Let me start off by saying that I am not an early riser by nature. In fact, I would probably be more of a night person to be perfectly honest.  That being said, I have become extremely more productive by having an early morning work session. There is nothing like the feeling of having accomplished several items on my to do list and my day is just getting started. I actually started this early morning routine by accident.

Well over a year ago, my family went on a summer vacation to a condo on the beach for the week. It was bad timing for me because I had several work related things that I needed to tackle that same week if I was going to meet the goals I had set out for myself. While I didn’t want to ignore my family to do this work I had to think of a way to make it all happen. Since most of my family loved to sleep in until about 10:00am, I decided the best way to please both worlds (work and family) was to wake up early while everyone else was still asleep and get some work done. What I did not realize is exactly how incredibly energizing this would be to me. So, I woke up at 6:00am and drove to the nearest Starbucks where I could get some work done. Four hours later, I wrapped it up for the day and was able to spend quality time with my family while my mind was clear.

Benefits to Starting an Early Morning Work Session

After coming home from vacation, I decided to continue this idea of having an early morning work session. For me now, it is a two hour early morning work session in which my objective is to get the “big rocks” done for the day. This blog post is being written during that time frame. While I have experimented with different times in the morning, what current works for me is between 6:00-8:00 am. At 8:00 I take a well deserved break and usually go for a walk outside to get some fresh air, followed up with exercise, breakfast and time to read my Bible.

You have time to focus without distractions. I am the only one up at that time so having zero distractions is a great thing for me. No one is calling me on the phone or coming into my home office at that time. The only thing I battle are internal distractions that I have to battle between my own two ears.

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You are incredibly energized by the rest of your day. Here is the story of a typical American worker today. They snooze the alarm clock several times and finally wake up in a hurry. They shower and get dressed quickly and barely have time to eat breakfast. Some skip breakfast all together. They battle the traffic on the way to work hoping to not be late. They arrive at the office and begin to check voicemail, email and any other messages that have come in. They get their coffee and strike up a conversation with a co-worker.

After a long conversation they sit down to work. before they get started they try to think through all of the to-do’s that they need to do for the day. They suddenly become overwhelmed because it is already past 10:00am and they haven’t even really gotten started.  Does that sound like you? By 10:00 am I have already accomplished the “big rocks,” gone for a walk, exercised, had a nice breakfast, and spent some time connecting spiritually with my Maker. You can experience those same benefits by carving out an early morning work session.

You have a systematic way to move closer to your goals. My early morning work sessions rarely get cancelled. I have nothing else competing for that time slot other then rolling out of bed. Because of this, I have found that I have a block of time each day that pulls me closer toward my goals. This early morning work session has doubled my productivity and allowed me to cross of several goals that I have written down.

Questions: Do you have an early morning work session? If so, how does it benefit you?

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