Why It Doesn’t Really Matter What Time You Wake Up

“Wake up early.” they said, “that’s the method to success”… they also said.

Let me tell you, when I started getting really into productivity, I watched a lot of YouTube videos, read a lot of books, and listened to so many podcasts… and one of the most common things that they have mentioned is to

wake up early

because…

it will make us not only more productive, but more successful.

I’ll admit, I have found many benefits to waking up early, and on a regular basis I do prefer to wake up early. In fact, my body clock is more of an early riser rather than a night owl.

However, there are days when I don’t wake up early and sometimes I get all guilty about it. That’s exactly what happened just recently, hence why I decided to write a blog post about it.

I mean, a lot of the resources that mention this “method of waking up early” talk about the benefits of it such as getting a head start in the day, and having a successful morning routine would achieve great results.

And I’ll also admit, I have felt those benefits, but in the back of my mind I always wondered how accurate that so-called principle is.

So, in today’s blog post, I decided to write about the two polar opposite experiments I did on impulse. The first experiment is when I woke up at 3am, and the second experiment is when I woke up at 12pm. Polar opposites.

And honestly, these experiments weren’t planned. With the 3am experiment, I found out the night before that I had to take my mom to her appointment, and as a (work-in-progress, trying to stop this) perfectionist, I wanted to get my studying done and out of the way, so I decided to wake up at 3am and make a video about it.

With the 12pm experiment, I ironically slept at 3am, and then woke up at 12pm. To make myself feel better, I told myself that this is for a YouTube experiment, and started to vlog my day. As you can tell, these experiments were not planned in advance.

But anyway, here are the outline of these two experiments, and how they turned out to be:

MY TWO EXPERIMENTS

Waking up at 3AM

I have done a separate blog post and YouTube video on when I woke up at 3am.

In summary with that, I decided to wake up at 3am one time because I needed to take my mom to her appointment in the morning. Since the mornings for me are usually used for studying, I thought that if I woke up at 3am, I would be able to complete my studying before dropping my mom off.

In that blog post, I also focused on these questions:

1. Does waking up early make you more productive?
2. What actually happens if you wake up early?
3. Does waking up early actually make you more successful?

DAY TIMELINE

In a nutshell, this is what happened throughout the entire day. (if you want specific details, you can read the separate blog post on this).

3AM-7AM – It didn’t seem bad at first.

7AM-8:30AM – The most irritating and frustrating car ride ever.

8:30AM-11:00AM – Kind of acting like my normal self again.

11:00AM-12:45PM – My highest energy level.

12:45PM-2:15PM – The Crash in Energy.

3PM-5PM – Some productivity but it wasn’t the best work.

5PM to SLEEP – Yeah, was just frustrated and irritated for the rest of the day.

So just by reading that little outline, you could kind of tell that my energy levels just fluctuated the whole day. There were some hours where I was full of energy (thanks to the caffeine) and there were some hours where I had a crash in energy. Either way… waking up at 3AM was not the best idea.

CONCLUSIONS

So in terms of those three questions, here is what I concluded:

Does waking up early make you more productive?

Yes, BUT only if you sleep early as well.

There’s actually really no point in waking up early if you’re going to have fluctuated focus throughout the day and changing energy levels. I mean, I started off the day feeling energized, crashed, then energised, and crashed… and then crashed.

Honestly, if you’re finding yourself tired all day from waking up early, you can’t expect to be productive.

Then the next question,

What actually happens if you wake up early?

Well… if you don’t get enough sleep, you’ll notice the difference.

Being tired isn’t really just about falling asleep or feeling like you’re falling asleep all the time. It’s also the difference in your mood as well.

If you watch my YouTube video on when I did this experiment, you could already tell how easily frustrated and irritated I was.

I had to rely on caffeine to keep me awake and alert. The worst part was that it would give me spikes in energy really quickly, and then a crash in energy just as fast.

Then with the final question,

Does waking up early actually make you more successful?

Well, this is reinforced my thoughts that you don’t need to wake up early to be “successful”.

Yes, people recommend that you do, but like how I mentioned before, there’s no point in waking up early if you’re fluctuating in energy the whole day.

But honestly, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what time you wake up. It’s how you spend your time when you’re awake that matters more.

Ultimate Conclusion

Everyone works at their own temperament. It doesn’t matter if they are a morning person or a night owl.

A person who wakes up late can achieve just as much if not more than the person who wakes up early.

Both a person who wakes up early and a person who wakes up late can accomplish the same exact goals regardless on what hour of the day that they work.

And the most important part is that whatever time you wake up doesn’t determine your level of productivity and the success that you will have in your life.

Waking up at 12pm

Okay this experiment was the exact opposite of the last experiment.

Instead of waking up at 3AM, I slept at 3AM and woke up at 12pm.

Instead of waking up super early, I woke up super late.

Waking up at 12pm, I was 7 hours behind my schedule.

And here the productivity was measured in that day:

1. Regardless on what time you wake up, you can still complete everything that you have set out to do.
2. If I was able to do all my health habits – this includes exercise, meals during the proper time.

DAY TIMELINE

Just like with my previous experiment, this was the timeline for this day:

12:20PM-12:30PM – Breakfast (very, very late)

12:30PM-3:00PM – Studying (was super productive!)

3:00PM–3:30PM – Lunch (very, very late)

3:30pm-4:00PM – Exercise (was energised)

4:00PM – 4:30PM – Got ready

4:30PM – 6:30PM – Blog & YouTube work (still wasn’t finished; but was productive) – however felt a bit stressed because there was still tons of work to do. I felt that I could’ve finished before I headed off to work if I woke up a little bit earlier.

6:30PM -7:00PM – Dinner and then TRAVEL TIME to work

7:00PM-8:00PM – Work (productive and energised)

8:15PM -8:50PM – Blog Work (productive but stressed because I had to do this after dinner)

As you can probably see, that unlike the 3AM experiment where I pretty much was low in energy the whole day, when I woke up late, I was productive the whole day and was well rested!

However, I was stressed out and didn’t like the idea of working up until later in the evening…. the time that I usually allocate to relax!

CONCLUSIONS

Now, in terms of those two questions, here’s how we went:

Regardless on what time you wake up, you can still complete everything that you have set out to do.

Yes, I was able to. I produced good quality work as well since I was well-rested. However, to complete everything, I had to work until the late evenings which I wasn’t a fan of! My personal preference is to get enough sleep and wake up early so that I can use my evenings for relaxation and downtime.

If I was able to do all my health habits – this includes exercise, meals during the proper time.

This is what downsided a bit. I did not reach my usual 10,000 steps. I was able to exercise, but the times I ate my meals were all over the place. I had breakfast at 12PM, lunch at 3PM, and then dinner at 6:30PM (the only meal that was on time). I feel like for me, waking up late wasn’t going to get me on track with my health properly, especially during those odd times to have my meals.

Ultimate Conclusion:

I was happy that I was well rested and energised. However, I did not like how the day started so late, especially since I would have to work even after dinner time (and after dinner, I just want to stop working).

I never want to wake up at 12PM ever again. I will make sure that I get my sleep and wake up early still. I was still doing work up until 9PM and that stressed me out.

But I did learn how important it is to get enough sleep for the best productivity. Now it reinforced my thoughts that if I want the best productivity, I need to sleep more. If I want to wake up early, I have to sleep earlier… and that is fine.

This experiment was quite interesting, and just like the 3AM experiment, we should work according to our temperament. If we work best at night, that’s when we do our work. If we work best in the mornings, then that’s when we do our work. We don’t have to feel pressured to follow the 5AM wakeup principle for success.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

Yes I know that it’s a popular advice to wake up early to make the most of your day. However, just because it’s popular, it doesn’t mean that you have to do it.

If you work better late at night, then do so. If you work better in the afternoon, then do so. You work according to your temperament, so that you can work as effectively as you can.

Now, if you’re unsure what your temperament is, you can do some experiments (although, I recommend to not go too extreme like me with the 3am wakeups and the 3am bedtimes). What I mean by some experiments is for you to schedule out your work time at different times of the day throughout the week, and evaluate what time suits you most based on these questions:

1. How focused you are.
2. How much you get done.
3. How effective your work is.

If in the morning, you feel like you’re not that focused, you don’t get much done, and overall your work is not effective, then that means that the mornings are not your temperament.

It may take some trial and error here, but for sure, it wouldn’t be long until you figured out what time of the day works better for you.

Ultimately, stay kind to yourself and be patient with yourself when figuring all of this out. You’ll find what works best for you and you’ll be able to produce quality work that aim for.

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