One of the greatest time sinks we have is sleep, a certain amount is required for the body to heal, rest and perform at its maximum potential but when we overdo burning the midnight oil and deprive ourselves of it our whole life suffers because of it.
In my case during the blackest days of my Warcraft addiction I was up till all hours raiding and then surviving on 4 to 5 hours sleep a day, I would find that this caught up with me by the weekend and then I would sleep for 16 hours straight and feel absolutely lousy, My sleep patterns were absolutely all over the place, I would find myself sleeping all day and not awakening until 6 or 7pm and then it was back on the game. This is no lifestyle for anyone trust me. Once i decided enough was enough and got a job I knew things had to change and the first thing that I had to address was my sleeping patterns.
The optimum amount of sleep I have found is 7 hours a night. Granted I could probably survive (and have)on less but the impact it has on my day, not feeling truly awake until nearly midday and the feeling of needing to go to sleep upon getting home from work really doesn't make this extra hour saved constructive. Anymore than 7 and we are wasting time, lets look at someone who is sleeping what we are told is the optimum amount 10 hours..
over the 7 days in a week that is 21 hours more slept a week, that's almost three working days and more than enough time to run a part-time business. Think of the opportunity cost of what these hours asleep are costing you and what could be achieved. No time for exercise? no time to read that book? there it is right there.
Just by reducing your sleep by one hour a day a week is enough to free up 7 hours a week which is enough for a complete weekly exercise regime. And the best news is that two weeks into your new pattern you won't even miss the hour.
So whats the secret to training yourself to get up on time? sleeping set hours is never going to work, you cannot force yourself to go to sleep and just by lying in bed when you are not tired is just a waste of more time. The key is to go to bed when you are tired and only when you are tired and to get up at the same time everyday even on weekends.
If you need to be at work at 9am and you get up at 7am during the week you must train yourself to get up at 7am on the weekends, all the weekend lie in is going to achieve is you sleeping for more than likely 5 hours more than you need and feeling groggy till mid afternoon.
This of course sounds like no fun at all if you are a party animal at the clubs over the weekend. Realistically you are not going to roll in back home at 3am after a truckload of alcohol and want to get up bright as a daisy at 7am. This is where you need to evaluate your lifestyle and see whether its helping you or hindering you. Leisure time and blowing off steam is essential to our success but there is no point feeling like a prisoner to your schedule although if this type of lifestyle is wrecking your entire weekend productivity with a hangover than its worth looking at again.
The other key is to get out of bed the minute the alarm clock goes off, The snooze button is your enemy, The essential thing to your body is movement. You must literally force yourself to get up, stretch if you need to and head to the bathroom, go make some toast and a coffee, whatever is required just GET UP. The old mantra of "five more minutes" sleep never helped anyone and the snooze button has probably accounted for more people being late for work than any other known invention to mankind.
So in summary :
Awake at same time every day (Even weekends)
Go to bed only when tired
Get up and out of bed IMMEDIATELY upon being awoken by the alarm clock
Go and eat something to kick start your metabolism
Two weeks of this and you will notice your body begins to wake up naturally 15 Min's before the alarm clock. the extra time we save with this method, (remember anything up to 21 hours a week!) is going to be put into all the new and exciting projects that are going to LEVEL UP our life!
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