Fresh Start Monday #005: Is all time created equal?

Do you have enough energy for personal projects?

We're taught an hour equals an hour.

But, not all time is created equal.

Imagine yourself sitting in your office chair. It's 5 pm. Take a deep breath to be in that space. How does your mind feel? What does your posture look like? Notice what the mere act of sitting in front of a computer screen feels like.

What's your energy level from 1 - 10?

Now, let's imagine yourself in that same office chair at 9 am. Take a breath to be in that space. How fresh does your mind feel? Your posture?

What's your energy level from 1 - 10?

Is all time created equal?

My Garmin watch has a feature called Body Battery. It's designed to estimate your energy level on a scale from 1 - 100. With a good night's sleep, it starts close to 100. Nothing stops that number from depleting during the day.

The problem is I've been a night owl since high school.

My sleep routine has been going to bed at midnight and waking up at 8 am. Ok, fine, sometimes it's 12:30 am to 8:30 am. All right! Sometimes it's 1 am to 9 am.

I wake up right before I start work. This schedule never bothered me. I’ve accepted that I'm a night owl.

But in the past two months, I've identified two clear goals. Publish a post every Monday and create a coaching side hustle.

I've been creating in the evenings, but it's like hiking in the mud. I arrive at my destination, but it's slow and exhausting. My body battery is often at 10 - 30.

There’s a mismatch between what’s important and my energy levels.

We need a strong “why” to wake up early.

What are you waking up for?

Fresh Start Monday:

This week, I'm setting my alarm at 7:45 am.

Every week in October, I'll wake up 15min earlier until I hit 7 am at month's end.

I thought about setting my alarm at 7 am for 30 days. But I know from past morning person ambitions that I only last about three days.

It's about how long until I feel sleep deprived. Waking up early is not the hard part. It's getting 8 hours of sleep. Waking up at 7 am means eyes closed at 11 pm. A time I've never consistently fallen asleep at.

Setting the alarm at 6 or 7 am is more exciting on the surface. Or the hallowed 5 am club. My impatience wants to make grandiose changes, but we start slow to sustain success.

What would waking up early allow you to do?

What is your why?

If you need help finding your why, DM me for a free 30min chemistry call. I’m starting a six-month coaching certification program in October. I’m looking for three coaching clients at discounted rates as I go through the program.