![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
A flash of remembrance...
Dec. 8th, 2015 06:37 pmThe thing most people react to about the prospect of getting up at 5 am (or <gulp> earlier) is that it's just too early a time to be venturing forth from the comfort of sleep (especially if you climbed into bed at 2 am or so, but I digress...).
Recently, I listened to a podcast featuring Tim Ferriss interviewing Jocko Willink (co-author of Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win), and it turns out that, inter alia, Willink posts photos of his wristwatch that appear in his Twitter feed, taken (I can only conclude) upon getting out of the rack in the morning. They all pretty much consistently show a time of 4:30, or thereabouts.
Among other things, the podcast got me to thinking about Marine boot camp and the transition one undergoes from a person with a civilian mindset to a person having a nascent military mindset. In my opinion, among the lifestyle changes that expedite that transition is getting up at 5 am.
The fact is, after about the second day, getting up at 5 am is no big deal. In my recollection, the only time when sleep was an issue during boot camp was during two weeks of "mess and maintenance," during which our recruit platoon did most of the scut work in the mess hall, which required us to be there before normal reveille, and to stay after the last meal to clean up and prepare for the next day, which made for a very short night's sleep, but I digress again...
Frankly, over the past few years, I haven't paid much attention to when I wake up, and as a result, my productivity over the course of a day varied (all other things being equal). Soon after listening to the Ferriss–Willink podcast, I decided it would be a good idea to start getting up early, too.
So today was my 7th day of this regimen. I've been posting photos of my own wristwatch on Twitter, partially as an acknowledgment of Willink as the catalyst for my new behavior, but mostly because publicly documenting such behavior gives me just a little extra mental incentive to keep doing it (in the manner of smokers who tell all their friends that they're quitting, which in context of my rising early has got to be the silliest reason ever, because almost nobody follows me on Twitter, but again I digress...).
Bottom line? I'm deriving positive results from the early wakeup, not the least of which are improved productivity at the keyboard and much improved overall mental attitude.
More later, because right now, I have to get ready for taiji.
Cheers...
Recently, I listened to a podcast featuring Tim Ferriss interviewing Jocko Willink (co-author of Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win), and it turns out that, inter alia, Willink posts photos of his wristwatch that appear in his Twitter feed, taken (I can only conclude) upon getting out of the rack in the morning. They all pretty much consistently show a time of 4:30, or thereabouts.
Among other things, the podcast got me to thinking about Marine boot camp and the transition one undergoes from a person with a civilian mindset to a person having a nascent military mindset. In my opinion, among the lifestyle changes that expedite that transition is getting up at 5 am.
The fact is, after about the second day, getting up at 5 am is no big deal. In my recollection, the only time when sleep was an issue during boot camp was during two weeks of "mess and maintenance," during which our recruit platoon did most of the scut work in the mess hall, which required us to be there before normal reveille, and to stay after the last meal to clean up and prepare for the next day, which made for a very short night's sleep, but I digress again...
Frankly, over the past few years, I haven't paid much attention to when I wake up, and as a result, my productivity over the course of a day varied (all other things being equal). Soon after listening to the Ferriss–Willink podcast, I decided it would be a good idea to start getting up early, too.
So today was my 7th day of this regimen. I've been posting photos of my own wristwatch on Twitter, partially as an acknowledgment of Willink as the catalyst for my new behavior, but mostly because publicly documenting such behavior gives me just a little extra mental incentive to keep doing it (in the manner of smokers who tell all their friends that they're quitting, which in context of my rising early has got to be the silliest reason ever, because almost nobody follows me on Twitter, but again I digress...).
Bottom line? I'm deriving positive results from the early wakeup, not the least of which are improved productivity at the keyboard and much improved overall mental attitude.
More later, because right now, I have to get ready for taiji.
Cheers...
