Recently, I saw an article headline which immediately grabbed my attention.

The Quiet Joys of the Very, Very Early Morning Club. It was written by Jason Gay and published in the Wall Street Journal. When I opened the article, I was expecting a real in-depth look at statistics and other mental wellness for getting up early, but it was more of a humorous (and pretty relatable) perspective of Mr. Gay’s (a sports columnist for Wall Street Journal) writing habits. It is definitely worth the read, especially if you can identify with the notion of getting up early in the morning and how that could be the most productive part of the day. 

For me, his anecdotes were fitting. I have been part of the early morning club for several years and know of several friends that operate and thrive the same way, including my wife – who gets up now even earlier then me.

Getting up early has been a way of life for most of my professional life. We all experienced sleeping in late as teenagers and now if I wake up past 8am on a Saturday I feel like I have overslept and half of my day is wasted. Funny what getting old does to ones brain!

Getting up when it is still dark out is when my mind seems to be at its clearest. It is quiet in the house and after a (hopefully) good nights sleep and a little jolt of caffeine, I seem to get the creative juices flowing. My ideas for blogs come to me most of the time first thing in the morning and I am able to compartmentalize my thoughts for my day job activities at this time. If I know that I have a lot to catch up on, the alarm is set for 4am and by 7am, I feel like I have put in a full day and got a lot done. 

Like Mr. Gay’s article, this does come with drawbacks. He indicates his brain is “fried” by mid-afternoon and especially in a almost post-Covid era where we are working from home, I cant look at my computer come late afternoon without a long break. 

Another component that works with the early morning club is interment fasting. Now, I would be the last person to talk about dieting and such, but I must say that the combo of fasting and early morning working (I walk on my treadmill between 1 and 2 miles each morning) seems to work great for me – creatively speaking. Food can certainly create the sleepy environment so I have found that this combination keeps my mind sharp. It is amazing how the brain works

Are you an early bird or night owl?