We hope you have enjoyed your Easter time 🐰🐣🐥 and now that the lighter spring mornings are here, perhaps you’re ready to take advantage of the extra daylight with a little challenge?
Here’s a brilliant Guest Post from Lauren Taylor to kick off the 4 day work week this week…..all about her experiences of The 5am Challenge.
Have a great week!
Tuesday 29th March, 7.06pm. I receive a WhatsApp message from my friend Laura:
‘Mate, do you wanna join a challenge with me? 5am Club next week.’
And so it began.
The rules of the 5am Club Challenge were simple: between Monday 4th – Friday 8th April wake up every day at or before 5am, text or connect via social media with your fellow 5am clubbers to hold each other accountable and use the time to get a head start on work, go to the gym, practice mindfulness or simply be still.
I am excited to say we completed the challenge and I genuinely found it one of the best things I’ve done in a long time! Here’s my reflections:
- Time felt like a gift. I usually get up between 6am and 7am, so setting an intention to get up at 5am meant that I went in to the whole week feeling really joyful about the fact that I had ‘extra time’ coming my way. It made me relax about days when I had early morning work calls scheduled (a Zoom call starting at 7.30am? I’ll have been up for 2.5 hours already!) and I worried less about personal admin tasks I was behind with as I knew I would get to them during 5am Club.
- Dedicating time to me, not work, felt better. I confess – on the first day I pretty much logged straight on to my laptop and starting getting through emails. In some ways this was helpful – and certainly not against the challenge rules – but we made a decision that we wanted to use our challenge week to do more than simply extend our working days. From Tuesday onwards, personal tasks, yoga classes, walks, reading and leisurely breakfasts took precedence. And actually having a decent amount of time and space before starting work meant that I felt much more energised when I did begin my working day.
- Wake Up Fast. At this time of year in the UK, it’s still dark at 5am and the temptation can be pretty strong to stay in bed. We found the key was to get out of bed quickly – no snoozing! ‘Lights on, coffee on’ became our motto for the week and it really does work.
So how does this story finish? Well, by the end of the challenge week I had done more exercise than I’d done in a long time, I had finished my new book, ticked off lots of personal admin tasks from my to-do list, was getting better quality sleep and had more energy.
We’re planning to do a 5am Club week at least once a quarter. I am not sure if doing it every day would be sustainable for me and I think having it as an exception rather than the rule means that you set a different intention for that time. The next time we do 5am Club, the sun will be up by 5am so early morning paddleboarding is on our agenda, which I’m excited about.
I honestly cannot recommend 5am Club enough. Give yourselves the gift of time! And remember, wake up fast 😊
Lauren x
Responses
Turns out I tried the 5am club by accident! Sharing a room in London with a mate just landed from Oz, I chummed her jet lag and we were out most days by 0530. It feels like you have a secret when you’re out & about before everyone else with the sunrise, noticing things about the city that disappear with bustle. Inexplicably gratifying.
Accidentally being up at 0530 seems totally acceptable to me. And when I do get up and out before anyone else, I love the newness of the day. It’s like walking on sand when the tide has just gone out, and being the first to leave a footprint. Weird that the world seems so different when it has a few more humans bustling about in it.
Love this Lauren! I am a huge fan of the Miracle morning myself and loved getting up early to start the day off right!!! Unfortunately, my baby has made me a little more tired lol (I could do with a few more hours ha ha!) but I have since restarted and earlier wake up using the Wim Hof Breathing method and gratitude journal to kick start my day! Loved this blog, thanks for sharing and inspiring me to get my morning routines sorted again 😀
Yep love getting up at 5am. Been doing this for the last couple of years.
I discovered the 5am club a couple of years ago and I have been getting up at 5am since then. I love it, the serenity, peace and being totally by myself is such a gift to me. I do enjoy the lighter mornings (which of course is now not happening as winter approaches) as the birds start singing and I can get out walking in the light rather than the darkness. Early is definitely good for me.
@joanne_young I simply can’t do it!!! I’ve tried. I often wake up at that time in the morning, and I snuggle back down. Maybe I should experiment a little?