I Woke Up At 4 AM For A Month To See If It Would Make Me Successful

I Woke Up At 4 AM For A Month To See If It Would Make Me Successful If youve ever read a day in the life article following a top CEO, the odds are high that said CEO wakes up at a ridiculously early hour. Waking up at five, four or even three in the morning is a staple amongst successful leaders, but does it actually affect your success?As someone who both wants to be successful and is consistently looking for mora time in her day, I decided to wake up at 4 a.m. for a month. The multitude of day in the life articles on the internet had made me curious would waking up early give me mora peace of mind? Would I have time to complete those side projects that had forever been on my to-do list? Would this be the magical key to success I had been missing?Yes and no. The experiment didnt provide me the specific answers that I had been hoping for, but I did learn a lot. Not just about myself, but about the myths of waking up early and why it may/may not be good for you. Curious? Heres what yo u need to know before you follow in my footsteps.1. This works best if youre already an early riser. As somebody who prefers to get up early than stay up late, this experiment welches a lot easier for me than it would be for night owls. I know that Im more productive in the mornings and that its easier for me to be focused right after I wake up than right before I go to bed.If youre looking for more time in your day but know that youre most productive in the evenings, its okay to stay up late to get work done instead of waking up early. What matters most is the extra time and focus youre putting into your day-to-day, not when youre doing it. Early morning hours are a good place to test out how you benefit from that extra hour of focus, but if you want that time to be in the evenings down the road, do that instead.2. You need a to-do list. The need for a to-do list became imperative once I saw what waking up early welches like without it. One morning, my partner decided to join me in getting up at 4 a.m. I woke up and proceeded to get right to work he woke up and, well, went back to sleep. He hadnt planned to do anything once he woke up and realized that his time would be better spent sleeping.A to-do list helps you focus on whats important. Do you need to exercise in the mornings per a doctors orders? Will you spend your morning finishing that presentation for your boss? Do you need to clean the rest of the dishes? Pick three or four things to focus on each morning and make sure to manage your expectations deciding youre going to spend the morning writing a chapter for your book when you only have an hour is an unrealistic expectation to platzset for yourself.3. Individually set your alarm. While automatic reminders are all the rage, taking the time to set my next-day alarm every evening helped me focus on my goal getting up early. By setting the alarm each day, my decision to wake up early welches intentional. It was an active reminder that I was getting up early to accomplish x, y and z. It didnt take long for me to look forward to setting my alarm (yes, really) so I could plan for the day ahead.4. Youll have to adjust your entire day. The downside of this early morning experiment? I couldnt schedule social outings on weeknights. When all of my friends were ready to go to Tuesday Night bar trivia, I was yawning and ready to go to bed. I tried to fight this urge a few times (with coffee, naps and 5-hour Energy shots), but the physical exhaustion wasnt worth it.Shifting my schedule to account for an earlier wake up time was a good reminder that having it all wasnt worth it. Yes, there were days where I was able to wake up at 4 a.m., have a productive workday and then go out at night but without the recovery time my body needed, my performance suffered the next day. I started to see early nights as a form of self-care by giving my body and mind what it needed, I was setting myself up for success the next day.5. Getting up early will not make you successful. Its safe to say that completing this experiment didnt make me successful and that it probably wont make you successful either. Rather, this experiment proved the importance of time management. Giving yourself an extra hour in the day isnt enough, its what you do with it that matters. By waking up early, I was able to accomplish a lot. Once I had gotten certain tasks out of the way in the early morning, I had a renewed focus during the workday and didnt get as overwhelmed. If youre looking for a similar feeling, this experiment might be for you.I wont regularly set my alarm for 4 a.m. from here on, but Ill definitely do so from time to time. I was willing to give this experiment my time, and now Im ready to make that time work for me.