I started getting up at 5am to write during NaNoWriMo and I've never looked back! Now I get up everyday at 5 to write and I feel like I'm getting so much done! But you're right...I think it probably works best if you're already a morning person.
As a night owl who does most of her writing from 10 pm to 3 am, it would probably be easier for me to stay up until 5 am than to wake up at 5 am. I think I’m allergic to waking up early 😂😂
This is what you call dedication to the experiment. I would get up for like two days and finally decide I was done with it even though I love getting up early.
Bahaha! I think I only managed to make it the second week because I genuinely loved it!! There have been other experiments I've done where I've DREADED continuing them with the parameters I set.
I'm a night writer. :) My workday is from midnight to 8 AM. I wake up at 10 PM to do my wake-up routine then. I also use that time to make the meal and snacks I'll be eating during my workday. My wordcount tracker doesn't actually begin counting until midnight, so writing before then feels counterproductive to accurate tracking. I like to use the 10 PM to midnight time to catch up if I haven't hit my word count from earlier. I write with a buddy at 6 AM my time and work for two hours in a working zoom call. She has her projects and I have mine. We check-in at the beginning, middle, and end.
As a night-time writer, waking up at 3 am actually helps because 3 am is basically night. But I only do this sometimes because the schedule is definitely not sustainable but yeah. >
I'm definitely a night time writer. I usually start writing at 9 or 10 pm and keep writing at least until midnight. Sometimes, if my writing brain is really on fire, I'll keep writing until 1 or 2 am. My brain is just most clear when it is dark and quiet and I've had all day to think about my story. I don't know why, but it works!
you are committed, I will give ya that! You always are doing some sort of experiment, and I can not seem to get enough! Love how authentic of a person you are, and I want ya to know I adore you and love your content! Thanks for being you, Kate.
16:00 - I am literally the same! I am massively productive in the early morning. My brain is awake at 630am and I like getting all work-related projects/tasks done first. This leaves me with the rest of the day to focus on writing and other personal creativity. I do wish I could have my night routine back to 1030pm bedtime, but I live with 10 people (I have many siblings and not all live here either!), and it's impossible to sleep before 1130pm.
This is exactly why I love working early in the morning. That good good feel of ACCOMPLISHMENT. I get so much done before people in my writers group even WAKE UP. Ahhhh. It’s soo nice lol.
Morning person here! HOWEVER!! I've actually found that I prefer to prioritize reading in the morning because I know that I won't have the energy/motivation to do it in the evening. I wake up at 6am, do a short writing sprint while my morning tea is brewing, then read for about an hour while I drink it. Sometimes I do a bit more writing after reading, but more often than not, that's when I get ready for work. I'll take breaks between meetings to scribble down thoughts and ideas in my notebook throughout the work day, and then I sit down after dinner and finish my words for the day in the evening. My creative brain isn't always the best in the evening, but writing is one of the few things that's important enough to me that I will make myself get the words done before bed. I simply won't do that with reading or exercise, so I try to knock those out first to avoid skipping them. That being said, though, if I didn't have to clock into my day job, I would definitely do both my reading and writing in the morning (like I do on the weekends), so maybe 5am is something I should try XD
I've been doing 5am this January too, but livestreams were too distracting/stimulating that hour so I haven't been joining but I'm also hooked 😂 Speaking of mornings so early they're like the middle of the night, I did a 3:30am barista shift for a couple of years. I took the 2:30am train when the weather was too bad to bike in. It was the loud at after-bar-close train, v surreal to be sipping my tea on my way to work in the middle of all that lol (and on daylight savings it was the 1:30am train fskdibd 🙅🏻♂️)
OMG 2:30 (OR 1:30 HOLY SHIT). I can picture the contrast so easily!! And yay for 5am writing mornings! Definitely understand why the livestreams would be distracting bahaha.
@@KateCavanaugh luckily it was only ever that one sunday a year i had to do that 1:30 train for a 3:30 shift deal but it was still like 3-4 times overall (& i was late for most of them but no one else knew what was going on either so they weren’t mad lol; 2-3am is the hour that doesn’t exist so 2:30am alarms just disappear that day)
I could never wake up at 5 am to write. On the other hand, I am planning on waking up at 3am and writing for an hour, for a week as an experiment, which might be just as bad. If you’re looking for another challenge...
I'm usually a night owl, but I decided to challenge myself and go to 2 of your 5am streams (6am for me, but still). I was surprised by how much I loved it! I was more productive with writing than I had been in months. I guess it taught me that it has way more to do with mindset than I thought. When I was waking up to hang out with you guys, I was much more positive than I would have been by myself, so I had more positive feelings toward the idea of 'waking up early'. I will be testing this out for a longer period of time soon, but I think this experiment may have permanently shifted my sleep schedule!
I learned about power naps from my Highschool math teacher. First thing he taught us is that is okay to have a 10 to 15 min nap as long as we jot down what he taught and did our math exercises. He even allowed 5 min naps in between doing the exercises.
Night writer here. I did a 10pm to 3am and 3am-4am writing time experiment (where I tried writing like Maria V. Snyder) which was awesome when I was on a break from teaching. I was way more productive when I spent the day/mid day doing what I wanted and then came to my writing feeling relaxed and fresh ^^
As a night owl here! How the 5am writers club would translate for me, and I have done so on the odd occasion when I had either 2 weeks of work or when I had those sweet summer hoilday from education, I would do staying up till 4am. Write from 10pm-3am ish and then read until sleep and wake up anywhere between 11am and 1pm. Always when I get my best work done. 😁 Glad you enjoyed it so much!!
This is what you call dedication! I would love to try this, but after a few days, I would say, no... I"m done with this even though I love to get up early. My brain likes to work in the morning and at night, but during the day it's just done with everything, and as soon as the sun starts to set it lights up and is like "ok! Time to get work done!"
OKAY. I actually feel somewhat similar? If I could just sleep from noon to 6pm and then do whatever I wanted the rest of the day, I feel like I'd be way more productive. Because I do love the ambiance of night writing, I just get too sleepy when waking up at 6:30 (or, now, 5:00am). There's definitely something about the afternoon that my brain just shuts down on bahaha.
@@KateCavanaugh Oh good grief! This is my life! Up at 5ish, productive until 1:00, then nap on and off until 5 p.m., then awake and working for another 2 hours or 3, then bed where I entertain myself with iPad until I fall asleep. I feel so much more normal now. *laughing*
Great experiment! And I am all for the earlier Twitch streams. 10 a.m. for you is 8 a.m for me. Lovely!!! I have been getting up at 5 for years. The irony? now that you are doing it, my body has decided it wants to stay in bed until 6:00 a.m. LOL Another fun video. Sending you cyber hugs and best wishes! :D
I've tried to be a morning writer but I'm definitely a nighttime writer. In an ideal world where I didn't have a day job, I'd do a biphasic sleep schedule, do the bulk of my writing from 11pm to 3am, and have a longer afternoon nap/second sleep around 3pm to 7pm.
I am a night time writer. I tend to start around 10 -11 and finish around 1 - 2:30am. Its not really working though because i have a typical 9-6pm job so those early mornings really get you I dont think I could do 5am but ive set my alarm for 6:30 tomorrow so maybe I'll get in an extra hour before work!
OMGGGGG. Are you the one driving for your commute? I'd love to see a commuter vlog of writing (if that's possible, depending on how crowded a train got). Maybe you could try dictation? I don't even know. I wouldn't wish getting up for a 3am writers club on my worst enemy bahaha. BUT please let me know if you're able to do it, decide to try it out!! I'll be so curious how it goes for you!
@@KateCavanaugh I bike! In Winter! In the North! At 5am! I might be crazy enough to try writing during that time based on precedent but usually I use that time (half hour one way) to listen to audiobooks in my first language or podcasts that support my ongoing second language learning
@@pschlapper omg yr a beast 👊🏼 I bike commuted in the north for years but I early mornings in the winter was a hard no (10 miles at 2:30am in a not so busy area... if something happened I could've died of hypothermia before sunrise lol. esp since cold likes to kill phone batteries 🥶)
@@mparker6278 definitely the right choice! I ride in a city and usually see a few joggers at least. I also have a great coworker who also works early & makes it clear they aren't above driving along my route to track me down if I don't show up or answer my phone 😅
Midday naps are key to either getting up early or staying up late. I'm a night owl and I need to be able to take a nap. Before the boys, I was an afternoon break night writer, now I'm strictly a night writer. I did notice something, you favor longer sprints at 5 am than you do for your other sprints. You have shorter sprints in there too and a good warm-up, but I did notice in the rewatch that you were keener on the longer sprints than you've been on other lives. I don't know if you noticed that, I liked it because I sometimes find myself rewinding a sprint a few minutes because I'm in the middle of a thought or I'm on a flow and since I can do that on the rewatch it's great. Good luck with the rest of the experiment.
THANK YOU SO MUCH for pointing that out!! I hadn't noticed that but it works hand in hand with my theory on it being my "best brain" bahaha. I just want to get the words in then and I'm in the zone! So longer sprints it is. This is something I'll be on the lookout for now bahaha.
I'm usually just falling asleep at 5am so it's a big no for me lol I normally write from 1 to 3 am so... I guess that's kind of it? Idk 😄 also I'm just can't do anything when I wake up, my brain doesn't function, I admire you for doing this!
So I've been waking up at 5am (well, 4:45 technically) every day since Saturday now, and it's honestly been the best. I'm also an A-person, who works best if I've fallen asleep before midnight and wake up before 8 in the morning, which probably has something to do with it. It also helps that no one else is awake at that time, which gives me some proper "me-time" to just chill and focus on writing without distractions (also probably smart to mention: it's only two years ago since I had to wake up at 5:30/6AM because of school, so the change wasn't that big for me anyway)
I used to be the definition of a "night person." Did all my writing, all my everything at night. Problem is... that was because of a sleep disorder that I was able to ignore as a child and teen, because I didn't have responsibilities. But when I got into college (and later, into the workplace), I had to start being very strict about my nighttime routine, in order to counteract the disorder. Over the course of a year, I turned myself into a morning person because of this, and now I can't write past 11am!
I'm mostly a mid-morning to mid-afternoon writer if I have the time/am not working. But I'm trying the 5am writing thing after watching Mandi Lynn, Bethany Atazadeh, and Brittany Wang doing theirs. I debated not doing it, but then you were doing it, and Sarah Sutton and Zara Hoffman were doing it and I was like "I just gotta do it" and here we are. 😂😂😂
I love feeling accomplished early in the day like you were talking about 😃 I don't want to get up at 4 though, I already get up at five to get ready to teach school, lol!
Whenever I wake up. That may be morning, afternoon, or night tho. But just right after I wake up is best for my writing. Especially before food. Sadly, I cannot do this every day cuz I am typically woken up for a reason n immediately have to do something when I wake up. If I force myself to wake up early to write, it just doesn't work.
I prefer writing in the middle of the night. I try to get up at 5, exercise for half hour. Get ready for work and do dishes and the write until 7am when I leave. Tried getting up at 4am. Can do that for a little bit in summer when the sun is up at that time for a couple of week. In the long run does not work. Currently trying to sleep between 7pm and 11pm get up for two hour and then write and work on other projects. Go back to bed at 1am until 5am. I come home from work exhausted most evenings so currently using the time between getting home as me time to wind down for the day. Had less migraines since I started sleeping like this. I feel more alert for my projects.
I am able to wake up at 5 to write before and have done it for an entire nanowrimo. I’m 100% a morning person and love getting up early. The problem for me is how useless I become with the cold weather. So in winter, My entire routine gets halved because I just don’t have the emotional? energy to do all of it. On the other hand, I’m perfectly fine at doing everything I need to in the summer while everyone else is trying to blast the ac to the max.
I'm usually awake by 4 a.m. but I linger in bed several hours. I need to get up if I'm gonna do this. A few more weeks of January so I might try this. I'm lately an afternoon writer after years of night writing.
This was super interesting. As a night time writer I could never do this. Mornings are the worst, least productive time for me. When you said you go to bed at 8pm I thought that's when I am most awake in the day haha.
January 6th was rough. I was emailing work and then was totally derailed. I emailed my boss the next day and apologized with the events as reason. She agreed she had done the same thing. It was a rough time. I’m excited for tomorrow so much.
Embrace the naps! It's more in tune with what our bodies want and once you work it into your life you just feel so energized! Especially if you take coffee naps, which are probably my favorite thing ever. 💖
This is definitely inspiring me to go back to waking up earlier...but wow waking up in the dark is hard! I noticed you seemed to do longer sprints-maybe you’re in a better flow?❤️ As a morning writer too, I find my first 1.5-2 hours after waking up are the most creative, flow state times since my brain isn’t all the way awake. Good luck with the rest of the experiment!
It's so funny how I didn't notice that at all, but y'all are picking up on it!! I definitely think there's an extra magic to it that makes me more interested in longer sprints. Definitely agree that waking up in the dark is hard! It helped me to turn on juuuuust enough light besides the glow from my computers. (Also I try to down an entire cup of water in the first ten minutes or so, then coffee after an hour. That helps a ton!) And thank you!! :)
Goodness, Kate-you have me wanting to try this! I recently weaned myself off caffeine, which has actually made waking up easier. I’ll let you know if I make it to 5:00 am! ✨✨
I've joined in for about three of these because I still haven't fallen asleep by 5am. I'm not a morning person at all. I'd like to be but I don't sleep well. Surprisingly I got about 500 words when participating in a morning sprint. It's more than usual. I don't know why.
I’ve been inspired to try this but for my uni work. I’m a morning person like yourself Kate but I have thought before that maybe if I woke up earlier, I normally wake up at 7am, I would get more work done. Even tho I am in my late 20s I do live with my family so I think I’d have to pre-warn them first so I don’t wake them up 😂 also I’d need to sort out my sleeping schedule in order to get my sleep cos again, like you Kate, if I don’t get enough sleep this girl doesn’t function properly 😅
As a person that is usually awake until 5am and then sleeps until 2pm. I would never be able to do this experiment. I think my brain would break lol I get my best writing in after 10pm, morning writing has never worked for me.
I wish I could do this, but unfortunately school causes me to literally have like six or seven hours of work after school, not to mention real work, and the fact I ain't a morning routine. Nonetheless rlly inspiring and cool that you can do this and loved it👌❤️❤️
Do you think you feel the same writing early in the morning versus at night? I tend to write later at night, probably because college takes priority right now. But I am interested in trying the 5am sprints as a way to get in more writing.
I've found I'm an afternoon writer and I just can't get up early enough for the 5am Writer Club. I have tried multiple times to get up that early and have never managed it.
Interesting. For me it's easy to wake up at 5 but not easy to get up at 5. I am a nighttime writer (more so because when I start writing in the morning, it's all i do all day --which is not good as a full time student lol)
can I please just say I am very intrigued by your word count tracker on google docs, do you have a video about that or are you willing to share your tracking system?
I don’t know it something like 5am Writers Club would work for me. I work nights. So I don’t get up until 7:30pm and leave for work a little after 10. Between that is dinner/breakfast and putting my son to bed. I get off work a little after 7am, drive home, rush to shower, then watch my son until my mom picks him up at noon. Go to bed, rinse, and repeat. Right now I can only squeeze writing either at work or on the weekends.
Absolutely!!! I don't think it's for everyone and it definitely caters to a sort of personality/preference already. Even when I was working a typical corporate job of 9 to 5, I'd try to get up an hour early and failed most days. (Because I'd be staying up late to work and then wouldn't be getting enough sleep.) I'm consistently amazed by parents that are able to fit writing in to their routine in bursts, especially with young children!!
I’m not sure if she invented it but I’m pretty sure Karma Brown was definitely instrumental in popularizing #5amwritersclub on Twitter-and she just published a book about it! It's called The 4% Fix; I read it recently and it was pretty interesting. She talks a lot about how to maximize the time.
My first alarm for work goes off at 5am. I guess I could actually do some writing instead of going back to sleep. I'm exhausted no matter what I do due to health reasons, so the loss of a half hour probably wouldn't kill me 😂
I woke up with you at 5 (6 for me) for each stream. They were productive, but nothing special. i'm a morning writer, I guess. Most of my writing gets done before 12 pm
5am is not for me. I'm a night owl and do most of my writing between midnight and 5am. It works out perfect since I work as a caregiver for a disabled person in their home, and I work nights, and at night there isn't to much to do physical there. And that gives me pretty much free time to write. 😆👍
I do not exist between the hours of 4 and 7AM. Are you a morning, afternoon, or night-time writer? *I'm probably closest to a night-time writer, though the older I get the harder it is to not be super tired by night-time. I honestly think my ideal schedule involves getting up around 9am and taking a healthy nap around three or so. Have you tried the 5am writing experiment before? What did you think? (And what do you think an equivalent for a nighttime writer would be? Stay up an hour or so later??) * No. As previously stated, I do not exist between the hours of 4 and 7AM. That day I poked my head in on the livestream it was 7:45AM my time and I was still groggy lol
Oooh that's great to know! I deleted my Facebook account forever ago but I think others (that didn't know) would really enjoy joining!! Thanks for sharing Sonya! :)
Sarah Sutton is doing the 5am experiment with me this week and she's a TOTAL night owl & she's updating us with daily vlogs so I guess you can see how a night owl is handling it: th-cam.com/video/jYXmMAB5wKc/w-d-xo.html And thank you SO much for the shoutout!!!
The first 1000 people to use the link will get a free trial of Skillshare Premium Membership: skl.sh/katecavanaugh01211
I started getting up at 5am to write during NaNoWriMo and I've never looked back! Now I get up everyday at 5 to write and I feel like I'm getting so much done! But you're right...I think it probably works best if you're already a morning person.
I agree. I have a day job and have to fit my writing in when I can. I also find there are less distractions that early. 😂
As a night owl who does most of her writing from 10 pm to 3 am, it would probably be easier for me to stay up until 5 am than to wake up at 5 am. I think I’m allergic to waking up early 😂😂
Same here!! 🙋 😀
Same lol although I can do both ish but I prefer doing it in the night.
This is what you call dedication to the experiment. I would get up for like two days and finally decide I was done with it even though I love getting up early.
Bahaha! I think I only managed to make it the second week because I genuinely loved it!! There have been other experiments I've done where I've DREADED continuing them with the parameters I set.
I'm a night writer. :) My workday is from midnight to 8 AM. I wake up at 10 PM to do my wake-up routine then. I also use that time to make the meal and snacks I'll be eating during my workday. My wordcount tracker doesn't actually begin counting until midnight, so writing before then feels counterproductive to accurate tracking. I like to use the 10 PM to midnight time to catch up if I haven't hit my word count from earlier.
I write with a buddy at 6 AM my time and work for two hours in a working zoom call. She has her projects and I have mine. We check-in at the beginning, middle, and end.
As a certified morning person, I can guarantee you waking up as early as possible is ALWAYS the best idea!!
Some days I finish my work at 11AM!!
As a night-time writer, waking up at 3 am actually helps because 3 am is basically night. But I only do this sometimes because the schedule is definitely not sustainable but yeah. >
5:19 the craving for waffles hit me so hard my mouth is watering XD
I'm definitely a night time writer. I usually start writing at 9 or 10 pm and keep writing at least until midnight. Sometimes, if my writing brain is really on fire, I'll keep writing until 1 or 2 am. My brain is just most clear when it is dark and quiet and I've had all day to think about my story. I don't know why, but it works!
Also, I have really severe insomnia so the only way I can fall asleep is if I tire my mind as well as my body. Morning writing just wouldn't work haha
you are committed, I will give ya that! You always are doing some sort of experiment, and I can not seem to get enough! Love how authentic of a person you are, and I want ya to know I adore you and love your content! Thanks for being you, Kate.
16:00 - I am literally the same! I am massively productive in the early morning. My brain is awake at 630am and I like getting all work-related projects/tasks done first. This leaves me with the rest of the day to focus on writing and other personal creativity. I do wish I could have my night routine back to 1030pm bedtime, but I live with 10 people (I have many siblings and not all live here either!), and it's impossible to sleep before 1130pm.
This is exactly why I love working early in the morning. That good good feel of ACCOMPLISHMENT. I get so much done before people in my writers group even WAKE UP. Ahhhh. It’s soo nice lol.
Morning person here! HOWEVER!! I've actually found that I prefer to prioritize reading in the morning because I know that I won't have the energy/motivation to do it in the evening. I wake up at 6am, do a short writing sprint while my morning tea is brewing, then read for about an hour while I drink it. Sometimes I do a bit more writing after reading, but more often than not, that's when I get ready for work.
I'll take breaks between meetings to scribble down thoughts and ideas in my notebook throughout the work day, and then I sit down after dinner and finish my words for the day in the evening. My creative brain isn't always the best in the evening, but writing is one of the few things that's important enough to me that I will make myself get the words done before bed. I simply won't do that with reading or exercise, so I try to knock those out first to avoid skipping them.
That being said, though, if I didn't have to clock into my day job, I would definitely do both my reading and writing in the morning (like I do on the weekends), so maybe 5am is something I should try XD
That's sounds amazing!
Trying my best to find a suitable routine.
I've been doing 5am this January too, but livestreams were too distracting/stimulating that hour so I haven't been joining but I'm also hooked 😂
Speaking of mornings so early they're like the middle of the night, I did a 3:30am barista shift for a couple of years. I took the 2:30am train when the weather was too bad to bike in. It was the loud at after-bar-close train, v surreal to be sipping my tea on my way to work in the middle of all that lol (and on daylight savings it was the 1:30am train fskdibd 🙅🏻♂️)
OMG 2:30 (OR 1:30 HOLY SHIT). I can picture the contrast so easily!! And yay for 5am writing mornings! Definitely understand why the livestreams would be distracting bahaha.
@@KateCavanaugh luckily it was only ever that one sunday a year i had to do that 1:30 train for a 3:30 shift deal but it was still like 3-4 times overall (& i was late for most of them but no one else knew what was going on either so they weren’t mad lol; 2-3am is the hour that doesn’t exist so 2:30am alarms just disappear that day)
I could never wake up at 5 am to write. On the other hand, I am planning on waking up at 3am and writing for an hour, for a week as an experiment, which might be just as bad. If you’re looking for another challenge...
First off Sarah: how? Second off Sarah: why? Bahaha. YOU CAN DO IT, GOOD LUCK, I COULD NEVER.
@@BrianPacini Don't bring politics into a writing video
I'm usually a night owl, but I decided to challenge myself and go to 2 of your 5am streams (6am for me, but still). I was surprised by how much I loved it! I was more productive with writing than I had been in months. I guess it taught me that it has way more to do with mindset than I thought. When I was waking up to hang out with you guys, I was much more positive than I would have been by myself, so I had more positive feelings toward the idea of 'waking up early'. I will be testing this out for a longer period of time soon, but I think this experiment may have permanently shifted my sleep schedule!
I learned about power naps from my Highschool math teacher. First thing he taught us is that is okay to have a 10 to 15 min nap as long as we jot down what he taught and did our math exercises. He even allowed 5 min naps in between doing the exercises.
Night writer here. I did a 10pm to 3am and 3am-4am writing time experiment (where I tried writing like Maria V. Snyder) which was awesome when I was on a break from teaching. I was way more productive when I spent the day/mid day doing what I wanted and then came to my writing feeling relaxed and fresh ^^
As a night owl here!
How the 5am writers club would translate for me, and I have done so on the odd occasion when I had either 2 weeks of work or when I had those sweet summer hoilday from education, I would do staying up till 4am. Write from 10pm-3am ish and then read until sleep and wake up anywhere between 11am and 1pm. Always when I get my best work done. 😁
Glad you enjoyed it so much!!
This is what you call dedication! I would love to try this, but after a few days, I would say, no... I"m done with this even though I love to get up early. My brain likes to work in the morning and at night, but during the day it's just done with everything, and as soon as the sun starts to set it lights up and is like "ok! Time to get work done!"
OKAY. I actually feel somewhat similar? If I could just sleep from noon to 6pm and then do whatever I wanted the rest of the day, I feel like I'd be way more productive. Because I do love the ambiance of night writing, I just get too sleepy when waking up at 6:30 (or, now, 5:00am). There's definitely something about the afternoon that my brain just shuts down on bahaha.
@@KateCavanaugh Oh good grief! This is my life! Up at 5ish, productive until 1:00, then nap on and off until 5 p.m., then awake and working for another 2 hours or 3, then bed where I entertain myself with iPad until I fall asleep. I feel so much more normal now. *laughing*
Great experiment! And I am all for the earlier Twitch streams. 10 a.m. for you is 8 a.m for me. Lovely!!! I have been getting up at 5 for years. The irony? now that you are doing it, my body has decided it wants to stay in bed until 6:00 a.m. LOL Another fun video. Sending you cyber hugs and best wishes! :D
Yay!!! It'll be 10am for at least a few weeks as I feel out how I like it! :) all the cyber hugs back!!
I've tried to be a morning writer but I'm definitely a nighttime writer. In an ideal world where I didn't have a day job, I'd do a biphasic sleep schedule, do the bulk of my writing from 11pm to 3am, and have a longer afternoon nap/second sleep around 3pm to 7pm.
I am a night time writer. I tend to start around 10 -11 and finish around 1 - 2:30am. Its not really working though because i have a typical 9-6pm job so those early mornings really get you
I dont think I could do 5am but ive set my alarm for 6:30 tomorrow so maybe I'll get in an extra hour before work!
"You get up early to force the time in" cue me trying to image a 3am writing club because I have to leave for my commute to work at 5 😭
OMGGGGG. Are you the one driving for your commute? I'd love to see a commuter vlog of writing (if that's possible, depending on how crowded a train got). Maybe you could try dictation? I don't even know. I wouldn't wish getting up for a 3am writers club on my worst enemy bahaha. BUT please let me know if you're able to do it, decide to try it out!! I'll be so curious how it goes for you!
@@KateCavanaugh I bike! In Winter! In the North! At 5am! I might be crazy enough to try writing during that time based on precedent but usually I use that time (half hour one way) to listen to audiobooks in my first language or podcasts that support my ongoing second language learning
@@pschlapper omg yr a beast 👊🏼 I bike commuted in the north for years but I early mornings in the winter was a hard no (10 miles at 2:30am in a not so busy area... if something happened I could've died of hypothermia before sunrise lol. esp since cold likes to kill phone batteries 🥶)
@@mparker6278 definitely the right choice! I ride in a city and usually see a few joggers at least. I also have a great coworker who also works early & makes it clear they aren't above driving along my route to track me down if I don't show up or answer my phone 😅
@@pschlapper love a supportive work fam 🖤
Midday naps are key to either getting up early or staying up late. I'm a night owl and I need to be able to take a nap. Before the boys, I was an afternoon break night writer, now I'm strictly a night writer.
I did notice something, you favor longer sprints at 5 am than you do for your other sprints. You have shorter sprints in there too and a good warm-up, but I did notice in the rewatch that you were keener on the longer sprints than you've been on other lives. I don't know if you noticed that, I liked it because I sometimes find myself rewinding a sprint a few minutes because I'm in the middle of a thought or I'm on a flow and since I can do that on the rewatch it's great.
Good luck with the rest of the experiment.
THANK YOU SO MUCH for pointing that out!! I hadn't noticed that but it works hand in hand with my theory on it being my "best brain" bahaha. I just want to get the words in then and I'm in the zone! So longer sprints it is. This is something I'll be on the lookout for now bahaha.
I'm usually just falling asleep at 5am so it's a big no for me lol I normally write from 1 to 3 am so... I guess that's kind of it? Idk 😄 also I'm just can't do anything when I wake up, my brain doesn't function, I admire you for doing this!
Because I still have to work a 9 to 5 job and have kids I get up at 3:00 a.m. right now lol. I write from 3:00 to about 4:30.
So I've been waking up at 5am (well, 4:45 technically) every day since Saturday now, and it's honestly been the best. I'm also an A-person, who works best if I've fallen asleep before midnight and wake up before 8 in the morning, which probably has something to do with it. It also helps that no one else is awake at that time, which gives me some proper "me-time" to just chill and focus on writing without distractions
(also probably smart to mention: it's only two years ago since I had to wake up at 5:30/6AM because of school, so the change wasn't that big for me anyway)
I used to be the definition of a "night person." Did all my writing, all my everything at night. Problem is... that was because of a sleep disorder that I was able to ignore as a child and teen, because I didn't have responsibilities. But when I got into college (and later, into the workplace), I had to start being very strict about my nighttime routine, in order to counteract the disorder. Over the course of a year, I turned myself into a morning person because of this, and now I can't write past 11am!
The 5am write in that I joined you for, I did enjoy. I'm just ready for the sun to wake up earlier, then getting up earlier is easier too.
I was so excited for this video!! :D
I'm mostly a mid-morning to mid-afternoon writer if I have the time/am not working. But I'm trying the 5am writing thing after watching Mandi Lynn, Bethany Atazadeh, and Brittany Wang doing theirs. I debated not doing it, but then you were doing it, and Sarah Sutton and Zara Hoffman were doing it and I was like "I just gotta do it" and here we are. 😂😂😂
I love feeling accomplished early in the day like you were talking about 😃 I don't want to get up at 4 though, I already get up at five to get ready to teach school, lol!
I've given up on trying to be a morning person...it's just not possible when you have insomnia...does not work!
Whenever I wake up. That may be morning, afternoon, or night tho. But just right after I wake up is best for my writing. Especially before food. Sadly, I cannot do this every day cuz I am typically woken up for a reason n immediately have to do something when I wake up. If I force myself to wake up early to write, it just doesn't work.
I love this so much... and I already have skillshare, so I'm definitely signing up for the essay writing class. Thanks for sharing!
I prefer writing in the middle of the night. I try to get up at 5, exercise for half hour. Get ready for work and do dishes and the write until 7am when I leave. Tried getting up at 4am. Can do that for a little bit in summer when the sun is up at that time for a couple of week. In the long run does not work.
Currently trying to sleep between 7pm and 11pm get up for two hour and then write and work on other projects. Go back to bed at 1am until 5am.
I come home from work exhausted most evenings so currently using the time between getting home as me time to wind down for the day. Had less migraines since I started sleeping like this. I feel more alert for my projects.
I am able to wake up at 5 to write before and have done it for an entire nanowrimo. I’m 100% a morning person and love getting up early. The problem for me is how useless I become with the cold weather. So in winter, My entire routine gets halved because I just don’t have the emotional? energy to do all of it. On the other hand, I’m perfectly fine at doing everything I need to in the summer while everyone else is trying to blast the ac to the max.
I'm usually awake by 4 a.m. but I linger in bed several hours. I need to get up if I'm gonna do this. A few more weeks of January so I might try this. I'm lately an afternoon writer after years of night writing.
Naps, naps, naps! They are the best!
This was super interesting. As a night time writer I could never do this. Mornings are the worst, least productive time for me. When you said you go to bed at 8pm I thought that's when I am most awake in the day haha.
Loved the video, but I was wondering if there was someplace to sign up for the newsletters? I can't find anything on the website.
January 6th was rough. I was emailing work and then was totally derailed. I emailed my boss the next day and apologized with the events as reason. She agreed she had done the same thing. It was a rough time. I’m excited for tomorrow so much.
Embrace the naps! It's more in tune with what our bodies want and once you work it into your life you just feel so energized! Especially if you take coffee naps, which are probably my favorite thing ever. 💖
This is definitely inspiring me to go back to waking up earlier...but wow waking up in the dark is hard! I noticed you seemed to do longer sprints-maybe you’re in a better flow?❤️ As a morning writer too, I find my first 1.5-2 hours after waking up are the most creative, flow state times since my brain isn’t all the way awake. Good luck with the rest of the experiment!
It's so funny how I didn't notice that at all, but y'all are picking up on it!! I definitely think there's an extra magic to it that makes me more interested in longer sprints. Definitely agree that waking up in the dark is hard! It helped me to turn on juuuuust enough light besides the glow from my computers. (Also I try to down an entire cup of water in the first ten minutes or so, then coffee after an hour. That helps a ton!)
And thank you!! :)
Goodness, Kate-you have me wanting to try this! I recently weaned myself off caffeine, which has actually made waking up easier. I’ll let you know if I make it to 5:00 am! ✨✨
I'm definitely a fringe person, as in I work best in the very morning and the very evening. I'm no so great mid-day. It's quite odd tbh
I've joined in for about three of these because I still haven't fallen asleep by 5am. I'm not a morning person at all. I'd like to be but I don't sleep well. Surprisingly I got about 500 words when participating in a morning sprint. It's more than usual. I don't know why.
I don't have a set time when I can write, it's more like whenever I have ideas and inspiration.
I’ve been inspired to try this but for my uni work. I’m a morning person like yourself Kate but I have thought before that maybe if I woke up earlier, I normally wake up at 7am, I would get more work done. Even tho I am in my late 20s I do live with my family so I think I’d have to pre-warn them first so I don’t wake them up 😂 also I’d need to sort out my sleeping schedule in order to get my sleep cos again, like you Kate, if I don’t get enough sleep this girl doesn’t function properly 😅
I'd prefer to sleep in the morning, but I wake up way too early. I tried avoiding midday naps to get a full night's sleep, didn't work.
For suree a night time writer! You were getting up at 5am, and I was going to bed at 5 am haha
As a person that is usually awake until 5am and then sleeps until 2pm. I would never be able to do this experiment. I think my brain would break lol I get my best writing in after 10pm, morning writing has never worked for me.
I think I might join this club even though it will kill me~
Awesome video!
Right as you were putting the waffles in the toaster oven, an ad cut in... for Eggos. The internet is scary.
I wish I could do this, but unfortunately school causes me to literally have like six or seven hours of work after school, not to mention real work, and the fact I ain't a morning routine. Nonetheless rlly inspiring and cool that you can do this and loved it👌❤️❤️
Do you think you feel the same writing early in the morning versus at night? I tend to write later at night, probably because college takes priority right now. But I am interested in trying the 5am sprints as a way to get in more writing.
I've found I'm an afternoon writer and I just can't get up early enough for the 5am Writer Club. I have tried multiple times to get up that early and have never managed it.
Interesting. For me it's easy to wake up at 5 but not easy to get up at 5. I am a nighttime writer (more so because when I start writing in the morning, it's all i do all day --which is not good as a full time student lol)
can I please just say I am very intrigued by your word count tracker on google docs, do you have a video about that or are you willing to share your tracking system?
I don’t know it something like 5am Writers Club would work for me. I work nights. So I don’t get up until 7:30pm and leave for work a little after 10. Between that is dinner/breakfast and putting my son to bed. I get off work a little after 7am, drive home, rush to shower, then watch my son until my mom picks him up at noon. Go to bed, rinse, and repeat. Right now I can only squeeze writing either at work or on the weekends.
Absolutely!!! I don't think it's for everyone and it definitely caters to a sort of personality/preference already. Even when I was working a typical corporate job of 9 to 5, I'd try to get up an hour early and failed most days. (Because I'd be staying up late to work and then wouldn't be getting enough sleep.)
I'm consistently amazed by parents that are able to fit writing in to their routine in bursts, especially with young children!!
@@KateCavanaugh My son is going to be two years old next month. I can’t get any writing done at home without him all up in my business. 😂
I’m not sure if she invented it but I’m pretty sure Karma Brown was definitely instrumental in popularizing #5amwritersclub on Twitter-and she just published a book about it! It's called The 4% Fix; I read it recently and it was pretty interesting. She talks a lot about how to maximize the time.
Meanwhile me at 9 am......ahhhh...uhhh.....can't even be bothered to write back to an email, need to wake up more.
You seem like the type that would enjoy the 5am writer's club. Me? My internal clock screams at the mere idea. lol Good video!
My first alarm for work goes off at 5am. I guess I could actually do some writing instead of going back to sleep. I'm exhausted no matter what I do due to health reasons, so the loss of a half hour probably wouldn't kill me 😂
My husband gets up for work at 3:45am, so I just get up at that time. It feels perfectly normal to me now!
I woke up with you at 5 (6 for me) for each stream. They were productive, but nothing special. i'm a morning writer, I guess. Most of my writing gets done before 12 pm
do you wake up AT 5 am and get straight to work or do you have some kind of morning routine first and start writing at 5?
I would usually get to writing by 5:10 or so! After letting the dogs out and filling up my water and getting situated. :)
That’s awesome! I’m happy to also be a member of this club. Except only...people *wake up* at 5 A.M., but I *stay awake* until 6😭
Bahahaha! The crossover between early birds and night owls is what makes it fun!!
5am is not for me. I'm a night owl and do most of my writing between midnight and 5am. It works out perfect since I work as a caregiver for a disabled person in their home, and I work nights, and at night there isn't to much to do physical there. And that gives me pretty much free time to write. 😆👍
I am a night-time writer!
I thought about doing this and then I was like “but sleep” 😂
I’ve always been a nighttime writer.
Instead of taking a nap at 2 maybe you should try to get your workout at that time.
❤️👌
Definitely an evening to nighttime writer. I would like to try this though but I would probably murder myself later because of it.
Lol noooo. 5am is time to go to bed, not wake up for me :)
I do not exist between the hours of 4 and 7AM.
Are you a morning, afternoon, or night-time writer?
*I'm probably closest to a night-time writer, though the older I get the harder it is to not be super tired by night-time. I honestly think my ideal schedule involves getting up around 9am and taking a healthy nap around three or so.
Have you tried the 5am writing experiment before? What did you think? (And what do you think an equivalent for a nighttime writer would be? Stay up an hour or so later??)
* No. As previously stated, I do not exist between the hours of 4 and 7AM.
That day I poked my head in on the livestream it was 7:45AM my time and I was still groggy lol
There is a five am club on Facebook.
Oooh that's great to know! I deleted my Facebook account forever ago but I think others (that didn't know) would really enjoy joining!! Thanks for sharing Sonya! :)
It’s run by Anna Vera
Sarah Sutton is doing the 5am experiment with me this week and she's a TOTAL night owl & she's updating us with daily vlogs so I guess you can see how a night owl is handling it: th-cam.com/video/jYXmMAB5wKc/w-d-xo.html
And thank you SO much for the shoutout!!!
Don't talk so fast. I can't take it.