How to Instantly Add 1-2 Hours to Every Day

Today is my 40th birthday and I have been in Maui, Hawaii for a week! It has been so amazing. Yesterday I got up at 3:00AM to drive up to Haleakala National Park (a volcano/mountain) to see the sun rise. It's something lots of people do here-- you are above the clouds at 10,000+ feet and it's unlike any other sunrise you've ever seen. Here is a photo of it from Flickr since I have not been able to upload the photos yet from my own camera (photo by Collin Grady --click it to enlarge).

Getting up early definitely has its rewards...not only for a glorious sunrise like this one, but every day. I have been getting up very early, in the 5 o'clock hour, on and off throughout this past year. It started out of necessity when I was finishing my book (The Clutter Diet: The Skinny on Organizing Your Home and Taking Control of Your Life). I simply needed to have more hours in my day and made it happen.

After the book was finished, I took a well-deserved rest from getting up early for a while, and then my Accountability Partners imposed a 5:00AM wakeup time on me when I was trying to finish a different project (meanies!). It was a punishment/consequence at that point for procrastinating... but it soon backfired because I realized I really enjoy it! So now I am getting up early almost every day, and that is WITHOUT an alarm clock. I am excited about the things I get to do when I get up! I get to walk on the trails around my house, do some journaling, catch up on work and projects, and start laundry and get ahead on other things. By the time I would normally have awakened, I have already done several things that I really enjoy and have gotten a huge jump on my day.

Now, understand that I have NEVER been an early bird before! I have made myself into one, and you can too. It has to be ENJOYABLE, that is the key. I cannot tell you how great it feels until you do it yourself. If you think it's drudgery, you'll never do it. I accomplished this by "the Nike method"-- Just Doing It. But there is a blog that has some great tips on getting up early, called HowToWakeUpEarly.com.

We all know what Ben Franklin said: "Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise." I can now definitively tell you that he was right. What would make you happily get up early? What things do you wish you had time for but currently don't? Share your thoughts in the comments. TRY IT! It doesn't mean that you have to do it forever, but see how it feels and let us know here. It's a good time to adjust to a new routine with school starting!

Follow me on Twitter for my Daily #ClutterTweetTip: www.twitter.com/clutterdiet

Comments

[Deb Lee]

I LOVE getting up early! I'm usually up by 6:00 am (even on weekends). I get so much done before I arrive at a client's home or office...it's almost like I've lived another life before the client sees me. Early morning is a great time to blog and catch up on e-mails (I do laundry, too). Believe it or not, getting up just a half hour later than usual cramps my morning productivity time.

Great post, Lorie, and welcome to the "early bird" club! =)

[Rivka Caroline]

Happy Birthday ! I could not function without my early bird time to get ahead. I have dinner prepped, blog written and active email work followed by a beach walk all done by 6.15am. Bedtime is a strict 10pm but I usually wake without an alarm at 4.30am.

[Alex Suarez]

Happy Birthday, Lorie! Welcome to the 40+ club. Enjoy Maui! (Sorry for the off-topic post.)

[Heather]

Happy Birthday!

I, too, have made myself a morning person. My first job started at 7:30, which seemed impossibly early. However, I found I loved the first hour of the day before most of the people arrived. Now my job starts at 6:00 AM and I feel like I get long afternoons and evenings each day.

[TMNinja]

Lorie, Great post.

I agree that getting up early is the key to a great day.

You can prep and get more done than most people do all day.

People will be scared by how much you get done and wonder why you are so far ahead of them. :)

Reminds me of the old Army slogan, "We get more done before 9AM that most people do all day."

[Alissa]

If I had more time in my day, I'd spend it on me. I have three small children and by the time they are in bed each night I am too tired to do much but watch tv or read a book. However, I've been resentful a time or two that I never have time to do the things I love for me anymore (scrapbooking, sewing, photography, even exercise like I should). I think I'm going to try this for the next week and see if it helps me feel like *my* needs were met before I went to the task of meeting everyone else's needs for the day.

[SFiglinski]

Happy Birthday!!! I am a year and a half away from my 40th and have recently joined Clutter Diet to hopefully have my life a little more in order by my 40th birthday. I have also recently had a "later-in-life" baby and am suddenly quite overwhelmed. Being up a lot at night now I can not seem to wake up when I need to, so this comes at a great time for me. I am going to check out all these links and see if I can borrow some of this info. I'll put a little word in the baby's ear also to see if he will cooperate and sleep a little better as well to help me out. But I would sure love at least an extra hour in the morning so that I could have some time for myself, the list of what I would do is endless! Thank you for the suggestion and the tips! Have a great time on your vacation!!!! Eat some cake for me!

[Carole]

Happy Birthday! And in Hawaii! Nice present ;)

I'm not a morning person. Anything b4 7 is inhumane. Even when my daughter was small, I would take an hour, or two, or... after she went to bed. That was/is my time. If I do need to be somewhere in the morning, I do allow an extra hour just for email, customer service, and getting my day together. But 5 AM? On purpose? Not me!

[Genny Esterline]

Happy Birthday Lorie! Great location for a birthday celebration.

I use to always say that anything before 6:00am was still nighttime. Now I have to admit that when I do wake up before 6:00am and step outside I am in awe of the beautiful sounds of nature uninterrupted by household awakenings. A real treat. And yes, I do get a jump on the day.

Genny
www.connectionsforwomen.com

[Amy in Australia]

Hi, I'm not at all an early bird (my preferred bedtime is 3am) but now my young children are going to bed at 8:30 and getting up around 8am, gone are my 10:30-11 lay ins (although the youngest still sleeps until about then). I'll definitely have to check out that link and do "the Nike Method" Let's see if I can become an early bird too!! It'd be nice to get a jump on things before the kids get up!

[JoanH]

Lorie, I hope you are having a great birthday celebration in Maui, one of my favorite places! Thank you for all that you have done to bring organzation to more than a few chaotic lives in the last year(mine included.)

I am coming around to mornings as well because of a new toddler in my house and increasingly early meetings. Thanks for sending the link to HowToWakeUpEarly.com; the tips there are helpful as is the description of how much you now enjoy being an early riser, even when you are not on Maui! Hope you get to enjoy the lavender farm.

Best,

[Mandi @ Organizing Your Way]

Yes! I am so much more productive in the early mornings (I love to be up by 5am too), and I love to start my day out with a list of all that I've already accomplished by the time my kids wake up as well!

Enjoy Hawaii -- it sounds amazing!

[Irtafa Shahnawaz]

Very enlightening post!

I totally agree! For me it is religious to get up before dawn. You see we Muslims have to pray Fajar (name of the morning prayer) which is before sunrise. it is a beautiful way by which we start our day. Morning call for prayer (Azan) breaks through the darkness and then Muslims wake up and bow before the Lord. ahhhh fills rest of the day with peace and calm....not to mention! Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) has said for my nation morning has Barakat (there is no exact translation of this word...if a thing has Barakat that means you can achive more from the same amount...like one loaf of bread with Barakat will feed 4 people while without it, it may feed only 2. so since morning has Barakat.. one hour in the morning will be more productive than one hour in the evening...though quantitatively they may be the same...
God bless you

[Keith]

You're right. I need to once again get in the habit of an earlier bedtime and earlier waking. This is especially true with school starting in a couple of weeks, when my mornings will be once again tied to my daughter's school day schedule.

[Mary]

Aloha from The Big Island. I love the way the Island smells in the early mornng. I was never a morning person but now I have a daughter who routinely is up and rarin to go at 4:30 am (sometimes earlier) so ...me too!!! Don't get too much done for me but I do enjoy the special time with her.

[Mom - Lisa]

Hi Lorie & Happy birthday.
I have been an early riser as long as I can remember and usually without an alarm. I do take some "me time" in the morning - we have six children - because my day is really filled. Thanks for the encouragement to wake up early. I think I'd forgotten that it's a great way to start the day. I am going to take new view on how my early mornings should go, after reading all the previous comments. Thanks again.

[Lorie Marrero]

Irtafa, that was a VERY interesting post. I love the idea of Barakat! What a fascinating word. Thank you so much for sharing that.

- Lorie

[Edit]

Great blog with lots of content.

I totally agree with you about getting up early.

Edit

[Deb Lee]

I used to think I was an early riser but now I'm getting up even earlier. One of my goals for 2010 is to get on the treadmill at least 5 days/week. The only way to do that and publish a blog post M-F is to get up earlier than 6 am. Since Jan 1, 2010, I've been getting up @ 5 am (this morning, I was up at 4:40 am). What a difference 1 hour makes to to GTD! ...and the bonus of having "my own time" is priceless.

[Irtafa Shahnawaz]

Thanks Lorie! It was nice to know that you understood the concept of Bakarat so easily. There are many other concepts from our religion that help us stay organized and uncluttered. Like, for example, another saying of the Prophet (Peace be upon him) ‘Stay in this world as if you are a foreigner or a traveler’, has helped me de-clutter and shop less big time. And in those days people did prefer to ‘travel light'.