For the past week I’ve been consistently getting up early, around 8 – 8.30 am.
Alright that’s not exactly early. I know by 5 am the streets are already teeming with people. But still, for me, 8 am is massively early.
The past 2 – 3 years or so I’ve almost never had a consistent schedule. Mostly I just stay up really late until 1 – 2 am, then go to sleep and get up at 10. It does feel nice not having a regular 9-5 job that I have to be present at a fixed time. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve had to get up earlier than 8, most of which have to do with morning events.
Then comes this first week of June: the Summer Camp.
We decided to hold a summer camp for teens that incorporates both English and Fitness activities. And since it is a summer camp, the kids will stay from the morning till afternoon, 9 – 5.
Which means I have to get ready for the kids from 8.30 am.
Monday June 3rd I got up at 8, having gone to sleep at 1.30 am the previous night. The same pattern repeats the following days — I’d go to sleep around 1 am, then get up around 8.
I’d get 6.5 – 7 hours of sleep every night, which sucks. I don’t feel as energetic. I’m near-constantly drowsy. I’d have to get a nap every day otherwise I won’t be able to function and teach the class at night.
I’m too used to getting 8 hours every day. I seriously can’t imagine how so many people can function on 6 – 7 hours. I think they’re either taking naps, making it up with extra long sleep in the weekends, or just plain in zombie mode every day. Either way, sleep deprivation is no joke.
We’ve also been so busy — I’m teaching the fitness class in the morning with Phong, the English portion in the afternoon, then the regular IELTS class in the evening, along with other aspects of the business that also demand work — that I have barely had time to work out. You know the Vietnamese saying “don’t even have time to breathe“? That’s exactly how I feel these days.
I managed to do a 20-minute stair climbing session on Sunday, a 5-minute bar workout on Tuesday, then a 16-minute Burpee Pullups session yesterday. Those are all of my workouts for the week!! I exercised for a total of 41 minutes throughout the damn week. This weekend I have to make it up with some intense workout sessions.
The silver lining is that by getting up early, you do feel like you get way more done. More productivity for sure. Normally when I stay up until 2 am, I’m mostly just browsing Reddit and consuming useless content. I try to stick to the more helpful stuff, but many times I find myself just mindlessly scrolling through funny gifs and pics. It’s addictive in a way — I often just keep scrolling and scrolling and not wanting to put down my phone, even though I know it is a waste of time. I guess by that time of the day (past midnight) the brain is so fatigued that it just wants to be fed harmless and easily digestible content.
So by getting up early, seeing sunlight and the sense of hustle and bustle from people around, you’re kind of forced to be in a work mode. Far less inclination for mindless consumption and addictive, non-productive behaviours.
So yeah — for the foreseeable future I’ll be getting up around 8. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to keep up this schedule for long. It is nice to get up early for sure, but it has to be practical. I guess one day when my routine has become consistent enough, I’ll go to sleep and get up at the same time every day. For now though, with such a chaotic lifestyle and random workload, I can only try to make it work.