I Woke up at 3AM (not a TYPO) – How the Day Ended Up Going

I have always been a morning person… sometimes, too much of a morning person.

I remember the days when I was in high school, I would wake up at around 3:30am-4am to study, because that was when I was most focused.

Now, I’m still a morning person… but not THAT early. At least 5am.

In my YouTube video, I did a little “Day in My Life” with the day starting at 3AM… and that is the only time that I am ever going to do this. From my point of view, that was as extreme as it could get for me.

So why did I even do this?

The reason why I decided to pick that day to wake up at 3AM was because I needed to take my mom to her appointment in the morning. The mornings are when I always do my studying. So that’s why I thought, that if I woke up 3am, I would get the chance to complete all my studying, and not worry about it anymore.

The Experiment

Pretty much, this video was me experimenting with how it’s like to start the day at 3AM.

So I also decided, that since it’s an experiment, it’s got to have some “hypothesis” questions right? (I haven’t used the word “hypothesis” since high school).

These were the questions that were focused on in the experiment:

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?

Now, let me outline how the whole day went.

FROM 3AM to 7AM – Waking up at 3am doesn’t seem bad after all.

From the moment I first woke up, I knew that I had some regrets. I knew that if I kept my alarm next to me, I was 100% going to snooze it. Instead, it was placed across the other side of the room (like how I have always done it).

Honestly, I wasn’t the type of tired where I was going to fall right back to sleep, but at the same time I wasn’t too energetic as well. I proceeded with my normal morning routine of writing in my journal, praying, and reading. However, I did need to have some coffee to keep me from falling back asleep.

Then I proceeded to do my studying. Luckily, since the semester just started, the workload isn’t intense just yet. I was able to push through my regular deep work in the mornings and got a lot of my studying done.

After I finished studying, the routine still remained the same, I went for my morning walk, and then got ready to take my mom to her appointment.

At this point, it seems that waking up at 3am didn’t seem so bad after all… or so I thought.

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

Just when I thought that waking up at 3AM didn’t really make much of a difference besides making me do everything earlier, I realised how much I were to regret those very thoughts.

The drive from our house to my mom’s appointment was an hour drive because of the traffic. I was so irritated and I just got into the most frustrated mood ever. Just writing about this experience in this blog post is making me even more frustrated.

Not just that, I didn’t even get to have breakfast either, so it added on to the irritation and frustration.

Every little thing annoyed me. Every slow driver. Every delay on the road because of traffic. Every traffic light. Every… everything. It wasn’t even 9am yet and I was already feeling like this.

But how do I know that I wouldn’t get this irritated anyway regardless on whether I had woken up at 3am? I’ve taken my mom to her appointments countless times before, and I’ve never been this irritated.

So when did I stop being in a annoyed mood, and stopped being easily irritated and frustrated? Well… when I finally got some food.

8:30AM to 11:00AM – Kind of acting like my normal self again now

Once I got my coffee and my breakfast, I noticed a change in my mood. I felt like I was back to my normal self again.

I began smiling at people, and also being out in the fresh air also helped clear my mind even more.

While waiting for my mom at her appointment, I did some other work in the car, and there wasn’t any hint of frustration or irritation, which was good.

But honestly, I knew deep down that the coffee was just a quick fix, and that I was eventually going to feel irritated again.

11:00AM to 12:45pm – my highest energy level

Because by this time I had many cups of coffee, I was very energized. However I knew that I was going to have a crash in my energy levels in a few hours time, so it was a good opportunity for me to start filming my other YouTube video.

I was feeling energized and pumped, you wouldn’t have known that a few hours ago I was so irritated about every little thing.

Then after filming my video, I was still so energized I decided to do some more work. I was thinking that I would have this much energy for a few more hours… and better yet, I would get even more work done!

Yeah, no.

12:45pm-2:15pm – The Crash in Energy

I was only working for 25 minutes when I immediately felt sleepy and had a crash in energy.

I immediately went to take a nap that ended up lasting 90 minutes.

There goes 90 minutes of work that I thought that I was going to get done.

But that 90 minute nap didn’t really make me more energized like when I was filming my YouTube video.

I had to go outside for fresh air to wake me up, but that still didn’t completely energize me.

So then it was time for another cup of coffee, and by then I had lost count.

I knew at this point that waking up at 3am meant relying too much on caffeine the entire day.

3pm-5pm – Some Productivity, but it wasn’t the best work

I managed to get a couple of hours of work done, but I knew deep down it wasn’t my best work.

The entire two hours, despite breaks in between, I was always losing focus and concentration. And of course, when you keep finding yourself losing focus, you tend to get frustrated and irritated.

5pm to SLEEP – Yeah, was just frustrated and irritated the whole time

It was around this time that I got the definite feel on how it’s like to be up since 3am.

I had dinner, went to work (my tutoring), did some other errands, and the entire time, there were moments where I was easily frustrated and irritated at the smallest things.

And because I was finding myself being easily frustrated and irritated, I started this whole cycle of getting frustrated at myself for feeling this way.

Honestly, I couldn’t wait to sleep and get my sleeping schedule back on track. I was able to film my thoughts and review on the entire day of my 3am Day of My Life… and yeah if you watch the video, you can tell that I am not in the best mood.

Overall THOUGHTS & CONCLUSIONS

So, does waking up early make you more productive?

Yes it does… if you go to sleep early as well.

There’s really no point in waking up early if you’re just going to have fluctuated focus throughout the day and changing energy levels.

I mean as you can see from what I have talked about with that day, I wasn’t at my best productivity because of my change in focus, and my energy levels were all over the place. I started off the day feeling energized, then crashed, then energized, then crash… and so on.

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

What about what actually happens if you wake up early?

Again, if you didn’t get enough sleep, you’ll notice a difference.

And it’s not always just finding yourself falling asleep because you’re so tired. It’s also a difference in your mood as well.

You already know how much my mood was affected by waking up at 3am, and how easily frustrated and irritated I was.

Also, I found myself always having to rely on caffeine to keep me awake and alert. I did not like the fact that I had to drink the most caffeine that I had ever done in a week combined today.

That is something that I don’t want to keep doing.

And finally, does waking up early actually make you more successful?

You may have seen this so-called “success” principle go around a lot, that the successful ones are those who wake up early.

But honestly, I feel like it doesn’t really matter what time you wake up. What matters more is how you spend your time when you’re awake. A person can wake up early but spend it just watching Netflix, and a person can wake up late and still get a lot of projects done.

A person who wakes up early can be unproductive, and a person who wakes up late can be productive, and vice versa.

I mean waking up early when you’re not getting enough sleep, in one day you won’t see a big impact to your life, but in the long run, it could be detrimental.

Just look into the future, see and picture what would happen if you spend every night not sleeping enough and waking up early? How would your health be like? How would you look?

You want to get 1% each day, how is that going to happen if you don’t sleep?

Everyone Works at their Own Temperament

Ultimately, everyone works at their own temperament, whether they are a morning person or a night owl.

A person can wake up late and be as productive as the person who wakes up early.

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.

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Related Articles:

The Compound Effect – a big eyeopener!

Boundaries – overlooked form of self-care

Why It’s Okay to Have UnProductive Days

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