…is almost second nature to me. Even on week-ends or similar, my body likes to be awake by sunrise. Maybe my schedule will switch because of circumstances or the MBA. But fundamentally, when I am on my own I am awake pretty soon, and without any caffeine.

For those of you who find waking up challenging, maybe this article on How to Become an Early Riser can be very useful.

The executive summary

The optimal solution for me has been to combine both approaches. It’s very simple, and many early risers do this without even thinking about it, but it was a mental breakthrough for me nonetheless. The solution was to go to bed when I’m sleepy (and only when I’m sleepy) and get up with an alarm clock at a fixed time (7 days per week). So I always get up at the same time (in my case 5am), but I go to bed at different times every night.

As Paul Getty put it

“My formula for success is rise early, work late, and strike oil”

Now, I just have to strike oil…