Seize The Mornings

One of the best ways to make progress towards your goals is by getting up early in the morning. Jocko Willink, a former Navy SEAL officer, is a big advocate for this. His Twitter feed is littered with photos of his watch at 4:30 am. He says that because no one is awake he can get things that are kind of selfish to him, like working out.

The lack of distractions are a big reason the mornings are great. There are no “urgent” emails that pop up in your inbox distracting you from work you want to do. Most people are asleep. The world is silent. In those quiet hours, you can focus.

Hemmingway in an interview said: “When I am working on a book or a story I write every morning as soon after first light as possible. There is no one to disturb you and it is cool or cold and you come to your work and warm as you write.”

Another reason is your willpower is pretty high after waking up. Imagine coming home from work, at around 6 pm in the winter only to realize that you still need to hit the gym. It’s going to be a difficult conversation with yourself to get yourself to go to the gym. Whereas early in the morning it’s much easier of a decision, you’re not tired, you’re mentally sharp. This is also the reason a lot of CEOs are up at 4:30 or 5 am. So they can start the day with what’s important to them.

Yet, getting up in the morning is hard sometimes. It certainly wasn’t easy for Marcus Aurelius. He had every excuse to not get up early, first he was the emperor of Rome and his word was the law, and second he suffered from insomnia. No one would be mad at him for sleeping in.

Yet he wrote this in Meditations, his private journal:

“At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: ‘I have to go to work - as a human being. What do I have to complain about, if I’m going to do what I was born for - the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?’

It’s nicer here….

So you were born to feel “nice”? Instead of doing things and experiencing them? Don’t you see the plants, the birds, the ants and spiders and bees going about their individual tasks, putting the world in order, as best they can? And you’re not willing to do your job as a human being? Why aren’t you running to do what your nature demands?

But we have to sleep sometime….

Agreed. But nature set a limit on that-as it did on eating and drinking. And you’re over the limit. You’ve had more than enough of that. But not of working. There you’re still below your quota.”

~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations Book 5:1

You need sleep, but you also need to get up and get some work done. This distraction-free time only comes to us once a day, it comes before the realities of life need to be dealt with. So get up early, do your job as a human being as Marcus urges, and use the time given to you.

What I've Watching This Week

Mentour Pilot. This is a YouTube channel that talks mostly about accidents that have occurred in the aviation industry. The videos almost feel like a documentary and everything is explained so that the average person can understand what's happening.

One of the fascinating things about the aviation industry I have noticed is how they conduct their post-mortems and the blameless nature of these incidents. Each incident has a detailed report on what happened and is always followed by next steps to ensure that kind of incident never happens again. It's this process that makes air travel safer than traveling in a car and I believe the software industry can learn a lot from the process.

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