For as long as I can remember I have never been a morning person, rather quite the opposite. I have always dreaded the alarm clock going off and having to get up out of bed to start my day. But that all changed when I decided that I needed to change my outlook on my life and start taking control of it.

I am not a big New Year’s resolution person because most of my goals that I set for the resolution never made it past the first couple of weeks. But, this previous year I told myself that I wanted to wake up really early in the morning so I can have my own personal time.

When I look back, I think I heard this idea originally from a podcast or article I found online, but I cannot specifically remember which one. The person was talking about waking up early to get things done. They were saying that all of us (people) have the same stakes (24 hours per day) to get things done. The people who are more successful have figured out how to take advantage of this and get things done more efficiently. We all have only 24 hours per day, not 25 or 26, so it’s up to you to make the best of it!

I’ve always had a Microsoft calendar to plan out my days, weeks and months. As I investigated further into my daily schedule I found that my time management skills needed some improvement.

Now, I needed to be at work every day at 9am and would usually leave around 8:30. My job is only about 5 miles away and doesn’t take too much time to drive in the mornings. By waking up at 4:30am, I could give myself approximately 4 additional hours each day and approximately 28 additional hours each week to be more productive.

So you might be reading this thinking, waking up at 4:30am every day are you crazy, kersh? LOL, but seriously I have been doing this for about 7 months to date. So why do I wake up so early?

First of all the house is nice and quiet. This gives me the time to relax and reflect on myself. I don’t really meditate or anything like that, but this has really given me the time to reflect and be less stressed out on regular life events like bills, work, etc.

Some early morning days I will go for a nice jog to clear my head. Other days I might read a book that I have never found the time to read, but have always wanted to. Some days I will go out and drive for Uber.

I never thought of myself the cabby type, but the area where I live has a high demand for people needing to get to the airport in the mornings. I might do about 30 to 60 dollars in fairs in a couple of hours. This is great way to earn beer money for the weekend or some extra spending moohlah so I can take my girl out to a nice restaurant.

Or get some crypto, by writing a steemit post :)

Some mornings I work on my business plan that I have been creating and other days I might just clean up the house and work on some laundry or something. Other mornings I just prepare for a work presentation and do some ironing. Waking up so early has really giving me the time to do all the things that I have been putting off in the back of my head.

In other words it has really helped my stress level. I have been doing better at work and most importantly much better in my relationship with my girlfriend.

I challenge you to set your alarm at 4:30am. It sounds crazy, but I will guess that after a month you will see your successes from it.

- Kersh