The One Habit That Keeps Giving
April 25, 2022
🔥The One Habit That Keeps Giving
I’ve written about the power of habits before, and I have adopted several habits over the past year. No ONE Habit has made as big of a difference in my life as the habit of getting up early every morning. I must admit how powerful it is to get up early in the morning to start your day.
I fought this one for a long time. I am typically not a morning person. I love my sleep and I typically would try to get as much bedtime as possible in the morning until I finally realized that there was no way I was going to change my life unless I made some drastic changes. There was just too much I wanted to do and not enough time to get it all done. This forced me to make a change. I committed to getting up early every morning. It took a few weeks to get into it because the first couple of weeks was a lot of hitting the snooze button. (Ultimately that made the wake-up experience even worse because not only was I not getting a solid sleep, but I was also not getting anything done with that time). It was like I fell into a different dimension where nothing existed. No sleep and no productivity.
Once I got used to it, I found huge benefits in having an extra hour to myself. I soon thirsted for more and stepped my game up and started waking up 2 hours early every morning. I reflected on this in my latest YouTube video (which I encourage you to check out). If YouTube is not your thing, let me provide you with a summary of what I am able to do with 2 hours of extra time per day.
1. Have some quiet time to reflect
2. Read all my Readwise highlights for the day
3. Spend some time in my morning devotional and prayer
4. Get some quality time reading a book
5. Check my Twitter and interact with some Twitter friends.
6. Spend additional time listening to Podcasts if needed beyond what I listen to while walking the dog.
7. Spend some time learning topics of interest like coding, blockchain and data science.
The short of it is that by waking up early every morning I allow myself the time to focus on myself so that I can have time later to focus on work and everyone else. If you have not worked out some time on your schedule to focus on your interests and passions, I suggest that you start today.
🎥The Latest on my YouTube Channel
This week’s video discusses how I 10X’d My Productivity by waking up early every morning. It is worth a watch if you need some encouragement in finding time to pursue your passions and interests. You can check it out here:
🏆What I am learning
It was a tough week this week. My wife and I have been sick all week. It is not COVID, but it is a pretty bad flu or something so my time spent on learning has been a little limited. Here are the updates as to where things are:
🎓Computer Science
I am still working on Harvard University’s CS50’s Introduction to Computer Science Course. I am on week 5.
📊Data Science
Codecademy course in progress. Digging deep into Python right now.
🎬Film Making
This is one area where I spent the most time. I am working on improving my videos. I subscribed to Artlist.io for music and I am learning Premier Pro. All of my videos are still being done in Camtasia for now but I have a kind of shadowing thing going on in Premier Pro so I can get the hang of it. Tell me what you think about the latest video.
🚀Blockchain
I am still stuck on the Capstone Project Part of the Blockchain Academy Course through DAPP University. I hope to get back to it soon.
📖What I am reading
The Atomic Idea Framework : A Radically Simple Method to Become a Content Machine. I just started to dive in to it. It is a quick eBook so I plan on going through it this week and publishing my review soon. You can get yourself a copy on Gumroad. Here is the link: The Atomic Idea Framework : A Radically Simple Method to Become a Content Machine (gumroad.com)
🛠️Project Updates
⌨️Increasing my typing efficiency: What can I say about this one. It’s a challenge but I am working on it….STILL
❤️What I am loving
The Outlaws- This is a fun mini-series on Amazon Prime starring one of my favorite actors, Christopher Walken. It is about a diverse group of misfits from different backgrounds that all get into some legal trouble. Instead of going to jail, they all get sentenced to community service working on a project together. Their misadventures are carried out through the show as they build unlikely friendships and a strong bond. This series is fun and fresh while touching on some social prejudices in a light-hearted but entertaining manner. I would definitely recommend it.
📊Random Insights
Health: Our health has been at the top of my mind this week with my wife and I both sick. We both tested negative for COVID but the process of getting tested was terrifying. We are both vaccinated but with the virus still making its rounds and new breakthrough cases happening all the time we know that we are not out of the woods. The whole experience has us thankful for where we are but cautious for the future. We have been losing weight on our Keto diet but now we are looking to step it up a notch and get back to some form of exercise. Being healthy is a lifestyle that we all need to adopt. Hopefully you are practicing some form of healthy habits to keep you mentally and physically healthy.