You Do Not Need To Wake Up At 4 A.M. Every Day To Be Successful In Life

Let me explain what you can do to replace this habit and being successful.

In recent months, I have seen a new trend in the world of personal development and self-improvement. In order to succeed, it would have become essential to get up every day at 4 a.m. To justify this need, many point out that a lot of highly successful personalities have adopted this mode of operation in their morning routine.

A Movement Is Born Around Jocko Willink

Thus, Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, would wake up every day just before 4 a.m. Even better, a real movement is born around Jocko Willink, a retired Lieutenant Commander of the Navy SEALs, who has since become a successful entrepreneur and author. Thus, Jocko Willink advises to wake up every day at 4:30 a.m. because that is what you have to do to succeed.

I see more and more people very proud to post on Twitter, or any other social network, a picture of them in the morning when they wake up and copy their mentor Jocko Willink.

I greatly appreciate the advice of Jocko Willink who is for me the very example of the true great leader. Nevertheless, I find rather counterproductive the movement that is born around him and the willingness of some to suggest that it is necessary to get up every day at 4 a.m. to succeed in life.

Waking Up Every Day At 4 A.M. Is Not A Requirement For Success

From my point of view, it is not necessary to get up every day at 4 a.m. to achieve great things in life. Indeed, everyone is different and it is therefore impossible to make a few famous special cases into a generality that everyone should apply blindly.

On the other hand, I think there is good to be gained from this movement to wake up at 4 a.m. every day. Indeed, the main question to ask is the following:

Why do some successful people wake up so early every day?

Behind the fact of waking up early, there is a practical reality in terms of productivity. For example, you need to ask yourself when your concentration level is at its highest in a working day.

And very often, this happens in the morning soon after you wake up. Your body and mind are rested after a good night’s sleep and you are ready to perform your most complex tasks.

In addition, early in the morning, you maximize your chances of being able to perform tasks in one go without being disturbed by external solicitations such as phone calls, meetings or “urgent” emails that you absolutely must answer.

The Key Is To Respect Your Biological Rhythm First And Foremost

Your productivity is therefore generally highest in the morning shortly after waking up. On the basis of this constant, the supporters of the daily awakening at 4 a.m. seek to make the morning working time as long as possible without disturbance.

This is a good thing in theory, but it does not necessarily correspond to you in practice.

You may be someone who prefers to wake up at 6 a.m. or 7 a.m. and sleep 9 hours a night rather than just 7 hours. In my opinion, you should not feel guilty and think that you will not be able to achieve great things in your life.

I advise you instead to respect your biological rhythm because without it, you will not be able to be productive at 4 a.m. as some successful people have been. Indeed, just because these people are productive at that time doesn’t mean you will be productive too in the same conditions.

Keep this in mind.

You Can Also Maximize Your Productivity By Following These 3 Tips

If you have read this article to this point, I imagine it is because you are looking for solutions to achieve great things in life. In your journey towards this goal, I am sure you would like to find solutions to boost your productivity since you are interested in the movement of waking up daily at 4 a.m.

Photo by krisna iv on Unsplash

Since I have just explained to you that it is more important to respect your biological rhythm to succeed in life, I will now give you 3 tips that will replace in an equally effective way this alarm clock at 4 a.m. that is increasingly talked about on the Internet.

1. Go To Bed Early

The first thing to do is going to bed early. So, at the most, you should be in bed before 11 p.m. This leaves you enough room to enjoy your evening after work by reading a book, for example, to help you fall asleep.

2. Sleep As Long As You Really Need To

Then, you will be able to sleep for as long as you really need to respect your biological rhythm. Do not set the alarm clock at 4 a.m. necessarily.

Instead, I advise you to put it between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. in order to have a sleep time between 7 hours and 9 hours, which is what doctors advise in order to maximize the rest of your body and mind.

3. Start The Day With The Most Complex Task

Once you have woken up, you will have lunch and you will have to enjoy your peak productivity by cutting yourself off from all external stresses for a period of 2 to 3 hours during which you will tackle the most complex task of your day.

Complete this complex task by staying in your work bubble. This way, you will certainly boost your productivity. Once this task is accomplished, your mind will be boosted for the rest of the day, during which you will only have simpler tasks to perform.

Conclusion

The daily wake-up movement at 4 a.m. aims above all to optimize your daily work by pushing you to do it at the time of your peak productivity. However, there is no point in following this movement literally if it goes against your biological rhythm.

Instead, you need to respect your biological rhythm and understand the idea behind the movement of waking up daily at 4 a.m. The 3 tips to maximize your productivity that I have given you in this article will allow you to combine maximum productivity and respect of your biological rhythm.

All you have to do now is put them into practice and stop feeling guilty if you can’t get up every day at 4 a.m. like Jocko Willink.