Waking up at 6:30

Day 33: It’s DK30 review day. Woke up early at 5:00 to catch it.

Day 32: Went running yesterday and felt really good. Went to bed properly at 10:30 last night and woke up at 6:30 this morning.

Day 31: Because I didn’t have work today, to celebrate the end of the DK30 I lived like a degenerate. I went to bed late and didn’t set an alarm in the morning. It felt great. I’ll be continuing my normal routine tomorrow.

Summary of the project: This DK30 was pretty fun for me. It was a great way to challenge myself to set bedtimes and morning alarms. As a student, I would always push my sleep to the limits and have some terrible mornings. I don’t think I had a single awful morning in the last 30 day. Some mornings were slower than others and I even slept in on some of my days off, but it was never difficult to go to work. I’d still give myself a passing grade.

Into the future: It’s pretty obvious after looking at my charts where my weakness lies. Weekend and Monday mornings were bad almost every week. Saturdays were typically fine as I often had to wake up early to go skiing. I’d then come home and stay up too late and sleep in on Sunday. Then I’d feel like I lost some free time so I’d stay up late again Sunday night and sleep in on Monday mornings. To remedy this issue I think I should give myself a pre-planned, single day a weekend to sleep in. It can be either Saturday or Sunday. I would give myself the condition to choose by Friday which day I want to sleep in a bit. A day off schedule would also allow me to go out every once in a while with friends. It’s a bit rough to ask people to plan around me falling asleep at 10:30. Overal I’m very happy with the results. I think I’ll try to keep track of my sleep for a bit longer, even without it being a DK30. As the weather gets nicer I’ll have to start running again and this project would be a great way to ensure I have the time in the mornings.

Day 30: Hooray! That 30 days of tracking my sleep schedule! Last night I went to bed around 11 and there was a huge storm that kept me awake for a little bit. It was a blast to watch all the lightning though. I woke up properly at 6:30, made some tea, and ate some peanut butter and apples for breakfast.

Day 29: Because I have the morning off I stayed in bed a bit and ended up falling back asleep for an hour or so. I’ll grade this as a fail as the self control was not present today. Tomorrow will be the 30th morning of my DK30. I’ll write a summary of my thoughts and how to proceed in the future with that update.

Day 28: Started a new calendar page for March. As for my sleeping I stayed up a bit late last night trying to finish a boss in Elden Ring so I stayed in bed this morning until 8. It felt great. If I wish to continue my adventure of waking up daily at 6:30 I should think about how to incorperate days off for late nights. I did laundry this morning as well.

Day 27: Friday night I stayed up a bit to play some Elden RIng. Got up properly at 6:30 to eat a good breakfast and watch some Purge playing Dota. Was a good Saturday.

Day 26: Went to bed very tired last night. I even went to bed an hour early and was still pretty tired when I got up at 6:30. I’m really looking forward to the weekend. Luckily, I have the morning off today so I can go in around lunch time.

Day 25: It’s a good thing I’m tracking ‘6:30’ A.M. and not 10:30 P.M. because a lot more of my calendar would be red. My night-time goal of 10:30 definietly gives me some leeway as I don’t really need 8 hours, but it’s about setting the goal and I’m not doing well with my self control.

Day 24: Went to bed a bit late last night as I’ve been reading pretty fun story. I’ve identified a weak spot in my ability to say no to reading. I woke up fine this morning though. Sadly I ran out of breakfast materials so I’ll need to go shopping.

Day 23: All is going well today. I properly went to bed at 10:30 last night and woke up quite rested this morning. I’ll check to weather forcast to try to get a run in soon.

Day 22: I had a wonderful dinner last night with some friends and I came home very tired and a bit late. By the time I could start reading in bed it was already 10:00 and I read until my eyes became heavy which was around 11:00. Unfortunately, this morning I hit the snooze button and stayed in bed for a little while longer. I’d like to avoid doing so again in the future.

Week 4 starts now and I think I’ve done well so far. Waking up at 6:30 has been pretty fulfilling even though I don’t do much in this time. It’s nice to 100% of the time have breakfast or a small tea. It removes the rush of the mornings. As for this week’s goal I’d like to go running at least once and start shifting into a Spring schedule, weather permitting.

Day 21: I went to bed a bit late tonight as I was enjoying my book and it’s the weekend, but I was still able to get up at 6:30. I’ll probably be able to take a quick mid-day nap around lunch time. Today should be a nice, relaxing day.

Day 20: Feeling good this morning. Read a bit last night, but and again this morning after waking up. Taking a nice relaxing weekend.

Day 19: I’m waking up at 6:30 all right, but due to the fact that I’m going to sleep a little later than I would like getting up has been a bit of a slog. I really should be sleeping at 10:30. I have a bad track record with weekends, but we’ll see how this one goes.

Day 18: Went to bed at 11:00 again. I’m losing track of time a bit. I must be careful of starting movies and such after 8:00.

Day 17: Went to bed a little late last night. Pushed it to 11:00 while reading. I’ll be more careful tonight. I really do want to have lights off by 10:30 to get those sweet 8 hours.

Day 16: Got up nice and easily this morning. Collected all the trash in the house for trashday. Feeling pretty good this morning.

Day 15: Behold! Orange! I made a new color as I think my way though this project. I had an international call last night so I didn’t get to sleep until Midnight. You bet your butt I’m gonna take my extra hour of sleep in the morning before going off to work. Last night, especially, me realize this project is more about setting up good habits at night SO I can wake up at 6:30. Sometimes that’s out of my control, but I should set up a routine for the majority of nights.

Day 14: Woke up a bit early, but stayed in bed for most of the morning relaxing and reading. Can’t really call this a green day, but it felt great. Starting Week 3 now, I think my biggest difficulty is finding things to do in my extra time. I didn’t start this challenge with anything specific in mind, but I’ve formed some habits, such as watching twitch, that may be counter-productive to building into something.

Day 13: Got up at 6:00 today to go skiing. The weather was beautiful, but the slopes were a bit crowded.

Day 12: Feeling good this morning. Looking forward to this weekend. I plan to go skiing with some friends. It’ll also have me waking up around 6 tomorrow.

Day 11: Woke up normally today. I have really been a bit reckless with my bed time. I should establish a more stable routine at night. I recently finished my book so I’m not reading paper at night. I should buy a new one.

Day 10: Welp… Today was my first downright fail. I just slept on through to 8:30. I stayed up a bit too late reading and today is a holiday so I made little effort to ensure my success. I can scapegoat my booster probably, but if I prepared properly then I should have just put down my media earlier in the night. I certainly was very tired when I finally turned my lights off. Let’s try better next time!

Day 9: Still sore from my booster, but feeling much better overall. Able to make some breakfast and go to work today.

Day 8: Still feeling the pain with the booster. Body pretty sore and recovering from a slight fever. Taking the day off work.

Day 7: Got my covid booster and it’s floored me a bit. Had a rough night of sleep and I’m still quite sore. I did wake up at 6:30, but happily stayed in bed and went back to sleep for a little while longer. I’m sure I’ll be taking a nap around mid day.

Day 6: I stayed up talking to a friend last night until 23:00. Waking up at 6:30 on a Saturday proved hard. This morning taught me that I really need to keep a leash on my bed time.

Day: 5 A bit tired this morning due to taking a bit longer to sleep.

Day 4: still getting up at 6:30 fairly easily. I suspect Tomorrow will be a bit more difficult as Total War Warhammer 3 comes out today. I also didn’t sleep very well last night.

Day 3: Uploaded a basic calendar with Green for successfully got up at 6:30. Underneath is a basic outline of what I did in that time. Thanks to Misky and Bootleg Furiosa on discord for the upload help!

Two days in so far so good. Setting up an excel table to track success and morning activites.