The 5 AM CLUB

Logging my sleeping times - good idea.
Getting to bed early - I think that's the essential task here.

 

Day 5.
So far so good as they say. I try to keep my morning routine despite laziness. But it's better to have some goals and discipline that we want to achieve than have nothing.

Another good habit of mine is no eating after 5PM. That was bull's eye.

 

I've been having really poor sleep times the last two days. Sleeping at 2 am and waking up at 7 am. I really need to adjust and also address my anxiety. I will officially start this challenge on Monday

 

Day 6
My morning routine suffered a bit today but the mindset of self-discipline stays.

@TheLinari
It's hard to regulate sleep. It doesn't only require self-discipline but also conditions to do that. I may want to go to sleep at 10PM but the rest of the family don't. Also in the past I used to freak out about drinking a mug of coffee in the morning. Some people brainwashed me about the effect of caffeine on my sleep. At some point I was afraid to drink green tea as well. Yesterday I drank a mug of coffee (two spoonfuls) and I had no difficulty sleeping. But I was angry and the anger had drained all my energy. I still wanted to accomplish something before going to sleep, instead of falling asleep as a loser.

 

Hi guys,

I decided to focus on my morning routine - the first three or four hours - about when this thread got started. I usually post weekly in my journal, but this week wanted more fine-grained accountability. This thread opens up. Thanks, OP!

I'm deeply habituated - for decades - to an eat/sleep/work cycle. The most important thing in my life has been working for my employer. I justified this by telling myself that my family depends on my income, and I need as much income as possible in order to retire properly and not be a burden. As a young person I fell into the Silicon Valley tech startup culture, where in exchange for lottery tickets (which they called "stock"), working 50 hours a week was "slacking". 60 hours was "adequate".

Eventually you figure out how exploitative the whole thing is, but ethos has burrowed down into the sub-conscious. My challenge is to direct my attention and energy to mental, financial, and social health - neglected for many, many years. For decades. About five years ago I began addressing my mental health with meditation practice supported by philosophical study. That is going well. Today I want to bring financial and social health on-line. I've been struggling with doing anything about that for years. I talked about it in my first journal - four years ago.

At the moment, I have a morning routine heavily influenced by the Stanford neurologist Andrew Huberman. There are ten points to be gained in the first four hours. One point for 45 minutes working on financial and social health (which I call "duties"), and one point for doing so before working for pay. It's a long, long, story, but you can learn the details in my journal [link].

I'd like to work though fine-tuning my ideas and reporting my results in this thread. Oh, and I typically get up at 5am. I have to meditate in bed until the cat wakes up my wife - at 5AM. OP, lemme know if I'm too far off topic for the challenge.

-EK

 

We choose to go to the moon...
We choose to go to the moon...
We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things...
Not because it is easy...
But because it is hard. ​

- JFK



Thanks for the welcome, Lou

-EK

 

Day 1

I've been doing a version of this challenge, but at 3AM. I haven't added the exercise part, something my lazy ass needs to do.

 

Day 7.
I need to work on my sleeping patterns. Yesterday I got hooked up on La Casa de Papel. Two and a half episodes left. Today I meditated for 40 minutes at 4.40AM, went to sleep again, got up and did some stretches, breakfast followed by journaling. Yesterday I broke my rule of no food after 5PM and I regretted that. Too much sushi. I didn't feel well even at 10PM.

 

Thanks for the welcome! Tomorrow I start!

 

I'll see you here, @TheLinari

-EK

 

Here's my current morning routine:

morning routine 1.1

• Monday through Friday normative; otherwise recommended
• Restrictions:
  • No caffeine before rise+2 h
  • No screens from 0400 to rise+2 h
  • Less than 15 minutes of screens before start of duties
• Tasks (completed by rise+3 h)
  • Relaxation-oriented meditation, performed in shavasana (Yoga Nidra, shamata, etc) nominally 24 minutes.
  • Set a 15 min or 30 min mindfulness chime at rise
  • Hydrate (before caffeine)
  • Make bed
  • Tidy office desk and coffee station
  • Clean teeth, etc
  • Take pills
  • Outdoor sun exposure (15+ min) as part of exercise or meditation
• Duties (completed by rise+4 h)
  • On starting, set a 45 minute timer.
  • Bonus points for doing this before working for money.

scoring

Doing the "duties" consistently, every weekday, and doing them first, before the mind gets entrained by work matters (or social media) is the emphasis of this initiative. Next is using the Restrictions to get a healthier and less distracted start to the day. The weights are:

• Tasks: 56% (7 points per task)
• Restrictions: 24% (8 points per restriction)
• Duties: 20% (10 points per duty)

today

It's Sunday here, but I gave it a trial run anyway. I ignored the Restrictions (to no ill effect). Missed 1.5 items on Tasks. I performed the "Duties" but did not do so before rise+4 (0830 in this case - I got up at 0430). 5 points off for that.

Today's Score: 100 - 3*8 - 1.5*7 - 5 = 60.5 %

Always a good idea to start low so progress can be shown

-EK

 

Already 11pm .. aiming to get up at six o'clock .. let's see what can be done
Plan for the morning: moving moving moving (starting in bed), mind bending (not beding), water (in face, favorable cold), tea & breakfast, DO IMPORTANT EMAIL

Will aim at 6am also in the days that follow.

 

This is an impressive morning routine. For me, phone use in the morning is a major problem which kind of sets the tone for the rest of the day.

 

Day 0
I went to bed at around 11.30 pm the previous day. I woke up at 6 am this morning. Not the most productive first hour because I started watching YouTube videos for the first 30 minutes. However, I managed to do a meditation and some affirmations.

For now, my morning routine will be quite simple.
0. Wake up at 6 am or earlier
1. Meditation (15 minutes)
2. Stretching and anterior pelvic tilt correction exercises (20 minutes)
3. Affirmations (10-15 minutes)

I plan to ban YouTube completely for the next 10 days. I want to see whether I can survive without it because it seems to be yet another addiction in my life.