I Joined the 5-9AM Club Everyday for a Week (so you don’t have to), Here’s What I’ve Learned

I woke up at 5AM everyday for a week/work week so you don’t have to, and here are my recollections of the week. This wasn’t necessarily something I planned on doing, it just so happened that I had to shift earlier than the usual 9-5 for a work event that I was managing and it was scheduled for 8:30-10:00AM. On top of that, I had physiotherapy scheduled for 11:00AM that day. Typically, I like to workout prior to physiotherapy in case physio is extra exhausting. Additionally, I hate going to the gym after work (4PM onwards) because it gets busy busy. So 5AM was the only option.

HERE’S HOW IT WENT:

DAY 1: Tired, knew I had to go early though.

DAY 2: Felt better, woke up a little bit later than exactly 5:00AM but wasn’t very strict, as long as I got to the gym for 6/6:30AM

DAY 3: It was easier to get up today than compared to the last two days. Overall had a good work out and felt good afterwards as I started I work day. I was very productive this day.

DAY 4: I felt GOOD today. After getting home to make breakfast and start my work day, I was energized, blasting music, and overall in a great mood

DAY 5: Today was HARD. Waking up wasn’t the worst experience, but my body was tired at the gym and this made my workout harder than usual.

HERE’S WHAT I LEARNED:

You can’t change everything all at once.

I am definitely guilty of this - When I set my mind to something, I like to complete tasks/goals immediately, meaning I will devote all of my time to x task until it’s completed no matter how long it takes. I will push other things like work, eating, sleep, etc. aside to get the job done. My fear of failure creates adrenaline that pushes me in times of literal exhaustion and hunger, which is great in some situations, but not so great when creating habits.

Think like a pet owner.

Act as if you’re trying to change your pet’s diet. Every internet article everywhere and every animal food bag talks about how you need slowly introduce new foods to your pet’s diet. This means integrating new foods slowly with their old food (i.e. Day 1-2: 25% new food, 75% old food, Day 3: 50% new food, 50% old food, and so forth). Slowly adjusting until your cat is comfortable and content with their new diets. The same mindset can go towards waking up at 5AM if you find that you can’t stay consistent from the get go.

This might not work for everyone.

Forbes released an article in 2016 talking about the morning habits of highly successful people, outlining the main fact that how you start your day is really a matter of personal choice. Whatever your morning routine is a rather subjective, but the fact that you have a ‘healthy’ morning routine may be more important than what it actually entails.

With that in mind, the decision to wake up at 5AM everyday is very subjective, and might not work for everyone, especially if your lifestyle doesn’t allow for it (i.e. you work late shifts, you have league games every Tues/Thurs night between 9-11PM, etc.).

Someone I admire greatly who does this regularly is Timm Chiusano, a creative exec for a fortune 100 company based in NYC (though he lives in Brooklyn), who in the last year and a half to two years ago, blew up on TikTok for his day in the life videos or as he calls them, “POVs”. Most of these videos start with him starting his day at 4AM… everyday. Even on the weekends. His content is not only enjoyable and entertaining, but his career advice and story is incredibly insightful.

This journey of waking up at 5AM for the week was also only successful for me because I found a PURPOSE for starting my day earlier. In the last couple of months since re-gaining strength and mobility in my knee, I’ve created a habit of going to the gym 6/7 days a week. Not going is no longer a non-negotiable for me and I’ve gotten to the point where I am excited to go to the gym (most days). Though in the past, I’ve been juggling to find time to go to the gym before it gets too late (I hate going to the gym after 4/5PM just because of how busy it gets), so a very simple solution to my problem was to go at a time where not as many people would be there.

My body and mood have changed drastically in the span of a week. I’m sure this could be due to a number of other reasons, but work definitely feels more productive.

THINGS I’VE DONE TO KEEP ME CONSISTENT IN THE LAST WEEK:

• Set two alarms (1) to wake up and (2) to actually get out of bed
  Some people only need to set one alarm to wake up. I am not one of those people, so instead of setting incremental alarms, I’ve committed to setting two.

• Play music loud, or as long as your building/household allows for
  This gets me pumped up, and stimulated

• Drinking water when I first wake up
  I’ve had a cup of water/water bottle next to my bed for as long as I can remember. I’ve carried around several emotional support water bottles since high school so this wasn’t very hard to begin with.

• Not being too strict with my time
  I knew this would be challenging regardless, and I didn’t want to shock my body. I started by setting alarms for 5:15AM and 5:30AM but that didn’t mean I always got out of bed at 5:30 on the dot. So long as I was able to get out of bed and get to the gym for 6/6:30, we were on track. By doing this, it made it feel less like something I had to do but rather something I wanted to do.

DO I INTEND ON KEEPING THIS UP?

Now that I’ve conquered the 5 day work week, we’re going to see if I can keep it up for the next 20 days/4 work weeks (Mon-Friday). I’ve quite enjoyed it, it often starts my day off, especially my work day, a little more productive. There’s just something nice about starting your week off with a win - getting the gym out of the way early in the morning.

Though I do get a little break in between this week’s 5-9AM journey, and the next 4 weeks of trying to stay consistent. I will be out of office next week on a quick trip to NYC (when the trip finally makes it out of the group chat ✨), but when I get back is when we’ll start up again.

Will check back in here with you in a month or so for another update on my 5-9AM journey. Thanks for reading, see you next time. 👋