I Tried Joining the 5 AM Club this Past Week.

Welcome to the Sudo Science Book Club! I’m not sure if I’m going to make this a regular thing or not, but I do like the idea. We’ll see how this goes first.

I finished reading The 5 AM Club by Robin Sharma just a few weeks ago and think I got much more out of it this time around. See, I initially picked up The 5 AM Club a few years ago, but dropped shortly soon after because it wasn’t what I expected it to be after a couple of chapters of reading.

On my first reading attempt, I thought the book was bizarre and long-winded. I picked it up expecting the author to introduce himself and tell us about the method. You know, something I would expect in just about any standard self-improvement book.

Instead, I got a story involving a few people referred to primarily with epithets (The Entrepreneur, the Artist, the Millionaire, the Spellbinder, etc.) going through trials and tribulations while constantly spouting inspiring quotes. One of the characters even quotes George Bernard Shaw in such a long block of text that one of the characters in-story acknowledges how unusual it is to remember such a swath of text verbatim.

As a result, I put the book down several years ago and hadn’t really thought much about it since. It was only after I finished reading Rich Habits by Thomas C. Corley that I thought about it again. Rich Habits was similar in some ways where it involved characters learning from a mentor figure about how to improve their lives.

The primary differences lied in how Corley’s book was about finances and featured far fewer famous quotes. Still, it was an engaging and inspiring read that I went through in a couple of days. It made me rethink my first attempt to read The 5 AM Club. Now that I knew what to expect, maybe I’d like it more if I gave it another chance?

Giving the Book a Second Chance

I went back and read Sharma’s book on mornings when I had time off from work, and I started to feel more inspired as I read through it, although I will admit the book does take a little long to share the 20/20/20 Rule, which may be the most impactful part of the book. In the second half, one of the characters shows signs of impatience as he wants to finally hear what exactly the rule is, which was exactly how I was feeling up to that point.

Overall, the book hypes up the idea of adopting a morning routine that involves being awake at five in the morning and getting things done very efficiently in order to make each day as productive and impactful as possible. As I read, I also noticed a few things that reminded me of what I read in Atomic Habits by James Clear. This was apparent to me when the book described how repeating the routine every morning for 66 days makes it an automatic habit, as well as how improving a little every day, when compounded for so many days in a year, can lead to extraordinary growth.

With a long string of work days coming up this (now past) week, I took it upon myself to take the 5 AM Club challenge for a week! Yeah, it’s another seven day challenge for me.

The funny thing is I was already used to getting up at 5:30 AM, but my mornings were hardly productive. My idea of waking up in the morning usually involved me catching up on emails or watching a few YouTube videos while drinking some coffee or eating breakfast. On particularly warm days when I had the day off, I would occasionally get up at 5 to go on a run, but my only issue is that I like to run for a straight hour or longer, which goes well beyond the allotted exercise time in the 20/20/20 rule.

I know the book acknowledges adjusting the routine to work best for one’s needs (for instance, the Entrepreneur asks early on if it’s alright to do the routine on weekdays only), but I feel like that would require a good amount of trial and error to really nail it. While getting up at 5:30 AM was good, I could do better.

The big change for me was how I was going to actually implement the 20/20/20 rule from the book and see what kind of difference I would notice. I also was going to force myself to wake up slightly before 5 just to get a few basic things going (brushing my teeth, brewing coffee, getting breakfast ready).

What’s the 20/20/20 Rule?

The book did, as I acknowledged, take a lot of time to describe what this was. Fortunately, I’m willing to summarize it briefly here.

1. Despite how it’s called The 5 AM Club, it’s recommended to be awake at least a bit before 5 to get things ready. The book recommended 4:45 AM when looking at the Spellbinder’s sample routine, but the Millionaire emphasizes how it can be adapted to suit anyone’s needs, so I picked 4:55 and then later moved it to 4:50 AM.
2. From 5:00 to 5:20, you are supposed to work out enough to work up a sweat. A workout in this 20-minute window releases BDNF (brain derived neurotropic factor) in our minds, which gives humans better neuroplasticity. In other words, this brain hormone makes it easier for humans to learn new skills and stay mentally sharp.
3. From 5:20 to 5:40, you work on something good for your heart and mind. The book uses cutesy words like “soulset” and “heartset,” but this is really just maintaining one’s mental state through journaling, reflecting, planning your day, practicing gratitude, and meditating.
4. From 5:40 to 6:00, you spend this last 20-minute block on growth. The book highly recommends reading biographies on famous, influential people in history, although it’s also recommended to listen to audiobooks, study a skill, or work on projects. I decided to turn this into listening to podcasts related to work along with working on personal projects every now and then.

Using up the entire hour in these three 20-minute chunks is the heart of the 20/20/20 Rule.

Now that I knew the rule, how I was I going to do this week?

Day 1: Monday

This was by far the easiest day because I dozed off rather early on Sunday night without intending to. As a result, I woke up feeling quite refreshed at 4:55 AM.

For my first 20 minutes, I decided to try a few basic exercises like squats and lunges around my kitchen as I waited for my coffee beans to grind. I started to do push-ups when waiting for the coffee to brew, but it was oddly difficult for me to actually work up a sweat. This worried me, as I normally sweat a lot when attending my kickboxing or going on runs.

The succeeding 40 minutes went better for me. I journaled for several minutes with my bullet journal, but I felt more relaxed as I made coffee. I also started a new gratitude practice on my daily log by making a new bullet journal marker, the capital gamma (Γ), followed by rapid logging three things I’m grateful for.

After my journaling was done, I had five minutes leftover, so I decided to meditate for that span of time. Once I finished, I looked into finance podcasts and listened to them while preparing my breakfast. I took more useful information than I expected as I finished preparing my food and sat down to eat.

From there, I started the day off strong and things went rather well for the rest of my day. I was surprised. Perhaps I could be a real member of the 5 AM Club!

Day 2: Tuesday

I didn’t sleep quite as early as I did before Day 1, but I slept enough to wake up and feel fine. I tried to do more exercises in the morning within my kitchen as I waited for my coffee to brew, including a few kickboxing moves, but my heart wasn’t really in it. Still, I did my best and got around 10 minutes of exercise in, including some more push-ups, squats, lunges, and several practice jabs, hooks, uppercuts, and so on as I stared at the clock on the stove to see when the minutes would pass for each exercise. Unfortunately, I didn’t really sweat all that much.

After that, I decided to use the abundance of time to journal a bit more, which went as well as I expected, including more time to plan out tasks and write more things I’m grateful for. Once time was up, I decided to use my last 20 minutes to listen to more podcasts. This time, however, they were about my work instead of general finance. Before I knew it, I was going to work and feeling pretty good, although I still think I felt better on Day 1.

I attended kickboxing later in the evening and really did break a huge sweat, and then I went home, showered, and went to bed. However, I did hatch an idea for tomorrow: I took it upon myself to prepare the coffee maker and the pans I normally use in the morning for making breakfast. That way, I would be able to get up sooner. I also changed my wake up time for tomorrow to 4:50 AM.

Day 3: Wednesday

I got up early again, but I was still able to make myself work out. I started to regret it when my right ankle started to feel a little achey, as I did fall on it strangely around a month ago while at a kickboxing session. Still, I pushed through.

I did the same bullet journaling I normally do for the next block of time, but for my last 20 minutes, I took it upon myself to start a new project I was putting off for months: I’m now working on another novel to compliment the old one I finished drafting last summer. I was excited as I started to write out the first few paragraphs, but my time was up before I knew it. I guess time flying while working on a project I love is a good sign!

Once I got home, I started to feel the fatigue setting in. I suspect I got too much of a workout with not enough rest today and the day prior. I didn’t take a nap or anything, although maybe that would have been a good idea.

Day 4: Thursday

I still got up before 5 AM! Unfortunately, I didn’t work out due to the fatigue I had last night. That still didn’t stop me from getting some meditation time in with the 20 minutes I would otherwise dedicate to a workout, but I really needed the rest.

I went about my last chunk of the 20/20/20 window listening to more podcasts about improving my career, which was great. I learned some excellent tips and ideas I hadn’t thought about before and I soon became almost obsessed with trying to figure out ways to use what I had learned. I later spent more time in my second brain trying to get details hammered out.

Because of my fatigue yesterday, I decided to give myself the evening off again and not go to my usual kickboxing. So far this week, I’ve only attended one session, which isn’t as much as my usual three or four sessions per week. That didn’t stop me from being at least somewhat productive with my work-related ideas, so there’s that! Besides, there’s always tomorrow.

Day 5: Friday

Did another short workout in the morning, but I really wasn’t feeling it. One day soon, perhaps I’ll actually work up a sweat within the 20 minute window and still have time to squeeze in a good shower while having time for everything else in my victory hour.

I still stuck to my routine of journaling and practiced my gratitude for the fifth consecutive day. That made me feel accomplished along with everything else I did during the course of my day. Around the afternoon, I started to feel firsthand evidence that maybe, just maybe, starting off my morning like this would carry better into the rest of the day than I ever expected.

I remained productive, but I missed kickboxing again in the evening. Feels like it’s been a bit harder to hype myself into going as often as I normally would. I’m sure I just need to get used to this and I’ll be able to go regularly like I used to.

Day 6: Saturday

It’s Saturday and it just so happened to be a day off for me, so I committed the cardinal sin of (gasp!) sleeping in.

I woke up very late at 6 AM (no doubt some are laughing at the idea of waking up at 6 being “very late”), but I really did need the rest after this past week of work and juggling my still-new 5 AM Club morning routine. As the book said, I would need another 61 days for this to feel completely normal.

On the bright side, my kickboxing place has a mid-morning session on Saturdays only, and I was able to convince myself to go after having a few cups of coffee to start my day. I felt great afterward and came home to take a cold, refreshing shower. I know a lot of people have their opinions on cold showers, but I tend to find them most rewarding after a morning workout, especially when it’s a hot summer day.

I didn’t really follow the rest of the routine that closely outside of doing some bullet journaling before my girlfriend was awake that morning. I also dropped my gratitude practice streak on this day.

Day 7: Sunday

I decided to give myself this morning off entirely, but I still woke up at 5:30 without even trying. Despite everything, it felt almost as if I had slept in.

Since there was no real urgency or rush (and zero kickboxing sessions I could attend on Sundays), I was able to really take my morning nice and easy. Despite that, the rest of my Sunday turned out to be a rather busy day overall. It mostly involved me running errands with my girlfriend for the whole afternoon.

Conclusion

It’s Monday as I wrap up and proofread this, but I went back to waking up before 5 AM to repeat the little ritual. I tried to get a workout going this morning, but didn’t really get more than five minutes of one in before I committed to journaling, meditating, and some self-improvement. It’s clear that I’m going to need a better plan to work up a sweat in the mornings. I mean, who doesn’t want better neuroplasticity?

I’m not going to drop this routine and I’ll definitely be continuing it into the future. From here, I look forward to owning my morning and elevating my life.

What’s Next?

What self-improvement book should be featured on the next Sudo Science Book Club? Is anybody else a member of the 5 AM Club? Do you like the idea of looking at more of these books in future posts?