Some phrases carry an inherent threat within them, and “5 am Club Morning Routine” definitely qualifies for most people. Finish shuddering at the thought, then we’ll get into what it is, what it’s good for, how to do it well, and alternative morning routines.
What is the 5 am Club Morning Routine?
The 5 am Club is a concept popularized by Robin Sharma in his book, The 5 AM Club: Own Your Morning, Elevate Your Life. The idea is that waking up at 5 am allows you to take advantage of the quiet early morning hours to set a positive tone for the rest of the day.
The routine is structured around the 20/20/20 formula, which divides the first hour of your day into three 20-minute segments dedicated to different self-improvement activities.
Technically, waking up at 5 am isn’t necessary, as the idea is to get up roughly an hour before the rest of your household to have an hour to dedicate to yourself before the real day starts, but if you live alone, or if your housemates sleep in longer, you can scooch it a bit later if you need to.
This gives you what people call the Victory Hour.
And the Victory Hour is split into a certain order of events. The main idea is the 20/20/20 formula.
The 20/20/20 Formula
The 20/20/20 formula is the way Robin Sharma suggests breaking up your first hour of the day: 20-minute segments dedicated to different self-care and self-improvement activities.
First 20 Minutes: Move
The first 20 minutes should be dedicated to exercise, particularly a vigorous physical activity. Running, weightlifting, intense yoga, or any form of exercise that really gets your heart running.
The goal is to find an engaging movement to wake up, boost your mood and energy, and add to your overall health and happiness.
Here are some ideas for a quick workout:
- Quick walk
- Yoga
- Pilates
- Superset weight routine
- Burpees
Second 20 Minutes: Reflect
The reflection segment is taking time to focus. This can include meditating to clear your mind and reduce stress, journaling to reflect on goals, gratitudes, and daily intentions, or planning by reviewing your daily schedule and prioritizing your tasks.
This segment is about focusing your mind and setting a positive, productive, intentional tone for your day.
You might try these task prioritization strategies to give yourself some structure for this step:
Third 20 Minutes: Grow
This segment is dedicated to personal learning. This might be 20 minutes of reading, listening to an educational podcast, or engaging in any activity that enhances your knowledge and skills.
Ideas for your Grow time:
- reading nonfiction
- studying a language
- practicing a musical instrument
- learning a craft like calligraphy, knitting, weaving, wood whittling, or painting
- listening to a productivity podcast
- reading a few Not Harder blog posts <3
Benefits of the 5 am Club Morning Routine
People tend to love the 5 am club routine once they’ve dedicated to it and get into the rhythm. Here are a few of the anecdotal benefits:
1. Increased productivity
Waking up early earns a head start to the day, allowing you to get important tasks done before everyone else is up and before work starts. It’s a time dedicated to you before your external responsibilities kick in.
Beginning the day positively with a good morning routine, especially when you’re building new habits to take care of your physical and mental health, gives you the momentum and encouragement to take on the day.
Many successful people swear by simply making your bed in the morning. That one act of accomplishing something that you control gets you in the headspace for productivity.
2. Better focus
The early morning hours are typically quiet, giving you a distraction-free environment to focus on yourself, your goals, and your priorities. Not only are you implementing a focused hour in your morning, but taking the time to get yourself sorted helps to lower stress, reduce worry, and increase focus for the rest of the day.
3. Enhanced mental clarity
Exercise, reflection, and learning help to clear your mind, reduce stress, and improve your mental health. Giving yourself 20 minutes a day to intentionally evaluate and plan your day’s activities, reflect on gratitudes, and just get yourself some headspace can dramatically improve the rest of your day.
4. Personal growth
Dedicating regular time to learning and self-improvement–even just 20 minutes a day–will build steady progress toward your personal growth goals.
It’s all about those tiny changes that we’re able to do consistently. Try to structure your morning routine in a way that you can sustain.
5. Improved health
Regular exercise, stress reduction, and mental clarity contribute to improved physical and mental health, raising your overall quality of life. Doing a little bit of maintenance on yourself goes a long, long way.
6. Better sleep
“How is waking up at the absolute ass crack of dawn helping me sleep?” you ask.
Several reasons! Here are a few of the big ones:
1. Mental quietness. If you are a tosser and/or turner, ask yourself if you’re giving your mind enough time during the day to process things. If you fill every moment with distractions, your brain is waiting for a moment to catch up. Sometimes the first quiet moment of your day is when your head hits the pillow. So, allowing time in your morning routine for reflection and processing prevents you from needing to catch up when it’s time to sleep.
2. Deeper sleep. Waking up consistently, even if it’s 5 am, can make you feel more rested, because consistency allows your body to function better by fine-tuning your internal clock. This gives you can have longer, deeper REM cycles. And REM is where the important stuff happens! Memory consolidation, neuron elasticity increase, skill acquisition.
You might notice that, when learning a new skill, you might be pretty clumsy at it on your first try. But if you try again the next day after a good night’s rest, you will almost always have improved without even practicing. This is because your brain does a lot of learning during your REM cycle.
3. Routine. Just establishing a morning routine can have a ripple effect throughout your day. Without even trying, you’ll move through life more intentionally, and it won’t be long until that mindfulness spills over into a nighttime routine, too.
4. 5 am is, like, pretty early. At the beginning, you will probably struggle. Waking up early is a hard habit to implement, but it gets easier as you go, because you’ll be so tired by bedtime.
Proper rest will change your ENTIRE life, so I suggest you prioritize getting enough sleep and getting QUALITY sleep.
5 am Club Routine Tips
Here are a few tips to help you get the most out of your 5 am club routine.
1. Adjust gradually
If waking up early is new to you (looking at my freelancers and students), don’t try to jump from 10 am to 5 am. Gradually adjust your wake-up time, allow your bedtime to move with it, and eventually reach 5 am. Move it earlier by 15 or 20 minutes each day, adjusting your bedtime in unison.
2. Consistent bedtime
Getting enough sleep and rest is crucial, both for productivity and for your health and quality of life. Ensure you’re getting into bed early enough for 8-9 hours of sleep.
Consistency in sleep schedule is crucial to your wellbeing. It can be helpful to curate a wind-down routine that begins a couple hours before you want to be asleep.
3. Preparation
Get your morning routine ready the night before. This might be laying out your workout clothes, planning activities, or setting intentions.
4. Accountability partner
You might try to find a friend or a community who has the same goal of an early wake-up with a morning routine. This can keep you motivated and provide support if you hit any snags.
The 5 am Club routine is designed to help you take control of your mornings for greater productivity, focus, and overall well-being. It may take time to adjust, but many people who follow this routine find it to be a pretty transformative practice.
That said, it’s not for everyone! Build a productive morning routine that works for you and your lifestyle.
5 am Club Alternatives
If the 5 am Club idea isn’t vibing with you–or if you’ve given it an honest try and it just wasn’t working out–here are a few alternative routines you can consider.
1. The Miracle Morning
The Miracle Morning is similar to the 5 am Club, created by Hal Elrod. It focuses on a structured morning routine with flexible timing. The routine is based on the acronym SAVERS:
Silence: Meditation, mindfulness, or deep breathing.
Affirmations: Positive affirmations and gratitudes to set a good tone for the day.
Visualization: Visualizing your goals and desired outcomes for your day and/or life.
Exercise: Physical activity.
Reading: Personal development or educational material.
Scribing: Journaling/writing to reflect and plan your day.
You include some version of the above activities in your morning, but the amount of time you dedicate to them is up to you, creating a more flexible routine.
2. Night Owl Routine
Some people are just more productive at night, based on biological, genetic, and lifestyle differences. For example, people have different chronotypes (natural predispositions toward being more active during certain times of day), which are hypothesized to have evolved to keep a Night Watch group in communities.
If that sounds like you–you’ve just never been able to get to sleep or wake up at the times that everyone else seems to–the night owl routine might benefit you more than a morning-focused routine.
Instead of forcing yourself to wake up early, you could embrace your natural rhythm and create a productive routine for your evenings. This might include:
- Wind down: A calming activity to transition from work to relaxation. This is where an End Of Day routine comes in.
- Reflect: Journaling or reviewing your day’s accomplishments and challenges, and setting goals for the next day.
- Plan: Organize and prioritize tasks for tomorrow.
- Learn: Read or study a useful subject before bed, or implement a new habit.
- Move: It’s not typically recommended by health experts that people participate in heavy cardio before bed, but yoga or stretching can get your body relaxed and ready to sleep.
3. Power Hour
Power Hour is similar to the 5 am routine, focusing on a tight, dedicated hour of high-impact activities. It has a bit more flexibility than the 5 am club, because you chose your own activities. These might include:
- Exercise: 10-15 minutes of high-intensity workout.
- Mindfulness: 5-10 minutes of meditation.
- Learning: 10-15 minutes of reading or studying.
- Planning: 10-15 minutes to review goals and prioritize tasks.
6. Morning Pages
Popularized in The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, morning pages are three stream-of-consciousness journal pages that are to be written (preferably by hand) first thing in the morning. This helps clear out your brain, work through problems, plan your day, and get to know yourself.
This is recommended for artists of any kind, but the practice is helpful for anyone who wants to make positive changes, gain self awareness, and get more done in a day.
TL;DR
While the 5 am Club Morning Routine is popular for go-getters with a relevant genetic disposition, it’s not for everyone. Benefits for most people include increased focus, improved mental and physical health, and more productivity.
If this routine doesn’t work for you, I highly recommend building a morning routine of some kind, as its benefits are pretty universal. Experiment and customize your routine to best suit you and your goals, and start looking forward to the day ahead!
