to pull out/ remove) . Another thing that is important to figure out even before changing your schedule around is

-Why am I getting up earlier?

-What are my priorities?

-What in my day am I missing time for?

-Why am I sacrificing my beloved sleep?

-What will be the positive outcome of my efforts?

All of these questions are so important to ask yourself and remind yourself of as often as possible. Think of yourself as a plane flying towards your goal. If you don’t correct your trajectory and regularly ensure yourself you are on the right track, you are not going to arrive at the right destination. Some people like to write down their thoughts in a journal others like to record themselves reciting their reasons for doing so on their phone for example and then listening to it. Others like me like to tell people about and/ or teach what they have learned to others or at least bounce my ideas off of other people ( discuss something with people) so that we can learn from each other. Find your method and don’t neglect reminding yourself why the sacrifice you’re making is worth it. So, my reason for getting up earlier at the time was so that I would always have time to learn French and Italian. I would study vocabulary, listen to podcasts, read books or articles. Now let’s go even deeper and ask ourselves why spend this time learning a new language? Why not dedicate this time to something else? Well for me, I love languages and I decided to prioritize these two languages in particular because My family and I had planned a trip to Italy about 2 (two) years before I started learning Italian.

From the moment, I knew we were going on this trip, the thought of knowing the language really excited and motivated me. So, I defined what I wanted to achieve in that 2 year timeframe and the amount of time I would need to spend learning Italian daily to get to that level before leaving. I had already been to France at that time and I was frustrated because I knew the trip could have been a lot more interesting and authentic if I had learned the language prior to going. So ever since I got back from that trip when I was 13, I was infatuated with (obsessed, madly in love with) the French language. It was my first foreign language and I have always really liked it. So I decided to get more serious about learning it mostly by just doing what I was doing before so listening to podcasts, music and studying vocabulary in a much more consistent way.

So by knowing why I was getting up early and what outcome I wanted to achieve along with discipline and developing techniques to do so in a much less painful way, I was able to get up earlier. After a couple months of getting up at 7, I told myself “ this isn’t so bad, I bet I could do 6 . Let’s try it tomorrow”. When the alarm went off at 6 the next morning, I felt like I was in a World War II film and the world was crashing down ( to collapse on something/ someone) on me. This was when I realized that you have to learn to walk before you can run in other words you can have to learn to have the discipline to do little things well and consistently until they become so easy and so natural they are no longer considered a chore ( task you don’t want to do) rather than trying to take too big of steps, to make drastic changes in your life in a short timespan. Going from waking up at 7 to 6 overnight was an epic failure and I knew it.

That’s when I went back to the drawing board meaning when I decided to rethink my plan of action. Come on Nick, you’ve done this before, what’s stopping you from reaching your goals? Ego and lack of experience my friends, that’s my best diagnosis ( figurative, a medical declaration for a condition). But by failing, I learned. I had an epiphany ( to have a realization) and realized that I’m not Superman and that this needs to be a gradual transition. So I said to myself “okay Nick, let’s try 6:45 ( six forty five) what’s fifteen minutes anyway. Everyone can lose fifteen minutes. I got this”. I set my alarm, I prepared everything I needed for the next morning the night before. I even went to bed at 10:00 instead of 10:30 to make sure I wouldn’t be totally whacked ( exhausted) when I woke up. The alarm went off and sure enough I leaped out of bed, turned it off and started my routine like that, it was easy. Why was it easy? It was easy because I set myself up for success. I prepared everything the night before. My coffee was ready to go just at the flip of a switch ( figurative expression emphasising how easy something is to do) and it was brewing. My podcasts were downloaded and ready to go. My goal at the time was to read for 20 minutes in both languages. I chose the articles I wanted to read the night before so that when I turned on my screen, they were the first things to pop up ( informal, to be displayed on a screen in this case). I made sure to have my devices charged, my notebooks on my desk, pencils, everything was ready. I’ve been now getting up regularly at 6:00 for years and I have found a lot more time in my day to work on super important things.

Many people would say “Nick that’s great I’m just not a morning person”. Of course everyone has their own preferences and that's why it is so important to know yourself and what motivates you. There are pros and cons to getting up early and going to bed early (just) as there are for waking up late and staying up late. But one significant advantage of getting up early rather than late is that that hour or two in the morning is yours! Most people aren’t awake yet. Life’s obligations are generally still dormant. That means less distractions. If you are like me and get easily distracted, I would recommend trying to change up your routine for at least 3 months. I know that sounds like a lot but studies show it actually takes approximately 21 days just to establish a new habit. If you find after these 3 months that the cons outweigh ( to be greater than) the pros, no harm no fowl! ( idiom, no big deal, it’s not important) There is no shame in reverting back to your normal routine.

Experimentation is important for growth and you have nothing to lose besides you know a little sleep. Here are a few tips for getting up earlier: Set an alarm on your phone and leave your phone out of arm’s reach so that you are forced to physically get out of bed and turn it off. Second tip, drink a big glass of water as soon as you wake up. Tip number three, step outside or go for a short walk right after you get up. Some extra tips that may make the difference between you getting up and getting to work instead of going back to bed include: ensuring you go to bed early enough that you feel well-rested after waking up. Find about 10 (ten) minutes to do some midday meditation and of course eat a nutritious breakfast.

That’s all for today my friends, I hope you found it insightful (clever, something that makes you think) and intriguing (interesting) . If you liked today’s episode, please share my podcast with your friends learning English because I know I love to get recommendations for resources for learning foreign languages. Stay tuned and thank you for your support. Bye bye.