I’m not an early riser. All those people who are convinced that you can’t be productive or efficient or powerful in your life unless you get up at the ass crack of dawn… well, they can eat my ass crack. Even the Lunation Rite, which is a daily DAWN rite that I created is something I do at dawn… during the winter months when dawn arrives at a reasonable hour.
See, when the kid was tiny we had to get up early because wee hours is typically when wee ones start moving, and moving pretty energetically. But all those years of early rising didn’t change the fact that before about 7 am, I’m miserable and confused and cranky… no matter how early I get to bed or how much sleep I have.
Now, I know that for some of you, getting up at 7 or 8 (which, left to my own devices is usually when I naturally wake) IS early. But if you are going to bed when you get tired (and not keeping yourself awake with a bunch of blue light and noise and doom scrolling) then whenever you wake up naturally is the right time for you. Though I admit, if you are routinely getting up at 2pm it IS going to affect your productivity, just because so much of the world you need to interact with will only be available for a few more hours of your day. Still, I don’t believe that getting up earlier will naturally make you more successful or productive by itself.
What will? As far as I can figure out, it’s two things: Starting and Purpose. This is about the first of those…
So, getting up and getting started. If you are no good for three or four hours after you get up (me at 4am basically) then why even bother to be awake? You could be sleeping! And I think that’s the key behind all those annoying techbro CEOs who are always going on about getting up early. They get up and do things (sometime really cringe things like float tank mindfulness training and meeting with their nootropics consultants)… and, because no one else is up, they don’t get interrupted. So I think the key to being really productive is getting started shortly after I’m awake and doing something that I enjoy or look forward to.
Of course this is great when things are great, but what about when things are shitty? The past two years have been the hardest two years of my life (thus far — and there’s a cheery thought!) and there were lots of times when getting out of bed at all was massively challenging, let alone accomplishing anything. And what I discovered is having ONE thing that gets me out of bed and going regardless of how I feel is really useful for making each day as good as it can be. Because let’s be honest, while staying in bed all day is a nice sometimes activity, it doesn’t feel good to do it too much and if I am doing it too much, it’s probably because I’m not feeling too good. But focusing on this one thing, makes it easier to get going. And then making a habit out of it keeps me going.
Right now, the thing that gets me moving in the morning is farm chores. Now, full disclaimer, we do not have a farm. We don’t even have a farmlette or mini-homestead or anything remotely related. We have a large suburban yard. But we also have some animals (dogs, chickens, now rabbits) and some garden beds. Those things — particularly the animals — need daily morning attention. When I wake up feeling low or sad or stressed, I think to myself “farm chores!” and it gets me up and moving and out into the day. And it makes me happy. Farm chores is something I WANT to be doing.
Now I’m not suggesting that you buy a bunch of chickens just to get yourself up and moving. We have other reasons for the birds and buns. But if you can find something that gets you up in the morning… something you look forward to doing, not a slog, it can keep you going when things are challenging and difficult.
I’ll talk more about purpose soon. But for now, take this as a bit of homework: Identify something you enjoy that you will do as soon as you wake. Something that gets your day started, and you up and moving. And then make yourself a mantra for it. So you wake up and say “Morning Pages!” or “Garden Time!” or “Baby Snuggles!” or “Tea and Sketching!” or “Puppy Walk!” or “Wake the Ancestors!” or — in my case — “Farm Chores!”
