Open top menu
Sunday, June 28, 2009
6 Lessons I learned from waking up early

I apologize for not updating my blog this week. I was a bit occupied lately with my work-life and I was very much focused on my 30-day challenge. A couple of people already told me personally they've recommended my blog to their friends and for that I want to thank you (you know who you are). If you want to comment please comment on the article or send me a mailjoseph.librero@gmail.com. So how was I in my 30-day challenge? Right now I voluntarily wake up between 4AM to 5AM with the exception of today where I woke up at 7.30AM. :( I was not able to sleep early last night causing on an adjustment in my waking time. So what did I learn so far in this experience?








1. Don't sleep late.

If you are an early riser then you probably know this already. Rising early does not mean you need to deprive yourself with sleep. I used to sleep late and try to wake up early and I realized that I cannot keep this kind of lifestyle because it is taking away my productivity and creativity. A restless body creates less than a well-rested one. While it's true that you can function with little sleep but I am pretty sure it's hard to perform at a hundred percent if you don't have enough rest.










2. If you think you are awake don't roll back to sleep - stand up instead.

One of the mistakes we can make in our quest to wake up early is to roll back to sleep when we are about to wake up. This will cause us to fall back to sleep and ultimately make our goal. I know this because I just did it today.:) Also if you are using your internal body clock to wake up, doing this will callous the judgment of your brain causing you repeat the process the next day until you will lose interest in pursuing your goal.




3. Be more focused as the weeks go by.

Within the days of the first week of starting any habit or goal our body gets excited with our mind and everything seems to be "in the flow". Meaning our body will cooperate with the mind and soul so the triumvirate you are working as one so everything is easy as a pie. But after about a week one of them seems to lose track and doing it seems to be a chore. In my case I need to remind myself of my goal and the reason why I'm doing it and that there are people out there who is reading and will be reading my blog who is looking out for me to succeed.:)









4. Get ready for some paradigm-shift.Developing a new habit is not easy if you do not change your frame of mind. If you maintain the thought that waking up is hard then it's almost a guarantee that it will not be long until you will go back to your old self. In life it is the same, you need to change your paradigm (internally) before your body (the externally) will truly change.In my case I have to be convinced that if I have to grow I have to wake up early and I have to change the way I think about waking up. I have to be excited about waking up early instead of doing it as a chore.


5. How are the other "ducks" doing?
No habit is stand-alone. It means that if you try to make a part of you better other parts has to adjust at least a bit. When we try to keep all the "ducks" in line we need to make sure the other "ducks", other aspects of your life, are moving with it as well. In my case, waking up early should mean I come to the office early, I get more things done, I get more things done early, I make decisions more effectively and etc. This should translate to me coming home early or delivering more and getting more things done .


I am aware that for some of you this is a piece of cake and some of the lessons I shared are no-brainer but for some of you who are struggling the way I did I hope you will get inspired and I hope I've triggered a part of you to be better. Probably the best lesson that I've learned so far in this quest to wake up early is that waking up early is way better than not waking up early or waking up late.




Read more
Thursday, June 18, 2009
I woke up at 6.30AM today!

Today, I was able to take a big step towards my personal goal which is to wake up at 4.30AM. Today I woke up at 6.30AM. You see I am not an early riser, normally I wake up at 9AM and rush for the office to beat the 10AM buzz. I feel embarrassed to say this but there are times when I get late in my 10AM meeting because of this. So I really took a bold step and make it one of my personal goal to wake up early and be productive. I don't want to be rush anymore. I don't want to be late anymore! I'm tired of not being able to eat breakfast just to report to the office at 10AM.

Sleepless in Ayala


Today, I don't have to rush anything. I prayed and listen to Hillsong music, read my Bible and then took a cold bath. I even cook for my breakfast a creamy omelet.:) On my way to the office I did not have to worry of traffic jams since at 8AM the traffic is very light. I came to the office feeling good that I am not late for any meeting and I can enjoy for myself a warm cup of coffee. Tomorrow I will do this again and again until I reach my 4.30AM goal.

An old adage goes "early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise." , so true. I hope you can join me in this challenge - to wake up early - to be healthy, wealthy, and wise.:)
Read more
Friday, June 12, 2009
Friday, June 05, 2009
Working on emptying my Inbox

What's in your Inbox right now? Mails? Do you know exactly what mails are there your in your Inbox? More importantly why are they still there? For future reference? You might need it in the future right? So when exactly do you need that information and more importantly are you sure you are going to find that information in your Inbox when the time comes that you might need it?

If you are like me, my Inbox contains information from previous projects, mails from my peers, meeting minutes, project specifications, some jokes, some thought-pondering messages, some errands I did in the past, some references, some undeleted FYI mails from management, etc etc etc. - unsorted, outdated, and maybe useless. I kept them for "future reference". I though that this is a good thing since I might need an information in the future so placing them in my Inbox is the best thing to do. This way IF the time comes that I need to get an information I can just go down to the search bar, type a word or words that I made as a mental bookmark for that email and then hit the search button. I should get that information right? In my experience this does not always work. Most of the time either "the time" never comes or when I hit the search button my "mental bookmark" is pointing to the wrong word.:) Most of the time I ended up asking for that information from other people.

I realized that my Inbox is full of mails mentally labeled - "I-don't-know-what-they-are". So feeling the lack of Inbox-management I decide to do the "radical" I scanned my Inbox and look at my mails. Then I created a folder called "Reference" in my mail application and drag all the references that I will (not might) need in the future. I also added an "Action" folder to place all my mail that requires me to take action. I also added an "Waiting for" for mails that I am waiting for a response. Then I marked the remaining mails and did the impossible (or so I thought) - hit the DELETE key. I watched as my Inbox shrunk from the tens of thousands to zero.

It was liberating.:) It was daring. Or was it stupid? :) Before I branded myself foolish for doing what I have not done in years, I began to recall what I learned from Getting Things Done (GTD) by David Allen and I tried to create a system in processing my Inbox.

These are GTD Inbox-processing questions when receiving a mail:
1. Is is actionable? If not ask #2.
2. Is it a reference? If yes, I place it in my reference folder if not I delete it.
3. If it's actionable, can I do it in one to two minutes? If yes, I do it immediately.
4. If it's not a doable in one to two minutes -> either I decide on the next actionable step or park it in my calendar if it's a scheduled task.

This process should get me the information organized and keep my Inbox clutter-free.


Read more