Hi, Dan here. Welcome to the 8th edition of my newsletter. 👋
Thanks to everyone who filled in my ‘What should I write about?’ survey last week. The top 2 responses were:
1. Dan's Personal Experiences & Stories
2. Personal Development - Habits, Focus etc.
So, this week:
I talk about the best productivity hack I’ve found - why it’s so good, how and why I do it, and how you could make it yours too.
To-do lists, prioritization, the Pomodoro Technique, saying ‘No’ and learning from world-class performers are all productivity ‘hacks’ (or better - habits) I use to focus on what really matters. 🎯
But one stands out above all the rest: waking up early. 🐣
I haven’t found anything that compares to it for getting important work* done.
Specifically for me it’s: waking up early and working on my most important task for the day (as soon as I wake up).
*I’m calling it work for simplicity’s sake, but it can anything that requires hours of deep work or concentration - so it could be creative projects like writing, painting or making music too.
Of course I’m not alone in this. A lot of very successful people also wake up early. Sometimes ridiculously early: Apple CEO Tim Cook wakes up at 3:45 am! 😳 That’s extreme, but then he does lead a 2 trillion dollar company.
6 or even 7am is plenty early enough in my opinion. ⏰
Why Early Is So Good (For Getting Shit Done)
Everyone is better at doing certain tasks at certain times. My creativity and inspiration is highest in the morning. I suspect it is for many of you too - if you can make it a habit (see how below).
Early mornings also have the huge advantage that there are WAY less distractions. You’re literally up and working before most people (in your world) are awake. It’s quiet and there are no meetings, office chit chat, Slack pings or urgent emails to reply to.
So you can string together hours of uninterrupted deep work and get into a state of flow.
As a result, I feel like time is worth double (or more). Ideally I’ll complete my big task of the day, or put a serious dent in it - so it just needs finishing touches later.
Sometimes I get more meaningful work done in those first couple of quiet, focused, non-distracted hours than I do for the rest of the day. So I’m already ahead of the game no matter what the day throws at me.
It’s glorious! 🤗
How I Became A Morning Person (& Why I Stayed One)
Up until 2 years ago I was NEVER a morning person! I used to snooze through multiple alarms, check emails and social media on my phone as soon as I woke up, then drag myself out of bed for coffee, shower, breakfast and commute in a mild daze.
I’d get to the office around 10am and need more coffee before I became productive. I’d start the day by trying to do many different small tasks at once - replying to emails, checking analytics dashboards, reading blog posts, updating a doc, all while switching between 20 different open tabs.
My mind was all over the place and (not surprisingly) I wouldn’t get anything really meaningful done.
More often, as I’d started a bunch of things but not finished, I’d continue doing my bigger tasks at night. When I ran my startup I’d often work late into the night (usually with beer in hand). But I wouldn’t have that much creative energy left by then (the beer in hand probably didn’t help!).
But I thought that was just how I was wired — more of a night owl.
Then in 2018 I took a year off drinking alcohol. It had many health benefits, one of which was a better nights sleep. I started to wake up before my alarm even went off, and then be wide awake. Sometimes it was 6am, sometimes even earlier.
With this new found extra time, I had to find something to do. I discovered if I worked, I’d get a lot done.
I’m not suggesting you need to take a year off drinking in order to wake up early (that’s also pretty extreme!). I’ve started drinking again, but because I experienced how effective mornings were for doing great work, I kept the habit.
More recently, I turned to mornings again -
When I was working at Airbnb, I was leading a big global project on a tight deadline, together with many different cross-functional people and teams. I was traveling to San Francisco fairly often to work with those teams, and I was sometimes having up to 12 meetings a day (!).
With that sort of schedule, it was almost impossible to do the important individual-contributor work I also had to do during the day. Once I got into the office, it was all over with meetings, follow ups, emails to reply to, new challenges popping, Slack chats etc.
Getting up early meant I could do my big tasks in the morning, then be fully prepared and present for the many meetings that followed.
An added bonus was I got to see sunrises like this in SF:
How To Make Mornings Work For You
Go to bed earlier - the easiest way to wake up earlier is to go to bed earlier (duh!). When I want to wake up early, I try to be in bed by 10:30pm and ideally asleep before 11. This makes it pretty easy for me to wake up at 6:30am or 7am the next day.
This takes some time to adjust to if you’re a night owl, so go to bed earlier gradually.
If you’re having trouble sleeping earlier, try Get Sleepy.
I also find I sleep much better after exercising.
Prepare the night before - spend a few minutes making a to-do list the night before. A bonus of this is that your brain processes while you sleep. I often find I wake up with brand new ideas and inspiration in the morning from doing this.
I make a simple to-do list the night before using the One Big Thing app.
Get up straight away - snoozing kills (not really, but it’s not good). If I fall back asleep and wake up later, I find I’m more tired than I was when I first woke up, and with much less motivation.
If you’re having trouble getting up - natural light and fresh air are your friends - so open up your curtains and a window.
If you’re like me a coffee first thing also helps! ☕️
Start on paper - start by writing down your task, or the big ideas, on paper. Why? If you open up your laptop first thing, chances are (if you’re like me) you’ll have a bunch of tabs open from the night before. You can easily get side-tracked and pulled off your big task by this.
I leave a notepad and pen on my bedside table to use in the morning.
Don’t check email, Social Media or news - to get the most out of this precious time, you need to make a concerted effort not to check your phone. I find emails and Social Media especially scatter my attention and snap me of flow. I try not to check emails until at least 10am (and ideally later).
Do meetings after lunch - I try not to schedule any calls or meetings before lunch time. I make my mornings about deep and important work, and afternoons for meetings and other manager (vs maker) tasks - emails, follow ups, chats etc.
What’s your best productivity ‘hack’?
Cheers,
Dan 🤘