(Yet Another) 5AM Experiment.

I want to share a success story. As the title suggests, I wanted to see how significant a change I could effect in my life by starting work at 5AM each day.

My story is less about philosophical triumph, and more about the pursuit of mental harmony — to gain time where it otherwise fails to exist.

What was the problem I needed to solve?

1. Reduce stress. I’m a parent. Three days a week, I do school drop offs. It’s hard to be present when your phone pings 20 times during that 15 minute drive from home to school. By the time I’m able to commence work on drop off days, I’m feeling way behind.
2. I’m tired of working at night. I feel like my entire waking hours are dedicated to working, or waiting to commence working. It’s amazing that across an elapsed period of 13 hours, that I can be either working or contributing to our household and often feel little to no sense of accomplishment.
3. I was waking well before my alarm, and as soon as I’m awake, I’m good to go. I have more capacity to shine at 5AM than I do at 9PM.

Context/Why the path was linear for me:

1. I work remotely, so I have no commute, and therefore, no barriers to an early start. In other words, get up, walk to the desk, start working.
2. I hold a senior role in the organisation I work for, so I commit longer hours than others may, and due to the nature of my role, team members require of me during standard business hours. In other words, 5AM is a time I can get things done.
3. I am a parent, and have responsibilities that sound a lot like taking my kids to school, to tennis or some other parent styled activity. It’s all got to fit, and presence is really important to me.
4. I feel like I rarely achieve anything that’ll wind up on my CV. How to break that reality.

How effective has this experiment been?

Extremely.

Of the myriad of challenges life presents us is the need to reduce noise, to be present, to focus on the most important thing at the appropriate time.

I treat this period as time I can commit to doing exactly what I deem priority. There’s no chance of being derailed, no phone calls, slack messages, text or even email. I do on occasion run interviews or induction with team members who are in a different timezone, and would also cite those experiences as elevated. There’s a certain purity one experiences during these hours.

Some endeavours may take longer than forecast, but it’s two hours that I can advance, and on school drop-off days when I start at 9AM, I’m feeling in control, because I’ve commenced the day with accomplishment.

But this isn’t new thinking…

No. What’s so satisfying for me is that it results in my not having to work evenings which certainly raises my profile on the home front. Remote working is peculiar in that regard. We seem to be working more hours, but the out of sight component of the stresses people experience need to be more carefully considered by managers within businesses. Increased productivity at the risk of team members’ relationships can’t be ignored. When considering that people so readily bring their home-life into work, even the most self serving managerial types need to weigh up the impact of this setting.

So the 5 to7AM period is a far more effective replacement for another block of time (9 to 11PM) which is neither productive, nor satisfying as it relates to an individual with expansive demands.

And it’s worth it, even just for the lack of interruptions.

But I’m still working more hours.

This is true, but the elapsed period of time has been reduced between start and finish as well as the amount of times I need to pick up the same thing. Motivation is higher in the morning and starting the day in a flow state is highly satisfying.

And I no longer have to say “yes” to the dreaded, “Are you working tonight?” question. And when I do, it’s on something that fulfils me, outside of my nine to five, or five to six, as the case may be.

For a deeper immersion

There’s nothing particularly revelatory about what I’m saying here. The simple discipline of getting up at 5AM is all that’s required, and perhaps the belief that your circumstance may parallel mine.

PhD Benjamin Hardy has spoken at length about the virtues of this practice. I generally find his strategies and thinking to be sound and insightful. I don’t factor any higher power in this equation, but each to their own. He says it better than you’ll feel it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KYwiKUZglQ

In review

I’ve been doing this for over six months now. Some days are harder than others, but that truth extends beyond simply getting out of bed in the morning.

In addition to the lockdowns we’ve experienced, a heavy workload and homeschooling, I was also able to find consolidated time in the evenings to study. While I’m certainly tired by 7:30PM, I can still spread that effort across five nights per week and accomplish something else that I’d call meaningful. Effectively, by starting and finishing my days two hours earlier than I was. When looking at it through that lens, the benefits are startling.