Time – people would pay to buy more time in their lives to get their work done and have extra hours in the day to spend with friends and family.
How often do we find ourselves working late or pausing to make it to a recital or dinner with friends just to have our to-do list looming over our heads?
Imagine what it would look like to blow through your work in the early hours of the day and have enough time to focus on your passions.
Enter The 5 AM Club: your solution to time management and the implementation of a schedule practiced by many successful CEOs and business owners.
What Is The 5 AM Club Concept?
Wake up at 5 AM each day to begin your day with a winning morning, which will translate to a winning day.
Tonal.com recaps, “At the heart of Sharma’s philosophy is the idea that we’re all capable of greatness, but we don’t always engage in the practices that’ll help us achieve our goals.”
5 AM Club Rules and Routine
Robin Sharma does not only invite you to wake up at 5 AM each morning, but the 5 AM club book describes how to use the morning hours for good.
The 5 AM Club rules include splitting your morning into a specific 20/20/20 formula. Each task is divided into 20-minute blocks:
- Vigorous exercise
- Meditation and reflection, including journaling
- Learning something new
While the exercise piece is nonnegotiable, the other areas are open for interpretation specific to your needs.
Move, Reflect, Learn
Move: Get up and get your sweat on. Science backs the benefits behind moving your body to start your day.
Reflect: Sit in a quiet space and journal about your thoughts. Write down your goals. Prepare your mind for the day ahead.
Learn: Let your creative juices flow as you read inspiring literature, work on a new business, or listen to a podcast.
What Time Does The 5 AM Club Go To Bed?
Once you’re committed to The 5 AM Club and waking up early, set yourself up for success. You will never be able to get out of bed at 5 AM if you do not have a strict nightly routine.
Charge your phone in the other room. Reserve the night for spending time with your partner and family. Then go to bed the night before by 10 PM to get enough rest for your body and mind.
Is The 5 AM Club a True Story?
The 5 AM club book is written by Robin Sharma and is fictional. He wrote from his experience of being a personal success guru.
Sharma has seen this routine implemented in several billionaires and entrepreneurs with positive results.
Is The 5 AM Club a Good Idea?
Is it really worth it to wake up at 5 AM each morning? While following The 5 AM Club rules seems unattainable – maybe it’s worth a try.
Why Do People Wake Up at 5 AM?
Take advantage of the extra hours in the morning when you are free from distractions. The 5 AM Club rules include no electronics during the first few hours of the day.
You will see benefits when you focus on improving your habits and staying in touch with your mind-body connection.
What Can You Do at 5 AM?
The alarm goes off. It’s still dark outside. The house is quiet. No one needs you from work via email or phone calls.
How can you take advantage of this precious time?
Go for a run, get into kickboxing, or try an online power yoga class. Then, plan your day and journal about your long-term goals. Finally, read the book you’ve always wanted to read.
Imagine what your day would look like when you could have those few hours to yourself each morning.
What Time Do Wealthy People Wake Up?
Successful people like Oprah, the Apple CEO, and the President of the United States are known to wake up before the sun rises.
From Headway Media: “Robin Sharma focuses on the habit of waking up early and beginning one’s day correctly. He does not make unfounded suggestions because there are actually reliable sources that show the benefits of waking up early.”
What Time Do CEOs Go to Bed?
As with any executive at a company, there are fires to put out, even at 2 in the morning. But most CEOs settle into bed by 10 PM to get a full night’s sleep.
How Do I Train Myself to Get Up at 5 AM?
Your nighttime routine plays into much of the success of achieving the 5 AM Club Rules. So prepare your supplies for the morning, whether it be setting up your exercise mat or downloading your favorite podcast.
One Vogue writer wrote, “Because I had prepared everything I needed to move/meditate/learn the night before, it made it easy to flow through the routine.”
It Really Is a Transformation Process That You Must Truly Buy Into
Robin Sharma teaches that you can ease yourself into the routine by changing your mindset. Make the decision now that you will find success in joining The 5 AM Club.
Establish a Habit Protocol
When you combine willpower with consistency, you set up a routine that will result in automatic success. Put faith in yourself and if you fail once, restart the next day.
Take note of the benefits you see in your work-life balance and evaluate if the benefits are worth it.
Develop The Four Focuses
Successful people implement The Four Focuses into their routine:
- Optimizing their talents for business opportunities
- Working in the quiet, free from distractions
- Improving their skills and working toward mastery
- Celebrating small wins day after day as they work toward excellence
The 5 AM Club is intentional in all of the hours spent throughout the workday so that you can relax and have fun outside of your career.
In addition, spending time with family and friends and experiencing life contributes to career success.
Implement the 10 Tactics for Lifelong Genius
Robin Sharma inspires us with these tips:
- The Bubble of Focus: Free yourself from distractions by waking up early and getting to work in the early morning hours.
- 90/90/1 Rule: For the next 90 days, dedicate the first 90-minutes of your workday focus on one project.
- 60/10 Method: After 90 minutes is up, work for a full 60-minutes, followed by 10-minute breaks.
- The Daily Five: During your meditation and journaling time, list the five things you would like to complete that day.
- 2nd Wind Workout: Move again at the end of your long day to get your blood flowing.
- 2 Massages/Week: Get 2 deep-tissue massages per week or engage in a different stress-relieving activity.
- Traffic University: If you have a long commute, put on a podcast or find a way to utilize the time.
- The Dream Team: Delegate tasks to the people around you that you can trust.
- Weekly Design System: Take 30-minutes to create a plan for each week.
- Daily Learning: Learn something new every day, increasing your broad ideas and perspective.
Personal Results from Waking Up at 5 AM
Here at The Growth Shark, I was inspired after reading The 5 AM Club book through Headway, a new reading app.
Waking up at 5 AM helped me better understand how to prioritize my life - both personally and professionally.
The hardest part for me was getting to bed by 10 PM. But once I got the hang of it, getting to sleep wasn’t such a challenge.
The quiet hours of the morning set me up for successful reflection. For the first time in my life, I felt like I was doing meditation the proper way. Like anything else, I just needed to practice at it.
How Do I Join a 5 AM Club?
The first step to implementing any life change is taking the first step. Read The 5 AM Club by Robin Sharma and find inspiration toward taking control of your life.
You can join a local 5 AM Club to offer support and accountability to others trying to work toward the same success.
Our team at The Growth Shark is built upon elements of The 5 AM Club. Check out some of the successful businesses we have worked with that also implement some of these routines.
The 5 AM Club Summary and How to Get Started
If you are ready to transform your life and take control of your work-life balance, it’s time to practice The 5 AM Club rules. You will never regret setting goals and working toward a better life.
Set your alarm for 5 AM each morning, and make a goal never to hit that snooze button.
Prepare for your early wake-up time each evening by staying off electronics, laying out your morning supplies, and getting to bed early.
And then practice the 20/20/20 rules in your first waking hour to maximize the benefits of The 5 AM Club.
With a portion of your morning dedicated to self-improvement and personal growth, you may be interested in learning how to have a positive impact on the world through effective altruism. You can read all about it here: What is Effective Altruism and Why Does it Matter?
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