How I Became an Early Riser — My Secret to Waking Up Naturally At 4.30 AM

For more than two decades, I’ve been a late riser. Usually, I avoided morning appointments with clients. On a couple of occasions, I’ve slept and missed morning meetings. I’ve not only embarrassed myself but also let down others.

In late 2015, a series of incidents had turned my life upside down — I felt that I had reached a dead-end in my professional and personal life. I desperately started searching for ways to overcome the crisis and find a way forward.

A GLIMMER OF LIGHT —To find motivation, I started watching TED videos. In one of the videos, Filipe Castro Matos spoke about how his life had changed when he started waking up at 4.30 AM for 21 consecutive days. He also reasoned that some theories say 21 days is the right time to form a new habit. He was the one who established the #21earlydays hashtag.

The video was inspiring. I decided to get up early at 4.30 AM for 21 days. If three weeks of struggle can build a lifetime habit for me, then I better try it. It’s worth the effort.

THE OBSTACLE — What to do after getting up at 4.30 AM? I brainstormed some ideas — Being a product designer, I chose to sketch a new alarm clock concept from 4.30 AM to 5.30 AM for 21 days. Then, I could jog from 5.45 AM to 7.00 AM. After that, I could get ready and leave early for the office. I usually reached the office by 12.30 PM. Now, I could get to the office by 9 AM or even before. The thought of getting early to the office was enticing.

THE LITTLE JAUNT — I started the 21 Days Challenge. For the first few days, it was exciting. I woke up, sketched a new alarm concept, uploaded it online, and then went for a jog. I felt good.

THE LITMUS TEST — Without skipping a single day, I successfully achieved the goal. Did it become a habit? Unfortunately, it didn’t.

After 21 days, I began to feel more and more dreadful in waking up in the early morning. Every day, I had to summon all the willpower to get up. It was tempting to sleep again and skip the day.

How do I make me love getting up early in the morning?.

However, there’s one benefit from the #21dayschallenge — it was unbelievable to know that I could wake up at 4.30 AM. It gave me confidence. It gave me a taste of what I’d gain by waking up early.

In the end, I didn’t want to stop what I’d started. I was determined to continue the routine. Unfortunately, sketching product design concepts in the early morning weren’t inspiring for me. It was no more rewarding. So, after getting up, I decided to do a small workout and start jogging by 5 AM.

THE DRAB JOURNEY —I continued the routine for a few more days(Maybe, for two months). Despite my determination, slowly, I was losing interest. I had to marshal all my willpower in the early morning to force myself to get up. Unfortunately, the temptation to skip a day and sleep for some more time grew every day.

It was a struggle. The mornings were becoming dreary and dull.

THE FALL TO PIECES — And, one day, the thought of sleeping some more time was so overwhelming. So, I skipped the day. And, that one-day interruption became two, three, four, five, and finally, it ended in a lengthy break. Before I could realize it, I was back to my older schedule of waking up late in the day.

Maybe, my willpower waned or, I have weaker willpower.

ANOTHER STAB

Remember T H Parmer’s lines — If at first, you don’t succeed, Try, try again; Then your courage should appear, For if you will persevere, You will conquer, never fear, Try, try again.” He also added — “If you find your task is hard, Time will bring you your reward, Try, try again.”

So, I wanted to have another go — As they said, once you taste the sweet honey, you want more of it.

I resumed the 4.30 AM routine after a gap of a few weeks. This time, I wanted to continue it lifelong. I wanted to enjoy the routine. Can I achieve it?

Unfortunately, after a few days, I again started losing interest. I felt dreary. It was getting tough.

But I was determined not to stop. I stretched the routine for almost three months. On the 101st day, I took a break. As expected, soon, I was back to my older schedule of waking up late — Another lapse.

Even after 100 days, It didn’t become a habit. Getting up early every day was still a monstrous task. There was no excitement.

How to overcome the dreariness?

QUESTION DEFAULTS — I started questioning the 21-day habit formation. I started searching online for data to validate the recommendation. And, I was shocked to know that the concept is a myth.

James Clear(Author of Atomic Habits) writes, “Dangerous lesson: If enough people say something enough times, then everyone else starts to believe it. It makes sense why the “21 Days” myth would spread. It’s easy to understand. The time frame is short enough to be inspiring but long enough to be believable. And who wouldn’t like the idea of changing your life in just three weeks?.”

Based on research data, James Clear adds, “How long it takes a new habit to form can vary widely depending on the behavior, the person, and the circumstances. In studies, it took anywhere from 18 days to 254 days for people to form a new habit.”

For me, it was a disheartening message.

However, specific lines of advice from James Clear kindled my spirit — It gave me a glimmer of hope. He wrote, “There is no need to judge yourself if you can’t master a behavior in 21 short days. Embrace the long, slow walk to greatness. You should treat failure like a scientist, give yourself permission to make mistakes, and develop strategies for getting back on track quickly.”

The last line, “Develop strategies for getting back on track quickly”, kept resonating in my mind.

Find and develop a strategy!

THE QUEST

I looked online for some tips on getting up early in the morning —

• Wake up to see the early morning sunlight and the associated natural scenery. Use that as a motivation.
• Start slowly, by waking just 15–30 minutes earlier than usual. Get used to this for a few days.
• Keep the alarm far away or go immediately out of the bedroom as soon as you wake up.
• Drink as much water before going to bed.
• Go early to bed — avoid screens one hour before bed.
• Start with tiny habits — As soon as the alarm rings, keep one foot on the floor and then another foot. Another piece of advice is — Keep your workout clothes ready on the previous night.
• Pillow Talk — Talk to the pillow and tell that you will get up at 4.30 AM. It will work if you believe in it. People believe in prayers and yet it didn’t help most people in getting up early morning.
• Tell yourself a story of what you would accomplish after getting up and how it would help you succeed before you go to bed. The story would build a habit that sticks.

I tried some of the things. Unfortunately, nothing worked. All the ideas seem to rely on our willpower in making the mind and body behave the way we want.

How to make me love getting up early in the morning? Is willpower only the solution to achieve the goal? Can only unwavering determination get you to the finish line?.

QUESTIONING DEFAULTS — THE WILLPOWER PARADOX

I began my search on understanding willpower.

Most people still approach their goals by trying to use sheer willpower, but research plainly shows that this is not an effective strategy — James Clear.

Denise Cummins, a cognitive scientist writes, “Trying to commit to a drastic change and relying on willpower alone won’t work out.” He adds, “Willpower only works well when your motivation is high, so basically when you’re just starting out.” — That explains why I could effortlessly finish the first 21 days challenge. Cummins further states, “But as you come across more and more temptations that work against your goals as time goes on ― your willpower rapidly starts to dissipate.”

Chip and Dan Heath write in their famous book ‘Switch’, “Willpower is an exhaustible resource. It’s like doing bench presses at the gym. The first one is easy when your muscles are fresh. But with each additional repetition, your muscles get more exhausted, until you can’t lift the bar again. So, after some time, you would say — It’s too hard, it’s no fun, I’m no good at this.”

Chip and Dan Heath continue, “When people try to change things, they are usually tinkering with behaviors that have become automatic, and changing them requires careful supervision by the mind. The bigger the change you’re trying, the more it will sap people’s willpower. And when people exhaust their willpower, what they are exhausting are the mental muscles needed to think creatively, to focus, to inhibit their impulses, and to persist in the face of frustration or failure. In other words, they’re exhausting precisely the mental muscles needed to make a big change.”

They further add, “So when you hear people say that change is hard because people are lazy or resistant, that’s just flat wrong. Change is hard because people wear themselves out. What looks like laziness is often exhaustion.”

So, what’s the solution if willpower is not the answer? What’s the strategy to waking up effortlessly in the early morning?

HABIT FORMATION

In the meantime, I started reading books on Habit Formation. Charles Duhigg and several others demonstrate that the habit formation loop consists of three parts — A cue, a routine, and a reward.

Charles Duhigg introduces one more critical element — Craving.

Cravings drive our behaviors. It is the one that makes cues and rewards work. When a smoker sees a cue — say, a pack of Marlboros — her brain starts anticipating a hit of nicotine. Just a sight of cigarettes is enough for the brain to crave a nicotine rush. Designing the proper reward and routine will result in building the right craving.

EXPERIMENT — Duhigg says that to figure out which cravings are driving particular habits, it’s useful to experiment with different routines/rewards. This might take a few days, weeks, or longer. During that period, you shouldn’t feel any pressure to make a real change — think of yourself as a scientist in the data collection stage.

To conclude, to wake up early, either I have to maintain the “jogging” routine and experiment with various rewards or change the routine itself — Choose a rewarding routine!

I decided to experiment.

THE CHANGE OF ROUTINE

THE NEW ROUTINE — One day, my neighbor asked me whether I could join him in playing badminton early morning in a nearby club. He was looking for a company. I told him that I had never tried the game. He said, “I am also a fresher. Let’s try, learn, and enjoy.” I was also exploring options to change my routine. So I agreed.

We got a slot from 5 AM to 6.30 AM. Every day, we have to wake up at 4.30 AM, get ready, and reach the badminton court by 5 AM.

THE BARRIER — For the first couple of days, we played against experienced players. We couldn’t hit the cock well. We struggled to volley the shuttle over the net without hitting the floor. Our skill levels were poor. On the other hand, we were facing challenges beyond our skills. Our opponents complained to management, asking to shift us to another court. We were also losing interest. I was worried. Will it end up like the jogging routine?

LOVING THE ROUTINE — Fortunately, during that time, I was reading a book called “Flow” by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

Reading that book, I understood that we give up on tasks that don’t engage us. The author depicts a way to love your work. He says that a person would love doing his work if his skill level matches the challenges(ingrained in the activity/task). If the task is too difficult, you will feel anxious and not enjoy the experience. But when skills are much higher than the challenges, you will feel bored. You have to strike a balance all the time. Ensure that the skill and challenge levels fall within the narrow band called ‘Flow Channel’(Shown in the image below).

Example — Take a new game with multiple difficulty levels. Imagine that you start playing at difficulty level 5 — If it is too hard, won’t you feel like quitting?. How about starting from level 01?. People design games to adapt the challenge difficulty to the player skills progression. In the first level, the game will give you a simple challenge. When you raise your skill to meet that challenge, the game will provide a little tougher activity in the second level. You will soon get addicted as you gradually move to higher difficulty levels. All games work on the ‘Flow’ concept. You’ll keep playing the game as long as you can raise your skills to meet the challenges.

We felt overwhelmed by our new routine because the challenges were too high relative to our skill levels.

So, to make our routine(badminton) engaging —

• We have to increase the challenges gradually in the game.
• We should stretch our skills bit by bit to meet those challenges. As our skills improve in badminton, we should increase the challenges to keep experiencing flow.

Now, I get how people could love jogging, cycling, or other workout activities. They have found a way to make the routine engaging — By adding challenges and improving their skill levels to match them.

So, what did we do?

THE DENOUMENT — We asked the club manager to put us in a team of inexperienced people. Fortunately, four people had joined recently, and they were new to badminton. All of us were more or less on the same skill level. We started playing together.

“The Ball never comes over the net the same way twice, always something different about it. I loved the challenge, I just really wanted to see how well I can play this sport”. -Martina Navratilova, Former American Tennis Player.

As we played more, our skills improved, and the challenges rose. As Martina Navratilova said, the ball never comes over the net the same way twice — thereby sustaining our interest in the game. As the abilities of people varied, the game was becoming enjoyable every day.

Before I could realize it, I was getting up every day at 4.30 AM with excitement. I stopped feeling dreariness in the morning. I didn’t feel the need for snoozing the alarm and sleep for some more time.

I no more needed willpower. The game was luring me to wake up effortlessly. Playing badminton itself became a reward. I was enjoying it.

How long do you think I’d continue the new routine this time? 90 days? 120 days? 200 days? I persisted with the early morning routine for more than four years. Then, COVID came — The Sports Club had to be closed. We had to take a break from playing.

Badminton made it easy for me to wake up every day at 4.30 AM.

So, for rising early in the morning, plan for what you do after getting up and find ways to make them engaging.

Design your routine, find ways to make it engaging, and design suitable rewards that could create a craving.

CONCLUSION

Let me end with the lines of Charles Duhigg — The difficult thing about studying the science of habits is that most people want to know the secret formula for quickly changing any habit. It’s not that formulas don’t exist. The problem is that there isn’t one formula for changing habits. There are thousands. Individuals and habits are all different, and so the specifics of diagnosing and changing the patterns in our lives differ from person to person and behavior to behavior.