You probably think that as an entrepreneur, what time you pull your tail out of bed and make your way into the office is irrelevant. You don’t need to be an early morning riser. Right?

Google waits for no one.

The internet is a 24/7 finely tuned, well-oiled machine that isn’t going to be stopped. So why not go into the office at 9 AM like every other business owner? Why not after lunch?

As an entrepreneur, it’s your business. You can do whatever you want.

However, if you’re looking to optimize for search engines and your own success, being an early morning riser has its benefits.

Keep reading to find out exactly what they are.

7 Ways the Early Morning Riser is Better Equipped for the Day

1. You Have the Tools to Deal With Negativity

How often do you lose sleep over your startup? Issues with employees or funding can keep you up at night.

Being able to properly wind down and hit the sack at a decent hour will have you waking up and feeling refreshed. Not only that, you will feel “armored” and more prepared for what lied ahead.

Not receiving enough sleep makes you more vulnerable to daily work place negativity and decreases your problem-solving skills. Becoming an early morning riser might not fix every issue that you’re currently having, but it’s going to get your day started on the best possible foot

Becoming an early morning riser might not fix every issue that you’re currently having, but it’s going to get your day started on the best possible foot.

2. Access to a Crystal Ball

Watch the most successful people in the world work. It seems like they have the answers in their head all the time.

Whenever something pops up, boom! They’re right there with a solution.

Maybe they’re just really intelligent. Maybe they have decades of experience. And while both of these are probably factors, successful people who are early morning risers do something with their extra time.

One of those things is reflection. They practice self-reflection and they think about the overall health of their company. They think about what happened yesterday and last week and how they can repeat success and fix their failures.

When you’ve been guilty of not getting enough sleep or sleeping in, how often do you find yourself staring at a monitor with a “cloudy” head?

If you’re trying to get your start-up off the ground, how can you expect to get your positioning right if you can’t handle small problems at your work station?

Consider this: If you had an extra hour to think every morning, how many more problems could you solve throughout the day? How much faster would you be able to solve them?

Joining the early morning riser tribe is starting to sound interesting, isn’t it?

3. Lay Off the Booze

Sure. We get it. You own your own start-up.

Any time you’re in a room with other experts in your field, you know you’re one of the best.

So you go out. You enjoy everything that San Fran night life has to offer.

And why not? You’re a Silicon Valley rock star. You’re young and YOLO.

This is the mindset of an entrepreneur who is destined to fail. That’s fine. Failure is usually a part of success.

Half of all businesses will fail within the first five years.

Of the half that ends up being successful, how many have owners who go out and party on a regular basis?

How many are climbing into bed at 10 PM every night with a millionaire mindset?

4. Eat a Substantial Breakfast

Focus on foods that improve…well…your focus.

Here are some examples of a great, balanced way to start you your work day:

• Avacado toast with orange juice and a side of bacon.
• Eggs, oatmeal, with a blueberry-OJ smoothie.
• Leftover broccoli casserole, whole fruit, and green tea.

Mix up your fats with your veggies and fruits. Without the fat, your blood sugar will spike and you’ll crash before lunch time.

The most successful people aren’t just happy, they’re healthy. A balanced diet is part of a balanced life. Eat foods that maximize your concentration.

Keep nuts and dark chocolate handy to snack on when you’re too busy to take a meal break. Stop drinking sugar-packed pseudo coffee beverages from convenience stores.

Lay off fruit juices. These products do not contain the fiber of whole fruits, which helps to maintain a steady blood sugar level.

Without a proper diet, being an early morning riser won’t be enough. You need to maintain your energy levels throughout the day.

5. You Need the Me Time

No one ever said that creating a startup was going to be easy. However, you still need to dedicate some time to you, for you. The best time to do this?

While everyone else is asleep.

The most successful people in the world are early morning risers. Their reasons for this vary, but some of the most popular are:

1. Scoping out international markets.
2. Replying to and writing emails.
3. Working out.
4. Meditation.
5. Reading.
6. Spending time with family.

Yes. The last one threw us off, too. The wealthiest and busiest people in the world are waking up at 4 AM to get a jump on the day, but it’s not just to work.

Most of them carve out a portion of the morning for me time as well as eating or spending time with their family or spouse.

This, ladies and gentleman, is the very definition of work-life balance.

Not everyone who is successful or wealthy is an early morning riser who wakes up several hours before dawn.

When you’re as wealthy as Warren Buffet, you can wait until 6:45 to wake up, like he does. The multi-billionaire loves his me time, spending 80% of his day reading.

6. Enjoy the Silence

Ever notice how much faster you get in and out of the city when the majority of the inhabitants are still asleep?

Waking up and going to the office early will cut down on your total commute time. No traffic jams. No pedestrians jumping out in front of your car.

You will find yourself inside of an empty office. The only sounds will be the ones that you make.

Sounds lovely, doesn’t it? Take the time to enjoy it. In a couple of hours, it won’t be silent anymore.

According to this article, “noise pollution” does more damage than previously thought, contributing to stress and the physical ailments that are commonly associated with it.

7. Reduce Your Stress

You need to be at the office by 9 AM. You wake up at 8 AM. By the time you shower and dress, you need to leave the house.

There’s no time for breakfast or anything other than grabbing the bare essentials to get you through the day.

Isn’t running a startup enough stress? Why start every day off like this?

Getting plenty of rest and waking up early not only relieves stress but elevates your mood, helping to keep daily stressors from unnecessarily piling up.

Not getting enough sleep and waking up too late will not only start that particular day off on the wrong foot, but it will have a snowball effect. You’ll be stressed at work and then won’t be able to sleep.

You’ll end up sleeping late again and the cycle repeats itself. By the end of the week, your entire body is one giant ball of tension that’s ready to explode all over the next person who has a problem.

Or worse…a client.

First Half Wrap

By now, you’ve probably noticed that there is a direct correlation between being successful and waking up early. Not only that but physical and mental health, as well as happiness, all seem to stem from being an early riser.

Surely, at this point in your career, you’ve heard the term “set yourself up for success”. This is what being an early morning riser does for you. If you have your own business, then you’re also setting up your business for success.

How to Fly Like the Early Birds

“Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” – Ben Franklin (Up at 5 AM every morning)

We’ve convinced you that to take your start-up to the next level, you need to start waking up early and tackling your day before everyone else. This goes for your employees and your clients.

You’re a go-getter entrepreneur and it’s time for you to start proving that to the world.

5 Tips to Becoming an Early Morning Riser

1. Make a Schedule

Your company is your life. You make the rules and the decisions. Now it’s time for you to decide when you’re going to bed.

Wanting to squeeze every ounce out of every day is awesome. Remember, adult bodies need at least seven hours of sleep to be able to function at maximum efficiency.

So let’s plan for that. If you want to be awake at 5 AM, plan to go to bed by 10 PM. If waking up at 6 AM works fine for you and your schedule, then be in bed by not later than 11 PM.

Now you have a goal to shoot for. How do we make this happen?

2. Baby Step Back Track

For argument’s sake, we’re going to say that you go to bed at 2 AM every night, sometimes even later on the weekends, and you sleep until whenever you feel like waking up. Maybe you don’t stumble into the office until ten or eleven every morning.

But you’re ready for that to change. Using the baby step back track method, we’re going to turn you into a lean, mean, early morning riser machine.

Crank back your bed and wake up time by fifteen minutes. The next night, crank it back another fifteen.

In the event that you feel you have cut too much, go back to a slightly uncomfortable level until you’re comfortable waking up at that time. Then start to chip away fifteen minutes at a time until you run into another problem.

Using this method, you should be able to transform yourself into an early morning riser within 90 days, or less time.

3. Remove Distractions

LED lights not only distract you, but they can also be a factor in keeping you from getting to sleep. This includes your phone and laptop. “Blue light makes the brain think it’s time to wake up, just as you’re getting ready for bed.” Read more: How Smartphones Hurt Sleep

If an hour of Netflix is keeping you from becoming an early morning riser, then make the cut and save it for some time in the morning or in the evening.

Humans sleep better when we’re in complete darkness and in cool (60-69) degree rooms. Do you need help to reduce nighttime phone anxiety? Read this Harvard Business Review article.

4. The Skinny on Alarm Clocks

These play a huge factor in whether or not you “wake up on the wrong side of the bed”. There are multiple reasons as to why.

First, waking up every day to a sound that you despise is going to start off your day in a sour mood. The purpose of becoming an early morning riser is to start you off in a positive mindset.

Switch your alarm to a sound that’s pleasant but still wakes you up. If you start to hate it, change it up again.

Keep your alarm clock or phone in a place that forces you to physically remove yourself from the bed. This will remove the temptation to hit the snooze button.

Once you’re vertical and you had to move around to stop the alarm, you will be getting enough blood flow throughout your body to realize that it’s time to get up and stay up.

5. Reward Yourself

With me time! What greater gift could you possibly give yourself?

You’re awake, you’re feeling great, go for a workout. Or read. Meditate. Every extra minute that you wake up early is a minute you can use for personal or professional gain. Make them count.

Second Half Wrap

Now you’re completely aware of the benefits of becoming an early riser and how to make it happen. Here are 21 successful people who wake up early.

You no longer have any excuses. You will thank yourself in the long run. Making this adjustment will not only improve your sleep but your personal and professional life and can it can extend your lifespan.

If you’re ready to get out of bed and next-level your startup, contact us today. We can help.