The Habit All Billionaires Have in Common

Day 5. I went to bed at 10:15 last night. I woke up naturally without an alarm at 5:30. But then I went back to sleep and turned off the 5 or so alarm clocks I set for 6:30 one by one as they rang, later waking up around 11 A. M. Even then, I didn’t get out of bed right away. This switch to going to bed early and getting up early is going to be a struggle, probably. Tonight it looks like I will turn in a 12:15 and try to get up at 7:30.

Day 8. Last night I went to bed at 12:12. When the alarms rang at around 6:00- 6:30, I went back to bed, not to really get going until about 12:38 P. M. I regularly set 5 or so alarm clocks and often turn them all off and go back to sleep. Sometimes I must think another one is going to ring. Today I knowingly went back to sleep after the 6:30 clock rang, knowing it was the last one set to ring. I had a job scheduled to get to, but it was outside work and it was raining, so it was probably to be postponed, at least until it stopped raining. Tomorrow is there is going to be a morning party, so I almost have to get up tomorrow morning. I plan to go to bed at 11:15 or so and to try to get up at 4:30.

Day 11. I stayed up late last night baking bread and checking email. I did not actually turn in until about 5:00. I was up so late one of my wake-up clocks rang before I even went to bed. I tried to get up at 6:30 but I must have been sleepy because I did not get up until somewhat later than that. I missed a bus in the morning I was planning on catching with a friend. So it’s regrettable that I either didn’t just stay up or put the rising bread loaf in the fridge and let it rise later.

I’m going to have to give up saying up late in order to get up early, at least most of the time. I’m thinking it’s worth it because I’m going on the idea that a morning ritual prepares the way for productivity in the day later. And mine if I do the full set of things I currently want to do may take a good 5 hours or so. 5 hours to prepare for self-directed work later, maybe about the same amount of time later applying myself, maybe more.

Tonight I am going to try to go to bed at a reasonable time, maybe around 10:30, and try to get up around 6:00.

Day 13. Last night I went to bed at 1:10. I was planning on getting to bed a little earlier, but I stayed up to fuss with a few things. Also, I was on the computer until almost 11:30 and I am going by trying to do an an hour power down where you stay off the screens and only read a book or relax for the last hour of the day.

This morning I got up 10:26. I set the clocks for between 5:30 and 6:55. This included setting a cell phone to go off as the last alarm furthest away from my bed. However, I don’t even remember turning that one off.

Two of my clocks went off today 12 hours after intended. So it’s possible one of them was set wrong and I just didn’t hear one in the bathroom or it didn’t go off either.

This morning I did my morning page writing, but not the Start My Day exercise or the 5 Tibetan Rites yoga exercises and other exercises I add to those. I think I would have gotten more done than running an errand to the Post Office and shopping for groceries today if I’d gotten an earlier start and done a fuller morning ritual.

Tonight I am planning on turning in around 10:30, and set the bedroom clocks all for 6:00 and the bathroom clocks both for 6:30. Sometimes I stagger them for between 15 or 5 minutes apart. But the problem with that is that I can think that there is going to be one more alarm going off when there isn’t. So this time I’m giving myself only one chance to snooze and I hope I don’t take that and just get up at 6.

Day 15. Last night I went to bed at 2:00. The clocks were set for 6:00 (4) and 6:30 (2). However, I got up at 2:12 P. M. Obviously, 4:00 is not enough sleep, at least not at times.

It looks like I need to go to bed around 9:30 or 10:00 to get up at 6:00 or 6:30 in order to get 8 or 9 hours of rest.

Day 17. I got up at 6:04 today as my fourth 6 o’clock alarm rang, and turned off the rest of the alarms set. The clocks rang at about 1 minute apart. So, I got up without snoozing.

However, I was sleepy in the morning and dozed off a little sitting on the couch and rushed off to an appointment.

Tonight I am going to try to go to bed around 10, allowing myself 8 hours of rest. I think it was 2:12 when I went to bed last night, so I wouldn’t even have gotten 4 hours of sleep when the clocks rang.

Day 19. I turned in just after 3 last night. Today I got out of bed at 12:25. The alarms were set for 6 and 6:30 again, but I must have turned them off and gotten back to bed. 3 hours of rest is not reasonable.

Now it is a challenge not to stay up late doing an email newsletter late into the night, or other things I meant to do today but didn’t get to yet. I’m on a sleep schedule where I may not get sleepy until 4 A. M., possibly, since I didn’t wake up until around noon. But I’m more likely to get up tomorrow early if I go to bed soon. So, I’m planning on hitting the sack around 12:30 and trying to get up by 6:30.

Day 23. Last night I went to bed at 1:43. Today, although I set alarms for 5:30-6:29, I didn’t wake up until around noon, getting out of bed at 12:47. I assume I turned all the clocks off and went back to sleep.

I am going to try to go to bed before midnight this time. And try to get up between 5:30 and 6:29 again, setting increasingly close together alarms again. That should have worked this morning, but I was probably barely asleep by the time the clocks rang, and tireder than usual.

I got little else done today besides running an errand to the bank and shopping for groceries, and practicing the guitar and singing.

Tomorrow I’m hoping to be done with morning ritual things by noon, to prepare for a day of working on an art project.

Day 26. Last night I went to bed around 12:24 or so. I got up today at 9:51. I woke up a few minutes before 6 without an alarm. I heard my first alarm go off at 6:00, but chose to shut if off and the rest of them in turn.

I think it was just willpower and habit that had me getting up later than I wanted to, although I did get less than 6 hours of rest before the clock went off. I still did my writing, but not my exercises, and I didn’t do Start My Day today.

I went to a talk this afternoon and played the guitar and sang for a while after I got home.

I wish I would have just gotten up at the first alarm for the sake of the challenge and I was awake anyway when the first clock rang. So maybe I really did get enough rest. Well, tonight I can get to bed even another hour earlier than last night. And resolve to get up between 6 and 6:30 tomorrow morning, setting 6 alarms the same way as last night, 4 clocks for 6-6:30 starting with the talking one and ending with an analog clock, and the second two a little further away, 6:35 for the digital one that sets itself and 6:45 for the last analog clock to ring.

Day 28. Last night I went to bed at 1:33. I got up this morning at 10:42. I must have turned off all 6 clocks.

Part of the reason I’m finding this harder than it should be is that I am not getting to bed early enough to get up what for me is unusually early. I’m going to have to go to bed shortly after 9 if I want to get up before 6. And I’m used to staying up late. So it seems odd if I have to start wrapping things up at 8:30 in the evening to get to bed at 9:30.

At least I can probably turn in around 11:30 tonight, two hours before I did last night. There’s some work to go and do tomorrow. I’m hoping to leave 1 1/2 hours early and wait somewhere and then show up on time.

I’m going to try the same two waves of clocks going off, bedroom ones for 6-6:30 and the bathroom ones for 6:35 and 6:45. I should have 6 1/2 hours of rest by the time the first alarm goes off. I may also set a cell phone for 6:50-6:54 with 5 alarms going off one minute apart.

Day 30. Last night I went to bed at 3:01. This morning I was slow to get up, turning off the clocks. I went to a job today, though, and worked a little. I didn’t go early and camp out nearby this time, instead running errands, having lunch at home, and leaving on my bicycle. At least the work got done.

I wish I could report that at the end of this challenge, I had firmly established a new habit of going to bed early and getting up early enough to do an intensive enough morning ritual to prepare me for hours of work, especially self-directed work, which I may have more enthusiasm though less self-discipline for than day job work. One of the 30 days was especially promising, though. That day I spent all morning on writing practice, Start My Day, and exercises in place, and much of the afternoon I applied myself to my own artwork and marketing. I’m looking forward to more days like that, maybe with a more intensive morning ritual, though not necessarily one taking longer, and maybe work time that does take longer.

Another bit of progress was with the pattern to set the clocks in. One thing that helped for a while was setting them to ring closer and closer together until they were one minute apart. Another thing that was helpful was impressing on my mind that there were two waves of clocks ringing, each ending in an analog clock. The idea was that if the first wave didn’t work, I’d get up as the second rang. Of course, a habit of getting up when the first alarm clock rings is better, and it’s my goal that the other clocks than the first one just be backups and not to snooze in the morning.

But, for this to be realistic, I’ve got to go to bed earlier. Even now, I’m writing this at 12:30 A. M. and after I leave the computer, after a power down hour or so, I’m looking at 2 A. M. for bedtime. Ideally this gives way to 10 P. M. or something like that. Or at least midnight.

Still, I plan to leave the 6:00-6:45 window to get up in place. If I sleep in, I am less likely to do my morning ritual things because the day starts to crowd in. And without exerting myself early, I get less done later.

Troy, can I say, you do have Greatness in you. Hey, let’s face it, you kept with the whole 30 days!! :-).

I too wish to be a morning person. Are you willing to do it again?

Hit me back

Day 24. Last night I set 6 alarm clocks for between 5:30 and 6:05 or so, and 5 alarms on a cell phone for 6:20-6:29, going to bed around 12:58.

This morning I turned the clocks off and don’t remember the cell phone going off.

I woke up around noon and got a slow start. I did my writing and Start My Day today, and an hour session in on an art project, and filled out an application form for a festival.

Today I am going to try to be in bed around 11:30, to get up between 6:00 and 6:30. I am planning on setting all 6 alarm clocks. It would be better if I just got up right away at the first clock and didn’t try to snooze, both because snoozing really isn’t that good for you and because I can think there is going to be one more clock going off when there isn’t. But I’d be doing well just to get up sometime tomorrow before the 6th clock rings. It would also help if I allowed myself 6 hours of sleep and a some time to fall asleep. Sometimes I am not asleep for several hours. Even last night I was only allowing 4 1/2 hours of rest and it might have taken me a while last night to fall asleep. So I hardly got 6 hours of sleep by the time the first clock rang.

I am going to reverse the order of the last two clocks I have going off in the morning in the bathroom because I’m not sure I hear the digital one that sets itself, while I’m sure the other one, an analog clock, I remember hearing in the mornings. So that one should be the last one. And for the earlier set bedroom clocks, I could make my talking clock be the first one and my other analog clock be the last one (with two digital clocks in between). Maybe I will not try to set the cell phone, because that didn’t work the last two mornings.

Day 20. Last night I went to bed at 1:18. I still wasn’t asleep at 2:56, so I had some bread and wine, going back to bed at 3:06. I meant to get up at 6 or 6:30, but did not actually get up until 12:30.

I did morning pages writing, ran errands, sorted my inbox and made an email newsletter post.

Now I am on track to be in bed around 2:00 A. M. A little late to get up before 7, but I’m planning to try. Today I might have worked more into the day if I got up earlier, including more exercise and Start My Day. Maybe it will help to set some extra alarms away from my bed.

I am struggling with getting to bed early enough to get up early. If I don’t get enough sleep, I can turn off the alarms and fall back asleep again before even remembering what to get up for.

Maybe I will try staggering the clocks in time instead of setting multiple clocks for the same time.

Day 5. Last night I turned in around 1:45. I set alarms for 8:45, 9:00 and 10:00, turning them all off in turn, falling back asleep for a little while and not even getting out of bed until 1. I am struggling with both getting enough sleep and the self-discipline not to go back to bed after the alarm clock rings. Tonight I am going to set the alarm clocks for before 7 again. And make it a goal to go be in bed by 12:00, 6:30 or 7:00 of rest if not necessarily sleep.