My 30-day trial of early rising and quitting caffeine is over. There is a lot of value in giving a new lifestyle change 30 days to evaluate. It gives a true picture of how the change will affect your life. After applying a change for 30 days, it becomes a habit. I intend to continue life as an early riser that does not drink caffeine.
My head feels a lot clearer without daily caffeine. It is not that I was walking around like a zombie all day before the trial. However, there is a noticeable difference in brain clarity. I find myself getting in productive zones of focus through my intention to do so. Pre-trial, I needed my 11am and 2pm double mochas to get truly clear-headed.
My days have a lot more productivity. I am not only referring to work. Getting up at 630am, I am able to spend one hour on my morning mental routines of meditation, affirmation, visualization, and neural reconditioning. Then I can grab a workout of some kind (most days), screw around on the internet, eat breakfast, hang with TheWife if she’s around, and it is only 10am after all of that time. Pre-trial I would wake up at 945am, work until lunch, and come home after lunch, find it to be 130pm, and I hadn’t done any of those things yet except jerk around on the internet. It is very gratifying to have workouts and all my mental mojo going before 10am.
Additionally, I am waking up before 7am whether I like it or not. If I have drank or ate like a pig the previous evening, I can go back to sleep until a little after 8am. But either way, I can’t sleep until 10am even if I want to, unless I was on a 3am bender. That only happened once on the trial. This appears to be a good thing.
I am no longer a slave to caffeine and will continue to avoid drinking it. Unless I feel like drinking it of course. This may sound like a cop-out. I had a mocha at Gallery Café while I was writing this. But I drank it because it sounded tasty and I had a headache, not because I needed any caffeine. I could re-name the “quitting caffeine” to “not being beholden to caffeine” and it would serve my point better. I no longer need or rely on it, but reserve the right to have a cappuccino on a hotel terrace in Italy and enjoy it.
One problem with the trial is that I can’t stay up as late as I used to. Caffeine early in the day continued to affect me late in the evening. Weeknights I have been in bed by midnight. I don’t like this. But the increased satisfaction at getting things done has kept me waking up early and will continue to so.
It was a major life change to commit to 30 days of early rising and quitting caffeine. I performed this trial during my destination wedding, moving buildings for the first time in 5 years, and 2 weeks on an overseas honeymoon. The changes have met my expectations and early rising with no caffeine is now a habit.
Scott,
I have to congratulate you. As a roommate of yours, I can personally attest to your crazy sleep habits and applaud you for getting up early for 30 days. I remember working at a construction job by 7:00AM, back by 2:00PM to go to classes and coming back at 5:00 PM to find you asleep and missing your work study job. We are not predetermined but a product of our choice and focus. Keep it up.
Posted by: Chris Makiej | October 31, 2008 at 02:48 PM