48. Early to Bed, Early to Rise...

This reminds me of elementary
school. I've no idea why.

...makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise? Ben Franklin seemed to think so. So does the U.S. military - and I don't think anyone would argue that that soldiers do more than most of us. But here's the thing: Winston Churchill is one of my highest role models, not Franklin. Churchill was a night owl, often staying up until 4am and sleeping until noon. Despite his sleeping patterns he lead Britain through WWII. I'm also a fan of Mark Twain. He said, "Put no trust in the benefits to accrue from early rising, as set forth by the infatuated Franklin..." So, who's right? My conclusion is both - because a sleeping schedule isn't the real issue.

A few days ago my friend wrote a post describing everything she'd been able to accomplish since she'd starting waking early. I was, to say the least, impressed. Thus my sparked interest in rising early. But when I began to really think about it, I realized that it was not really sleep schedule that Franklin, Churchill, or even my friend had mastered. It was what they did with the time that they were awake.

Some people are naturally night owls and function better that way. I tend to ascribe to Churchill's methods, and am often awake until just before sunrise. However I'm not accomplishing nearly as much as I could. This may be because there aren't many others awake in the middle of the night, but I have a feeling it's more to do with my mindset. At 10pm, I may still have another eight solid waking hours ahead of me, but my brain tells me the day is over. Following this logic, by sleeping through the morning a person effectively loses half the day. No bueno.

I love my late nights, but I want to be more productive. I'm going to start a challenge I received to begin rising early. It will probably take me awhile to get my days and nights turned back around, so I figure this should be a long term challenge. I'll do it for at least 4 months, and then evaluate my productivity. Within a few weeks, I hope to be rising at 6am every day rather than finally falling asleep. We'll see how it goes.

What have you done to help with early rising?