How I did it: When I first heard about this concept it was in Benjamin Franklin's amazing book called 'Early Rising: A Natural, Social and Religious Duty'. =)

This was first published in 1856, so it's hardly a new problem to be able to wake up on time!

The thing is, in my opinion you should wake at the same time every single day of the week. If you're sleeping in on some days such as the weekend you're just asking to mess up your sleep patterns.

However, the time you go to bed can vary everyday. My philosophy is actually really simple. You go to sleep when you feel tired, not at any specific time.

That way your body adjusts to the new sleeping pattern and commands the right amount of sleep that you need. Meaning you eventually start getting the right amount of sleep.

If you're tired you'll go to sleep, if not you'll stay awake a little longer.

Not everyone needs the 8+ hours of sleep that we've been conditioned to believe since childhood. (Donald Trump sleeps 6 or less hours a night!)

But when you start listening to your body and sleeping when your body tells you to sleep and waking early you'll be getting the right amount of sleep.

But that's not all...

Waking up early continually means that you wake up in a positive frame of mind.

I remember what it used to be before I became an 'earlier riser'. I would go to sleep late after working half the night. Most of the time I would set my alarm and nearly sleep through it.

After I stumbled out of bed to turn it off, I would in my half asleep groggy state convince myself I can 'just close my eyes' , which of course lead to sleeping for another half and hour or more.

Finally... In a desperate rush to get out the door there would be a bunch of cursing, bumping into things and searching like a lunatic for that important document.

Certainly not the best way to start a day I'm sure. =)

In the book 'Outlier's' by Malcolm Gladwell the importance of a good start is very clearly outlined, whether that's something as big as a career or even as seemingly minuscule as the start of a day.

The moral of the story is it's very hard to have a productive day if you haven't started the right way!

However, compare that to when you have woken up early, sleeping only as much as your body needs you to...

You get out of bed and breath deeply. You look at the clock it's 4:30am and it's still dark outside. Everything seems more organized and peaceful. There's no explosions or chaos as everyone is still asleep.

You close your eyes and imagine how great your day is going to be, and you think about

You get some breakfast and have some quiet time to work. You find that you're exceptionally productive. There's no phone calls or co-worker making pathetic small talk about the latest office gossip. It's perfect.

Suddenly you've gotten more work done, and by the time everyone arrives to work at 9am you'll have gotten several hours of work done already. You'll have that winners edge that separates the successful from the rest and feel great!

People like Donald Trump, Tony Robbins and even some of the most powerful historical political figures such as Benjamin Franklin have worked a little harder than everyone else.

They've been a little bit more effective than everyone else in their industries for years and now they reap the massive rewards of it.

Sleep less and rise early. :)

Lessons & tips: - Try to get large amounts of sun exposure during the day and some form of exercise. This will help you sleep better and deal with mild insomnia.

- It'll take about a week or so to really get into you routine, so don't worry if it's hard for you at the start.

- Make sure you play a great song as your alarm clock.

- Don't jump out of bed straight away, take a few moments to breath deeply. It'll help you wake up.

- Use your new free time doing something you love so you want to get out of bed.

Resources: - Ipod
- Running Shoes
- Alarm Clock

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Sep 29, 09:44AM PDT | 0 comments | 3 cheers