The 6 AM Wake-Up

Alarm rings. Hit snooze button.
Alarm rings again. Slam snooze button.
Alarm rings for the third time. Throw clock against the wall.

Just kidding. I'm not *that* grumpy when I wake up. And especially not this morning.

Why not this morning? Well, from reading about productivity, motivation, self-empowerment, etc., etc., a recurring theme that comes up is that the most successful people get up at the crack of dawn just busting with life. Successful people apparently do all sorts of crazy things before the light of day, including practicing piano (ex. Condoleezza Rice, for anyone who remembers who she even is), exercising, or writing their next great novel.

So, following in their footsteps, I have decided to wake up between 5:30 and 6:00 each morning. Ugh.

And not only wake up that early, but also hit the ground running (not literally) by doing some sort of physical activity (not running). Double ugh.

So this morning, I woke up at 5:48 a.m., groaned for a minute, and then started the 'one hundred pushups' program by doing an initial test. I did 16 good-form pushups in a row, which is okay but not my best, probably because I was also doing some last night. Anyway, apparently over the next six weeks, I will learn how to do 100 good-form pushups at once? For more info about this program: One Hundred Pushups.

Now, you may be curious about why I woke up at 5:48 a.m., and not, for instance, at 5:45 or 6:00 or some nice round number. Well, it's because I was in my "lightest sleep phase" at 5:48 and therefore it was the best time for my alarm clock to wake me up. Seriously. It's the new app I'm trying. Apparently it works wonders: Sleep Cycle App.

I've used the app for the last three days and can't say that I've felt any more "rested or relaxed" than usual.

But there's an awesome cure for that - wonderful, delicious, coffee!