Will the 5am Club change your life?

Are you waking up at 5am to ‘crush it’ everyday?

Why not – what’s wrong with you?

There’s a lot of worthless advice on LinkedIn, from business storytellers cum TEDx speakers (#OpenToWork) explaining how to synergise data architecture to optimise climate justice, to marketing scientists who built a career eschewing orthodoxy publicly belittling you for posting insights without the ‘right’ academic credentials (how else am I supposed to grow my brand, Byron?).

But the 5am start trend – also known as the 5am Club – seems quite sensible. If you wake up earlier, you have more time to work. And who doesn’t want to work more?

So I gave it a try.

Monday 18^th November: Last night, I tucked myself into bed, grimaced and set my alarm for 5:00am. I found it quite easy to get out of bed when I awoke, at 7:30. I have no idea what happened. Living with my wife and toddler (to be clear, two different people), I can’t set a proper alarm with bells and whistles, so I have to rely on a vibrating watch. Perhaps I didn’t feel it vibrating; perhaps I unthinkingly mashed the button to dismiss it in my slumber. Subsequently, I went to the gym and did some admin work throughout the day; my mood and energy levels were good.

Tuesday 19^th November: Last night I got some personally unsettling news. I was exhausted, so I didn’t bother setting my alarm. I deserved a snooze – the mornings are so dark nowadays, aren’t they? During the day, I went into town for a meeting and had a poke bowl for lunch. My mood was good again. I ate an entire box of chocolates after dinner.

Wednesday 20^th November: I didn’t set an alarm last night. I didn’t have any meetings in the morning – I wanted to take the rare chance for a lie-in. My alarm went off at 6:15am nevertheless, since I forgot to switch it off, and I scrambled out of bed to silence it before it woke my son. I felt groggy for the rest of the day, probably on account of all the chocolate last night.

Thursday 21^st November: I spent the night tossing and turning after I thought I found a lump on my testicle. I do actually wake up around 5am, since I can’t sleep. I spend two hours on my phone and ooze out of bed, depressed. My wife and I go to an event in the evening. Thanks to cows on the line, we get home about midnight and watch Married at First Sight for another ninety minutes.

Friday 22^nd November: I wake up at eight feeling so groggy I’m almost hungover, and go straight onto my laptop. Not a super productive day, if I’m honest.

In summary, I didn’t notice any differences to my mood or productivity from the 5am Club and would rate it a 2/10.