How to get an extra hour a day

Imagine you could get an extra hour every day. That means 365 hours a year. 365 hours is like 45 eight-hour work days. Wow.

I’ll start with a success story. Over a month ago, I read something very interesting about how to sleep properly. I used to have problems getting out of bed at 7am. I used to have those mornings when I felt like half asleep zombie for several hours after getting up. Now I have no problems waking up at 6:45, sometimes I even wake up earlier without the alarm clock. Oh, and I also started going to bed later (usually shortly after midnight but it really depends on when I start feeling tired).

Out of the last 8 days, I went jogging in the early morning 7 times. Today I woke up at 6:42, three minutes before my alarm would go off. It’s Saturday 7:37am and I just came back from my half an hour of jogging. I had a shower and am enjoying my breakfast, while all of you are asleep. ;) These long weekends are amazing – it really is a measurable difference.

Here are the keys (more or less sorted by importance):

• get up at a regular time (yes, that includes weekends), go to sleep when you get tired (no earlier and no later)
• get enough sunshine and natural daylight during the day (bulbs will not cut it, you need real light)
• every day, do at least 20 minutes of increased physical activity such as running (most effective in the morning)
• drink a lot of pure water (it’s also generally good for your health)
• if you feel like taking a nap after lunch, do so (limit it to 20-30 minutes), naps are good for you
• never ever take sleeping pills (important, but rather common sense, isn’t it?), don’t drink coffee or overeat yourself before going to sleep

When I was starting with this I was called gullible. What is worse – I was called gullible by someone who believes in a three-in-one god that is supposedly omnipotent and sent his only son (who was actually one of the three) to save the mankind by dying on a cross in huge pain. Crazy stuff.