We’ve all heard of the old adage about the early bird catching the worm and it’s an idiom that’s long been aligned to observations and statistics around the early waking habits of ‘successful’ people (in the sense of corporate success). But, while statistics tell a story, we know they don’t usually tell the whole story as having an early waking morning routine is hardly a guaranteed fast track to ‘making it’ in life.
So, what are the benefits of waking up early?
The early bird benefits from tradition…
You don’t need to read too deeply on this subject before it becomes apparent that the early waking mantra in corporate success is mostly relevant to the traditional pattern of the working day. I.e. rising early brought you into work earlier with a greater sense of ‘preparedness’ to your working day that would set the scene for a more productive day.
The early bird benefits from fewer distractions…
Getting up ahead of emails, children and traffic choked roads, leaves a clearer mind to focus on something important without the encroachment of other factors – whether that something important is strategising for work, exercise, prayer or meditation.
The early bird gets with the programme…
Falling out of bed and rolling straight into work can give you insufficient time to move beyond the state of sleep inertia to function at your best. By waking earlier, you can give your body and brain time to recover from sleep inertia and function with maximum wakefulness and energy to do your best.