Getting the jump

One thing that has been interesting about early to bed, early to rise is the psychological effect of having more time between when I get up and when my day starts. Nobody else schedules meetings at 6am, and even though I could start working as soon as I wake up, I normally start an hour or two after that.

But when you get up late, you sometimes don't get any time before things happen. The day has started without you, you've woken up 5 minutes before your meeting, something important is happening and you need to deal with it right now, quick, get going! These days are the worst, because you start behind and stay behind, and spend the rest of the day struggling to get back to zero.

Whereas when you start ahead, and you know you've got the jump on the day, you can relax a bit. There's plenty of time before the day starts, so what should that day contain? What would be a good use of that time? Can you prepare for anything you know is going to happen? Are there any problems you think will come up and is there anything you can do about them now?

Of course, this isn't so much about waking up as it is about preparation. Any time you go into a situation without having time to think about that situation, you're at a disadvantage. But what's interesting is that a day is a situation like any other, and you can't really prepare for it unless you have time to think before it starts.