This past few week I have been reading and thinking about David Seah’s recent posts about creating new beneficial habits, more specifically waking up early.
The common wisdom is that it takes about two weeks to form the foundation of a habit, assuming you are practicing it diligently. Armed with this belief, I have been working on reclaiming my early-morning routine. I have a tendency to be a night owl, which I had previously assumed was just the way I was. However, I’ve found in the past that the early morning routine has many benefits: not only do you stay in sync with other people, you also have more time to goof off and still get a lot of work done
Not to mention that I’m finding that the early morning is a magical time; I’ve grown to love the sun more in my old age, a change from my youthful preference for the stillness of the night.
Over the past three years, I have attempted to get up early and get started on things I have to do, but have failed to create any desired new habits. Since reading David Seah’s posts and thinking about, I’ve started on another attempt to adjust my routine to include an earlier start in the day.
Yesterday was the first day in creating a new habit of waking up early. I woke up a 4 AM, having gone to bed at 8:30 PM and likely fallen asleep at or around 9. I spent the next few hours reading feeds until 6 AM, when I went for a 1.25 mile jog. After a shower and cooking up a full breakfast, I got started on my list of things to do. I was soon distracted by the hearing in which Ben Bernanke testified before the Oversight Committee in Congress, but the most important factor was that I had woken up, gotten out of bed and not gone back to sleep.
Today, I woke up at 6:30 AM, and spent the next 30 minutes looking over my list of things planned for the day while deciding not to go running, as I will be biking to the library and the beach (and back) for a total of 14 miles.
As you can see in the two graphs below, I’ve not been very active in the morning hours in the past. This is what I’m changing.
Another thing I’ve started doing as part of changing my schedule is eating breakfast every single day. It usually takes an hour or two after waking up before I’m hungry and ready to eat. If I wake up late in the day, it felt more appropriate to eat something in the brunch/lunch/dinner category of the day. The new rule is: regardless of what time it is, breakfast is eaten every day. Today is the third day, and in order to help reinforce this habit, I’m taking a photo of my breakfast as I eat and read feeds, usually with Photo Booth.