ManLife Is Getting Up At 5:00AM Worth It?

It is funny people ask me how do you find the time…? Simple, wake up early. Get your “maintenance” activities done in the am — time to have a cup of coffee by yourself, think, plan the day in your mind, then exercise …. By 730a you are “ready” for work, your mind is in a good place and you are ready to tackle the day. After work, quality time for you and your spouse — think people get it wrong by fitting too much “after work (ie exercise, shopping, friendships, etc) and then sacrifice wife / family time. Time before the house wakes up — peace, use it to your advantage.

 

Music to my ears. Love it, follow it, live it (except for me personally a couple of ex-wives so it's quality time w/ gf & family instead!).

 

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At this point in my 45 year plus work life, only Mondays 5:50 rise. It's a great time of day and I get a lot done, and I'm home by 12:30pm. The only problem is I'm beat by 4pm.

 

Or a pretty good Golfer....

 

If you are 'beat by 4pm', you need to find a weaker opponent....

 

Back when i was in the film biz i regularly had to be on set at 5a-6am so id be up at 4am.

I hated getting up. It sucked every single day. Never got used to it. but I learned to go into automaton mode and not even think about it. Alarm goes off and I instinctively jump out of bed and get ready.

But, as bad as getting up was, about two hours later i loved that i was up so early getting **** done. It felt exciting and empowering to be up when most were sleeping.

Now, being semi-retired, I dont get up until my dogs wake me around 7:30 to go potty. And while i love the sleeping in, I feel lazy doing it.

 

Totally agree.
Where I didn't get up every day to be at work at 5am, the days I did I felt exactly as you did.

In the early 90's I had to go into work twice a month at 5:30am to get a computer tape and take it down
to Greyhound so it could make the bus trip to another office 120 miles away. No way we could transmit
a file of that size via FTP back in the 1200 baud days (or whatever it was in 1990-91-92).
I'd be back in the office by 6, get off by 1:30, and be teeing off by 1:45, and be shelled by about the 12th hole....
But it did feel good to be back in the office after the dropoff to get stuff done....

 

One can say getting up early is up to the individual
some do it because they have too and some because they want too

As for the common “that’s for Chevy and ford owners with a payment book” is a little harsh

Some of my executive staff and I (ford explore daily drive into nyc) drive these types of cars
I have 2 Ferraris and someone of “my guys and girls” have nice Sunday drivers as well

I get up 4am and out the door by 4:30 m-f sometimes Saturday my day usually ends when I want too or sometimes have too in bed when I get tried so that depends on the day any where from 8-11pm

my guys and girls who are at the top of my company follow the same philosophy that made me a very comfortable lifestyle and that is (family first) but when there’s work then work play time is what you make it to be

have a balance between them sometime is sacrifice on your part but pays off later


I don’t push my staff but they know no money coming in no pay or bonus

Yes I’m one of those who like to see my staff live a good lifestyle and I do not encourage them to live outside of their means and get on that hamster wheel so that they have too work harder to pay off their debts those guys really don’t make it long at my place you all know the type and sure they are reading this now

So after 40 plus years of working with no real plans of retirement it is now a Tuesday morning around 7am and already into my day for 2 1/2 hours probably leave for lunch around 11-11/30 with my son then see what I want to do after that

That is why I get up early




Sent from my iPhone using FerrariChat

 

I had my fill of getting up at 5 and even 4:45 to make rounds at 6 and be in the OR ready to start at 7.

I hope I never get up before 6:30 again.

 

Me too...Wife is still at it, for probably another 20 years...Up at 5:00 to run for an hour then to hospital for rounds and OR...except for Wed. when she runs at local HS track for "speed work, then up at 3:45....sucks to be her. :>)

 

If her alarm is set for 6am then definitely

 

I like to be rested, else my day is a waste. And so is the evening. I never ever want to see a "5" on my alarm clock again.

 

I wake up at 4am now as i have to be at the office by 6am. So by 4.15 i am at the gym and by 5.30 i am on my way to the office. Get there by 6 and when the rest of the crowd comes in at 9, i have already done a work out and caught up on my emails or prepared all of my meetings for the day. I leave the office by 2pm. Pick my kids at school and we go back to the gym for 2h. Home at 6.30pm. We have dinner and chill/homework until 8pm and im sleeping by 9pm.

 

Very impressive but I do not envy that schedule at all. Early morning not for me

 

I never thought I'd have this schedule bc as you can imagine it sounds awful. But I didn't have a choice. And I now actually enjoy it.
I waste so much less time doing idle things. And the quiet world from 4am to 9am is amazing. On the road, at the gym, in the office. It's been a year or so now, I lost 10 pounds of fat, benching heavier now than when I was in my 20s and kicking ass at work.

The only drawback for me is that I can't sleep pass 6am now, even on the weekends or on holidays. So when I stay up late w friends or family, the next day is brutal.

 

I went to a conference about 10 years ago and the guest speaker got up and started his presentation by saying how happy he was to be here, talking to what is clearly the mostly highly motivated, committed and productive members of the group - because we also made the effort to attend this reseller conference.

Said his job would be easy to motivate us as we were only motivated - and then asked for a show of hands as to how many got up early that morning and got their workout in.

Mine was the only hand that went up...

10 years later, I got my three miles in this morning too!

Kevin

 

I am up at 5 every day not necessarily by choice. Need to see my first case of the day by 7 am so if I want any time to myself I need to get up. I was never a morning person, but have morphed into one. Even on the weekends I am up by 6:30. I do love the quiet of the mornings with a good cup of coffee and get reading done before the entourage awakens. Then chaos ensues.

 

Yes if you are old and sleepy by 9:00pm or need to go fishing.

 

The only time I see 5am is when I wake up to wiz, then I just think to myself "thank God I don't have to get up right now".

 

No. ENDS

 

Been getting up at 5 to start work at 6 for about the last decade, to facilitate meetings with Europe and mostly India (where we send way too much Engineering work). Then I get off at 3:30 so don’t have to fight Houston traffic so much…..I like it, but do have to pop half a caffeine pill around 2 sometimes.

 

My condolences on India.

 

They are very nice people and easy to work with.....the problem is the frustrating inconsistency of the work and the turnover, where they will change jobs on the fly if they can get another $1 an hour.

 

Getting paid can be problematic.