Waking up early and consistently
June 14th, 2006 by Dave Cheong
In my goal to becoming an Entrepreneur, I’ve found myself spending more time sketching out ideas and researching possible business opportunities. One side effect of this is I needed more time in the day - it gets tricky trying to juggle full time work, writing a blog and researching a new business venture. There are competing things constantly vying for my time and I need more of it.
As a remedy for this, I’ve decided to wake up at 5:30am each day and blocking out 90 mins in the morning before I start getting ready for work. Trying to wake up at this ungodly hour in winter so far has been quite challenging but rewarding too. I’m getting more done and because of this I feel less cranky too.
The following are techniques I have found to work for me:
- Have a reason to get up. The most important thing when doing something unpleasant is to have a reason to do it. Make it clear to yourself exactly why you want to get up and visualise the long term goals you wish to accomplish. Some people want to get up early to seek their life goals, others want to use that time to do exercise or prepare lunch to bring to work or to find quiet time to do the things that never get done. Whatever your reason, make it clear to your mind why you want to get up early.
- Write it down. It’s one thing to know why you want to get up early, it’s another to be committed to it. I’ve found that writing it down on paper helps because of two reasons. Firstly, it represents a positive affirmation - “Yes, this is what I will do”. Secondly, it consolidates my thinking - in my mind the reason for getting up early is crystal clear. I’ve also found it more useful to write down something that is actionable. For example, last night before going to bed, I wrote down the reason for waking up early is to finish this post. For you, you might write down your purpose as exercising for 30 mins or packing your peanut butter and jam sandwich for lunch. Whatever your reason, make each thing you write down every night as actionable items. It helps also to read this statement before going to bed each night to reinforce the message.
- Ignore your first reaction. This is an odd one for me. Initially when I started this, I’ve found that I was making excuses to stay in bed - “I need the rest”, “It’s too early”, “It can wait”, “It’s nice and warm here” and so forth. During these initial weeks, I’ve found it useful to tell myself to ignore my first reaction and ask what is my second reaction. My second reaction always tends to be focused on my reason for getting up (which is why it’s useful to write it down and read it before going to bed). Once you start focusing on the reason and not the excuse, you’ll find it becomes easier to get up. However, in the last week, I’ve found my first reaction has been positive. I actually want to get up.
- Be productive with your time. For me, I’ve found that it was important to be productive with my extra time. It wasn’t enough to just wake up early, I needed to see results. If you commit to a reason for getting up early, you need to follow through. It is much easier to convince yourself the next morning when you know the time is going to be well spent based on the consistent results you have been achieving. For example, if you say you’re going to exercise for 30 mins, then do so. Do not just exercise for 15 mins or 20 mins. Never lie to yourself. It is a trust you cannot abuse. If your subconscious know that you won’t do what you say you want to do by getting up early, it’ll sabotage your efforts and dilute your commitment.
- Another 10 mins is a trap. If you find yourself thinking I’ll get up in just another 10 mins, stop! This is a trap. Sometimes another 10 mins would lead to another 10 mins and another. In the most likely scenario that initial 10 mins become 2 hours. Even if that 10 mins is only 10 mins, it is 10 mins less than what you committed yourself to. For me, if I have committed myself to 30 mins of exercise, that 10 min difference would mean I only have time for a 20 min workout and contravenes the previous guideline of being productive with my time.
- Wake up early even in the weekend. This one is a subtle one. Your reason to waking up early may not always apply to every day. For example, if my reason for waking up early is to make lunch for work, it won’t apply for weekends. However, I’ve found that it is essential to wake up at the same time consistently irrespective of whether you need to or not. I briefly discussed this in my previous post about developing positive patterns. We are all ultimately creatures of habit. Our bodies can be taught and trained to be early risers. If we establish a consistent pattern for waking up early and acknowledging to our body that this is an ongoing requirement, it will change its rhythm to accommodate this. If your original reason does not apply every day, you may need to find an additional reason for the other days. There is nothing to prevent you having multiple reasons for getting up early.
- Listen to your body. I’m not an expert with health and diet. However I do know that it is important to listen to your body. The important point to note here is that we intend to get up early to be more productive. If your body tells you that you are tired, you should listen to it. This should dictate what time you sleep but not what time you get up. Here’s why. I find that my time in the mornings tend to be more productive. I’m more alert, there are less distractions and I am committed to starting the day off doing things that are important to me. In the evenings, the opposite is true - I’m tired, there are distractions and I already feel I have gone through a long day and so am not as committed. There’s also another reason which is best explained with simple maths. If I am 50% productive because I’m tired, doing 1 hour of real work requires 2 hours of my time. I’d rather do that work in 1 hour the next morning when I’m 100% productive. The trick is to figure out and then recognise the sub-optimal productivity percentage for you.
At this stage, I’ve only experimented with being an early riser for 4 weeks. So far, I have consistently been able to get up somewhere within the 30 mins I’ve set as my goal irrespective of what day of the week it is, what time I went to bed the night before and how tired I was. Currently, I’m approaching this empirically - simple trial and error. I believe each of us is different. Some things which work for me may not work for you and vice versa. The most important thing to remember is to find the things that work for you.
There are several things I’d like to try out more:
- Would consistent exercise reduce my sleep requirements?
- Does caffeine help in the long run?
- How do I decide when is the best time for me to sleep?
- Are there tests that I can perform to determine my sub-optimal productivity percentage?
- What alternative sleep patterns are out there?
- Can I change my sleeping arrangement to make me more restful with less time?
Over the next few months, I’ll experiment with these options and hopefully gain some insights into their respective advantages and disadvantages. I’ll also report back on my productivity gains. Hopefully you can read about an emerging new business idea soon!
Note, a quick search on Google pointed me to an excellent blog run by Steve Pavlina. In his blog, he discusses his approach to being an early riser in two posts (part one and two) which are interesting reads. He has also tried Polyphasic sleep with some success. Polyphasic sleep deals with taking short sleep periods throughout the day at regular intervals instead of the big 8 hour chunk at the end of each day.
If you like my post or have suggestions on things I could try, please leave a comment. If you wish to become an early riser yourself, please try out the tips I’ve highlighted above. Any feedback you can provide based on your own experiences would be most welcomed.
Good luck!
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Implementation is more important than idea
June 12th, 2006 by Dave Cheong
Let’s face it. Most startups fail. At the start of any venture, it is safe to say the founders are all passionate, committed and believe they have the necessary ingredients to create a successful business. Yet, why do so many fail? Is it the money? Is it the founders? What about their products? Do they add genuine value? Would you pay for it? Are they competing with Google or Microsoft?
The answer of course is it depends. Every startup has a different makeup and DNA. Some start with no money. Others raise multi-million dollars in venture capital. Some start with a single person. Others start with a team of 50. Some begin in a garage. Others on Level 17 of the most expensive skyscraper in the city.
So why do some succeed while others fail? I suspect the answer is different from startup to startup. Many factors, and sometimes several in combination, will contribute to the demise of a once promising business venture.
One thing I do know however, is the difference between the idea and the implementation. A startup can begin with a revolutionary idea but execute dismally. Another startup can begin with a mediocre idea but execute spectacularly. The startup which executes dismally will fail and the one which executes spectacularly will succeed.
It is the implementation not the idea which is important. You may have the best idea but if you cannot reach your customers or you cannot pay your bills, you will fail.
Contrary to what some IT professionals believe however, it is not the technology which ultimately determines the success or failure of a business. Sure, you may need the big machines, clustered application servers, replication, redundancy, security etc. You may also even have a better “framework” or a better “DAO layer”. However, when starting up, these factors are rarely the cause of a business failure. At the start, customers don’t care you can scale to accommodate 1,000,000 concurrent users or that your “framework” is more flexible than the competitor’s. What they do care is how your interface looks, how your product solves a genuine problem they have, how much it cost and whether there are substitutes out there.
Also, if you cannot stay in business long enough to establish yourself and penetrate the market, all the technology in the world isn’t going to save you. You may have the next world shattering idea (like the Browser), but if your competitors out compete you, you will fail (like the Browser wars). It doesn’t matter whether you came up with the idea first, it is how you execute which determines whether you stay in business.
If you are thinking about starting a new business, don’t worry too much about coming up with a unique idea. Unique ideas are hard to come by. It is also harder to convert users with a unique idea - you first have to educate and convince them. Look to existing ideas, observe how they are executed and seek out opportunities to innovate above and beyond what they have done. Remember, it is the implementation not idea which is important.
Kathy Sierra in a recent post talks more about this. In her post, she writes “Our success is not about what we think up, but rather who we think about“. Her dogma is the customer is all important and good usability is king. I agree with her.
In a similar post, Wil Schroter writes “Let your execution speak for itself“. Ultimately, you cannot protect your idea. Concentrate on your execution. You’re already on to a winner if you have an idea worth copying.
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Do something you love doing and admire
June 11th, 2006 by Dave Cheong
So far, I’ll written two related posts - one about good patterns and the other about enlisting support from family and friends. Now, I’d like to introduce you to another key in my goal of transitioning from Software Engineer to Entrepreneur.
I title this post “Do something you love doing and admire”. In my goal to become an Entrepreneur, I know I need to look for ideas or projects that play to my interests and strengths. My strengths are clearly technical related - I am educated as an Electrical Engineer and make my living doing Java J2EE software development projects. It follows that my new business startup will be technology related - probably a web service of some sort - because that plays nicely to my strengths.
As for interests, these vary across the spectrum. Apart from being my job, I’m also passionate about technology. I actually enjoy coding and designing nice user interfaces. It’s hard to explain if you do not share the same interest in software development but try to apply it to something you are passionate about. For me, it feels great when a web page I’m working on is displaying the right set of values retrieved from the database. It feels great when my code is clean, succinct, easy to understand and structured correctly. It feels great when another developer uses my code and it “just works”. It feels great when a business user comes to me and tell me they love what I’ve “done to the page”.
This, I think, is part of the key. Do something you love doing. I know this isn’t a completely novel idea but it’s true nonetheless and doesn’t make it less important. If you do what you love, then you’re more likely to be better at it. Why? You’ll spend more time at it. You’ll read up about it in your spare time. You think about it when you’re on the train. You talk about it with your friends at the pub.
Doing something you love doing is very important. However, it’s only 1/2 of the key. Paul Graham has an excellent post which you should read if you have the time. His post talks about “How to do what you love“. In that post he makes a good point about doing what you admire. That I believe is the second 1/2 of the key.
You have to do something you admire.
Some people may do something they love but they do not admire it. For example, an accountant may love the repetitiveness of their work. They love the fact that each day is consistent and they can leave at 5:30pm without fail. They love the fact that if they follow a process, there are never any surprises. They may even love the fact that things balance and are accounted for every time. Sure, they love what they do. But do they admire accounting? Please don’t get me wrong, they may admire accounting and I’m not saying it is a lack lustre line of work at all. I’m only using it as an example.
Why do you have to admire what you do or the people doing it? If you only love what you do (and not admire it), then you may end up doing the wrong thing. Huh? Let me explain.
Firstly, you could stagnate. If there is nothing to admire, why change? What’s the incentive to become better? If you love accounting, but do not have an accountant you admire and aspire to be, what is your incentive to be better than you are now? Do you want to stay being an accountant as you are now forever?
Secondly, it may not be the best thing for you to be doing. Paul Graham talks briefly about it in his post. When compared to spending time on a boat on the Carribbean or playing on the Xbox, how can work possibly stack up? Well, it can’t of course. But spending time on a boat or playing on the Xbox are not the best things you can do in the long run. The key I believe is we don’t admire being on a boat or playing on the Xbox. We may love doing these things but we don’t necessarily admire them.
So do something you love doing and admire. Look to the heroes in your industry and aspire to be like them. I am fortunate enough to not just love what I do but I also have heroes I aspire to be more like. These heroes have made the successful transition from being just a Software Engineer. Now, they run their own businesses, create products and services they are passionate about and are ultimately masters of their own destinies. This is worth admiring.
What do you admire most about what you do? Can you name your heroes? Is there something or someone you aspire to be?
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