Why I am an Early Riser
During most of my student years, I had great difficulty getting up in the morning. I worked until late at night, went to bed at 1 or 2 am, and needed gallons of coffee the next morning to get me anywhere.
That has changed dramatically. I now usually wake up at 6 am in the morning and really enjoy that quiet time to pray, to write and to think. I live on the upper floor of a rectory, and during the day there are a lot of meetings, phone calls and other activities going on in the parish quarters down the stairs. But between 6 - 9 am, all is quiet in the house.
I love listening to the sound of birds in the small backyard while sipping my cup of coffee, and I get a lot of work done in those few early hours. I especially love writing and praying when all is quiet - I get much more of that done than during the rest of the day!
Here are a few of my tips for rising early:
- Go to bed in time. Make sure you sleep around 8 hours in total. Resist the temptation to watch TV until you fall asleep.
- Be regular: set your alarm to 5 or 6 am, and always get up when it goes off. The more regular you are, the quicker your internal clock will adjust.
- Focus on the things you really want to do in those quiet moments, and don’t do anything else. Especially avoid reading email, browsing the internet or checking voicemail, because that will distract you and break your concentration.
- Always start with a prayer. Put the new new in God’s hands, ask him to help you do his will and give you the graces you need to accomplish it.
- Enjoy the silence. The rest of the day will be noisy enough. Leave the TV and radio switched off. The 2000 year old tradition of the Church has shown the incredible benefit of silence, not only spiritually, but also psychologically.
I always look forward to each new day thanks to these early, quiet hours in the morning. Even when I have a busy day ahead, full of work I might not always enjoy, these first hours make me start the day in a positive way.
Thanks Father Rod, for these tips. Lately I’ve been having a rough time getting up early and mostly sleep in. Why? Cause I’m retired and bored. I need something to motivate me. I wonder if I can get that motivation back I once had. These old 72 year old bones just don’t want to get going any more!
I find that too it is a great source of closeness to God and it help my day be more focussed on him.
I too am better worker in the morning my mind seems to shut down after lunch and I am sure I am not the only one!
The only problem I find is that I do not feel rested enough. My life is stressful and that effects your sleep pattern. Oh well!
Thanks a million for this. I am going to print it out. I just have to organise my day better. I let school (work) rules my life and then I am so tired that I don’t want to do much of anything else. I usually go to sleep around midnight.
I wake up at 5:45 and it takes an hour to arrive to work. Then, in the afternoon, it takes 1:15 to come back. I end up dead tried with my Kindergarten children. I enjoy it, but they are a handful of joyful energies.. ha-ha. My husband is so nice, that he is the one who cooks dinner so I can have some rest before I have to again use my evening to prepare things for school. Anyway, it is a matter of putting priorities. Right?
A year ago I bought an mp3 player and since then I am able to pray in the bus during the morning, but it isn’t so quite all the time. Verbum Domini and Pray-as-you-go are great for this moment. Then, in the afternoon, I listened to the Daily Breakfast that I have downloaded from the previous day. Add to this other SQPN great podcasts. Thanks and keep up the great work!
Agree with Olga. I’m taking the opportunity I got to start over as a Catholic to radically change some things, including my lifestyle, health-wise. This is of great help!! You ROCK!!
I know that when I get up early on the weekends it makes me feel like I actually had a weekend and wasn’t rushing around to get tasks done. Good post. Thanks for sharing your tips Father.
Thanks!
I’ve been working to get up a little bit early for prayer, yet I’d like to get up a bit earlier for the reasons you mentioned.
Think I’ll start to put it more into action my desires, why wait?!
This is a great article. I should go to bed earlier. Thankfully I have flexible work time. I made two changes I did make to my day a few months ago. I no longer turn on the TV when I first get up. I pray my liturgy of the hours morning prayer first and enjoy a half hour or so of silence before checking the morning traffic & weather report on the TV. Secondly, upon arriving home, I no longer go straight to the TV for the evening news. First, I pray my evening prayer. At both times, I also offer up my personal intentions. I can truthfully tell people I’m praying for them at least twice a day
Too bad I couldn’t edit those first two sentences. Honestly, it is English
Fr. Roderick…thank you for your insight…I think I needed to be reminded…Blessings…
[...] it is not an original idea about waking up early to get more things done, as noted here, here, and here, I’ll be doing it from now on. The plan is to wake at 06:00, do prayers and [...]
So far my best reason for getting up is Morning Prayer of the Divine Office. (I’ve been trying to get into that practice. Trying . . . Failing, but trying.)
Father! I have decided to give you a Brilliant-Weblog-Award. Check my blog for the rules!