Time to abandon the AM club for good
How? By tweaking the 5AM Routine
They’ll try to tell you that the 5 AM method doesn’t work for you, but the truth is the 5 AM method (singular) doesn’t work for anyone.
Why? You’ll wonder. Well, it’s simple: there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to shaping a healthy routine and behavior blueprint.
The way to channel your energies to their best comes solely from a personal, on-your-own-skin exercise. Often, it is a series of trial and error.
Don’t get me wrong…
I am grateful to the 5 AM trend. Reading Brian Ye’s piece when it came out was an absolute eye-opener for me. Back then, I was stuck with a shitty part-time job and having to attend classes and submit essays every day. Needless to say, with that kind of daily stress and juggling going on, I got 200 words weekly at best.
The 5 AM routine helped me a lot in the beginning. I started with Brian’s and many others’ advice until, one day, I decided it was worth it to share my own experience.
However, that didn’t work in the long run either. Now, exactly 12 months and many trial and error experiments later, I know what didn’t work and why.
1. My routine was still predominantly someone else’s
No matter how amazing the blueprints created by various bloggers were, they were not my own. And even when I did adapt them into my thing, it was still lacking something.
It was relatively easy to allocate time slots, and how to combine my other commitments with the writing I planned to do during the day.
The calendar would make sense, but the feeling wouldn’t.
That’s when I realised there can’t be a 5 AM rule, or routine, or method: we need to start thinking about rules, routines, methods. Plural. One for each human trying it out.
2. Sustainability is key: if you can’t keep it, drop it
I feel like this is the key problem for those I know who have tried it out.
I myself kept repeating the routine, on and off and on and off again, until I got tired of it.
The only way to go forward, I know now, is to identify your own goals.
First of all, think about why you want to do this. Have you always wanted to be an early bird? Do you want to improve the quality of your sleep? Are the morning hours the only drops of time you can milk from an otherwise busy day?
Second: is it feasible to adapt it to your routine? If you are working night shifts and won’t be in bed until midnight, I wouldn’t recommend pursuing the 5 AM goal. Again: find how to tweak this rule to its best use.
Eventually, I came up with a mantra. Whether I am waking up at 5 AM or 7 AM, I find this the most helpful tool.
- Aim for: feeling accomplishment. Don’t stop until you’re better. Don’t stop trying until you’re satisfied.
- Don’t give up on finding inspiration.
- Ultimately, create something you-centered. From beginning to end.
The combo journalling-meditation-doodling didn’t work for me. I tweaked it with things I enjoy doing and I feel like doing in the morning. Turns out the answer was yoga-coffee-music for me. Or, some days, coffee-journalling-yoga. Never the same strict routine, but something that gets me out of bed every time. That’s what works for me, though many people out there couldn’t work with this flexibility, and need something more systematic to feel inspired to get out of bed and ready to tackle a new day.
See? Never method, always methods.
I was glad to find out this could work for me. Now, I don’t wake up at 5 AM on a step-by-step routine to obey every day. I wake up at 6 AM some days, 7 AM some others, sometimes even 4 AM, depending on when I went to sleep the night before. And I follow my own path, my own inspiration and time-making, productivity journey every time.
The only way to stay in the club is by abandoning the club.
Creating your own AM method is key if you want to build a project that works for you and that you can always change, improve, discard however and whenever it feels right.
