5 AM alarms — Being an early bird

Abhijith Vinod
2 min readAug 20, 2024

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“The first minute of action is worth more than a year of perfect planning.” — James Clear.

People tend to set short-term and long-term goals in life. They can be as simple as setting up recurring 𝟱 𝗔𝗠 𝗮𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗺𝘀 on your phone.

There are four different reactions to a blaring 5 AM alarm:

⏰ Turn the alarm off, get up, and start the day.
⏰ Turn the alarm off and resume sleeping.
⏰ Snooze the alarm (it’s an endless process).
⏰ Turn the alarm off, and never set it for 5 AM again!

If you find a missing reaction, it would be not hearing the alarm in the first place!

Being a legendary snooze fan and a nocturnal owl for ages, I transitioned into an early bird with just two simple steps that I followed right after turning my 5 AM alarms off:

1️⃣ 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺 𝗮 𝟱-𝗺𝗶𝗻𝘂𝘁𝗲 𝘁𝗮𝘀𝗸 — It could be anything that you would find enjoyable. Some days, I would learn five new words, write four long sentences in my journal, or do 20 pushups. I kept altering my 5-minute task to make it more interesting.

2️⃣ 𝗘𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺 — A reward may come in the form of an episode of your favorite TV show or even a beverage you like. My reward was an anime episode, and it felt like I earned it because of my effort in embracing 5 AM every day.

To top it off, I joined a fitness program with 6 AM training lessons. These helped me continue the streak for three decent months until I got hit with the flu for ten days.

I missed the gym for 15 days but soon returned to my routine with the two steps. It might seem challenging, but trust me — eventually, you will flow with it.

How do you tackle your 5 AM alarms?

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Abhijith Vinod
Abhijith Vinod

Written by Abhijith Vinod

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