Incremental changes -> exponential shifts

2 → 3

Just an incremental change of 1.

But incremental changes can cause exponential shifts.

Especially when the unit of measure I’m talking about is kids. 

Holy cow. Life has certainly changed in the last 2 months since the arrival of my son Cohen.

There’s been amazing parts and there’s been non-amazing parts.

Amazing parts

• Feeling the love in my heart expand with the addition of child #3. Just when I thought it was impossible to love anymore, I saw that little face in the doctor’s arms and my heart did that Grinch-style, 3x-enlargement thing.

• Seeing how much the other 2 kids love the baby. It’s a beautiful thing.

Non-amazing parts

• My sleep-life and productivity has fallen into utter shambles.

Pre-baby #3, my middle child had been sleeping through the night for about a year, and I was getting this amazing, rejuvenating 8 hours/night.

Heavenly. And, I was productive! I could get up at 7, and still get 2 hours of side work before my 9-5, no problem.

Now, I’m lucky if I get 5. And, I’m slipping on getting stuff done. Between client work, social media posting, writing daily emails, and my day job, the lack of sleep/lack of focused work in the morning is catching up to me.

Don’t get me wrong. I am incredibly thankful for our growing family and wouldn’t trade this time for anything. 

But, I do need to figure out a way to both get more sleep, and get up earlier to get more done.

The productivity sweet spot for me is 2 hours in the morning before everyone else gets up. 5-7 AM is the golden hour. 

As a night owl, this is a tall order. So, recently I’ve gone down the “how to become a morning person” rabbit hole. 

And, I’ve found a strategy that I’m going to implement. I’ll share it with you in case it’s something y’all have also struggled with.

The strategy

1. Start small 

   • I’m going to start going to bed 30 minutes earlier (as the baby allows). And then wake up 30 minutes earlier until I get to my ideal time.

   • Since I’m getting up at 7 typically, it’ll take a week or 2 of working my way down to 5. 

2. Spike adrenaline

   • Doing some exercise immediately spikes adrenaline and makes you wake up faster. 

   • I’m going to do 20 pushups immediately after my alarm goes off. Should do the trick. 

3. Eat within 30 minutes

   • This kickstarts metabolism and helps the circadian rhythm reset.

   • Also, it will give me something to keep me awake right after the pushups.

4. Write immediately

   • I’m most creative in the morning. So, writing this daily email in the 20-30 minutes after eating will be my goal.

As with any new lifestyle change, I’ll do this for 3 weeks consistently as a starting goal. If I can do it for 3 weeks I can do it forever. 

And I can definitely do it for 3 weeks.

Once it’s a habit, I’ll stack on other habits like prayer/meditation and morning walks. But starting small for now.

I’ll let you guys know how it’s going!

Here’s a picture of me and the little sleep stealer playing music last night.

Swanagan “this beard makes me look 15 years older” Ray

P.S., If y’all have any early bird tips, let me know!