Getting up early is 50 percent determination, 30 percent preparation, 10 percent execution, and 10 percent luck, according to productivity blogger Jason Gutierrez.

He calls it the 50-30-10-10 rule.

Gutierrez, 30, founder of The Monk Life, a blog about anxiety, health and self-improvement, is a writer by morning and engineer by day.

Being a writer was always his dream, he says, but he was too exhausted to write after work. So he developed a routine to get himself up at 5:30 a.m. every weekday morning to work on his writing.

Gutierrez, who lives in Greenville, South Carolina and writes regularly for Medium.com, says the rule has helped him author hundreds of articles for his blog, which he started in 2016. He says the blog evolved over time, and now includes email subscribers and tutorials.

Here’s how the 50-30-10-10 rule works:

50 percent determination

“I really loved writing,” Gutierrez recalls, “but I was struggling to find time to do it consistently, and after a long bit of reflection, I realized that I just didn’t want it bad enough.”

Gutierrez realized that half of what it would take to get up early was sheer determination.

“I think the biggest thing I learned from implementing this method into my life was really wanting it and just making the time to do what I needed to do,” says Gutierrez.

30 percent preparation

But Gutierrez was used to staying up late, and knew that waking up at 5:30 would require undoing some poor habits.

So he developed a new rule: no TV or social media an hour before his 10 o’clock bedtime.

He also developed some good habits to prepare himself for an early bedtime, like going for a walk, reading a book, and having a cup of chamomile tea in the evening.

“Basically, it’s just unplugging from the world, doing some things to get my mind in relaxation mode — then I lay down until I fall asleep,” he says.

He says he also writes down everything he needs to get done in the morning, which helps motivate him to get out of bed.