00:15waking up early sucks
00:17but i did it for four weeks in a row in
00:20order to test a hypothesis
00:22i discovered a lot of helpful takeaways
00:24from this experience
00:26but i don't want to get ahead of myself
00:28let's back up to where this idea came
00:29from in the first place
00:32i have a lot going on in my life i'm
00:34constantly bombarded with meetings
00:36appointments chores errands and plans
00:39my days feel filled to the brim
00:42i check my daily to-do list and need to
00:44constantly bump a handful of things into
00:47tomorrow because i don't have enough
00:48time to tackle everything in a 16-hour
00:51i can hardly get five minutes into
00:53working without hearing one of these
00:59and i'm guessing that's not abnormal
01:01that's just life in the modern century
01:04well here's the problem i'm a game
01:06developer it's what i do for my
01:08nine-to-five job and it's also what i do
01:10as my primary hobby so in my spare time
01:13i try to develop my own games and in the
01:16few years that i've been developing
01:19the hardest aspect of the entire process
01:23is trying to find time to carve out of
01:25my schedule to work on the games for
01:29years i've struggled doing this so i
01:31decided to see if i could hack my time
01:33by waking up every day at 5 00 am before
01:37even considering if i should do this i
01:39decided to just jump into it but i knew
01:42i needed to lay out some ground rules
01:45nothing besides game dev the whole point
01:47of waking up early was to be awake
01:49before the other concerns of my day were
01:51awake so that meant no email no social
01:54media and putting my phone on airplane
01:56mode number two no snoozing my alarm
01:58would get set for 5am and i had to get
02:01up immediately i knew that if i let
02:03myself decide in the moment if i wanted
02:05five more minutes of sleep that battle
02:09number three this experiment would last
02:11for four weeks i knew i could push
02:13through any discomfort if there was an
02:15end date in sight i can do anything for
02:17a few weeks and once that predetermined
02:19time is over i can come back and
02:21evaluate if it was an overall positive
02:23or negative experience number four
02:27if i'm waking up early you better
02:29believe that i plan on sucking down a
02:31bunch of caffeine as soon as possible
02:33now i'm not necessarily addicted to
02:35coffee it's just that i can't function
02:37without it and that was that
02:39the decision had been made and the rules
02:42i was dreading it a little bit but
02:44mostly i was just excited
02:47if this worked out for me then i would
02:50finally have dedicated time that was
02:53reliable that i would always be able to
02:56find to work on my side projects i was
02:59so excited in fact that i hardly slept
03:02that first night i kept waking up
03:04thinking that my alarm was just about to
03:15that first day as i got up turned off my
03:17alarm and grabbed some coffee
03:20the only thought in my head was
03:30but as i started booting up unity and
03:33the caffeine started to kick in i
03:34slipped into a perfect flow state
03:37i put on my favorite spotify playlist
03:39and worked on my game no distractions
03:42nothing else vying for my attention
03:44just the serenity of the morning in my
03:46little stylized tanks i can't think of
03:48the last time i was this productive
03:51i blinked and two and a half hours had
03:54i couldn't remember the last time i'd
03:56had two hours to work on my side project
04:00well day one is uh in the books and
04:04it wasn't as bad as i thought it would
04:09the early bird gets the worm as they say
04:14well i guess i should record this it's
04:16day one of waking up at five a.m to work
04:19on game development and
04:22loved it was super productive this
04:24morning got way more done than i thought
04:28two o'clock right now and i am very
04:32tired i always knew that the mornings
04:34weren't gonna be the hard part it's
04:35gonna be the afternoons so trying to
04:37stay caffeinated we'll see how this goes
04:40yeah i'm really feeling it right now
04:41it's um hard to stay concentrated
04:53but day one we'll see if i wake up at
05:08and this morning was a lot harder to
05:14day two was very similar to day one
05:16it was harder to wake up than the first
05:19day but i made myself get out of bed
05:21and had another super productive morning
05:25and day three was when things started
05:32my sleep schedule was catching up to me
05:35my first few morning hours were still
05:37productive and enjoyable but the rest of
05:45i had difficulty focusing at my day job
05:48and found myself experiencing a hefty
05:50dose of anxiety and stress over the
05:53tiniest things all afternoon i was
05:56getting knots in my stomach over little
05:58worries that really weren't that big of
06:00a deal but i think the lack of sleep
06:01just made them compound into something
06:04that felt bigger and this came as no
06:06surprise to me i knew that this
06:07challenge was going to be pretty
06:10but i wasn't expecting this level of
06:12difficulty on day three
06:15i mean come on i still had like 20
06:18but i had to push through four weeks
06:20isn't a long time and i had some ideas
06:22to help mitigate the fatigue on
06:24particularly bad days i thought i might
06:26start going to bed sooner or maybe take
06:28a short nap during my lunch break
06:30it was all trial and error day four was
06:33by far the worst day out of the entire
06:36but it's not for the reasons that you
06:38would think you see i was so productive
06:40in those first three days that i had
06:42completely obliterated my backlog of
06:44work so i came up to my desk coffee in
06:47hand started up my computer and just
06:50stared at the screen because i had
06:52nothing to work on i felt like such a
06:54 i woke up early but i had nothing
06:57to do i contemplated just like scrolling
06:59through social media or finding
07:00something entertaining to do but
07:03that was against my rules so i ended up
07:06just playtesting my game and for like an
07:08hour i just sat down and played what i
07:10had made so far and it actually gave me
07:12a really good perspective on what was
07:14working what was fun what wasn't fun and
07:16what would be fun things to add it so
07:18all in all it ended up being a
07:20beneficial morning but i did learn my
07:22lesson from then on every evening i
07:24would sit down and make sure that i knew
07:26what i was going to work on the
07:28following morning the rest of the days
07:30melted together into a blur of
07:31sleepiness and game dev
07:33i had learned a lot from the first few
07:35days of waking up early and i didn't
07:37have any major blunders after that
07:40it was a grind but i mostly enjoyed it
07:43that was a rough one
07:49by the end of it this whole experience
07:51had taught me some really valuable
07:52lessons and i counted five of them to be
07:55exact first i was extremely productive
07:58the entire time i would start working at
08:005am and i would blink and suddenly it
08:02was 7 or 8am already which meant i was
08:05getting like 12 to 18 hours of game dev
08:08time per week it was crazy second i
08:11learned that planning was extremely
08:13vital to the process brewing coffee the
08:15evening before and making sure that i
08:17knew exactly what i was going to work on
08:19as soon as i woke up was a pivotal part
08:22of the process third i learned that
08:24sleep is still super important i
08:26naturally started going to bed at like 8
08:29or 9 p.m because i needed the sleep so i
08:31wasn't exactly giving myself extra time
08:34but i was reallocating the time from my
08:36evenings that was usually just wasted
08:39watching netflix or something and
08:40pivoting that into a more productive
08:42time in the morning where i could get
08:49not even once i thought eventually i
08:51would start waking up and feeling
08:53refreshed and kind of getting to the
08:55groove of things you know 5 am is fun
09:03the fifth and final takeaway that i got
09:06from this was arguably the most
09:12it came from a conversation that i had
09:13with my wife towards the end of the
09:15whole process she told me that she was
09:18noticing that i was becoming more
09:20irritable lately and she didn't make the
09:25put a timeline on it that matched
09:27exactly with when i started waking up
09:29early and you know there was some other
09:31stuff that was going on in our life we
09:33were trying to move and buy a house and
09:36some other life stuff that was
09:37contributing to my stress and probably
09:45but it was a major red flag for me it
09:47made me realize that i need to be
09:50careful about how i take care of myself
09:52because that can affect my relationships
09:58the big question at the end of all this
10:00is will i continue waking up at 5am
10:03every day and the answer is
10:06no but i guess the follow-up question to
10:10continue waking up at 5 a.m ever and the
10:16i definitely will not be doing this six
10:18days a week going into 2022 but i think
10:21i will try and integrate this into a
10:23schedule that is a little more
10:25sustainable for me so i'm going to try
10:26waking up at 5am a few days a week and
10:29see how that goes so if any of you have
10:31woken up early to try and work on side
10:33projects i would love to hear how that
10:35went for you maybe any advice that you
10:37have for anybody that's trying to do
10:39that for the rest of you i'm glad that i
10:41could be your guinea pig if you liked
10:43this video give it a thumbs up so that i
10:44can make more videos like this one
10:46subscribe if you want and i'll see you
