Does getting up at the crack of dawn really hold the key to success? I decided¹ to try it and set my alarm for 5am for a week. Here are seven things I learned:

破晓时刻早早起床就能打开成功之门？我决定实验一下这个说法，在一周的时间里都把自己的闹钟设在早上5点钟。我有如下7点体会。

1. You suddenly have time to exercise

突然你有时间锻炼了

As someone who always prioritises her social life over her fitness, I’d for a long time told myself I didn’t have time for exercise. It turns out that when you get up four hours before you have to be at work, there’s so much time to fill you’d be silly not to get moving.

作为一个永远重视社交、轻视健康状况的人，长期以来我一直告诉自己我没时间去锻炼。后来我发现，当你在上班时间之前四小时起床的时候，你获得了非常充裕的时间，不去动一下就太蠢了。

2. You’ll feel smug

你会觉得有优越感

Exercising in my living room at 6am, whilst not only my flatmates but the majority of people everywhere were still asleep, felt kind of awesome².

早晨6点，当我的室友，以及周围大多数的人都还在睡梦中时，我已经在起居室里锻炼了，感觉自己棒棒哒！

3. You’re hungrier all day

你一整天都会更加饥饿

One of the nicer parts of getting up earlier was having the time to cook myself nice breakfasts at home. But being awake longer and eating breakfast earlier seemed to mean I was hungrier all day long.

早起的一大好处就是，我有时间在家给自己做一份丰盛的早餐。吃早餐的时间提前了，这就意味着一整天我都感到更加饥饿。

4. You have to cut short your social plans in the evening

你不得不把晚上的社交时间缩短

On an average day when I’d be getting up at my usual time of 7.15am, I’d go to bed around midnight. But if I had to get up at 5am, there was no way I could stay up that late.

平时我一般7点15起床，12点左右开始睡觉。但是如果我5点起床，就不可能熬夜到那个时间了。

5. You’ll look better

你的状态更好

I spent my mornings curling my hair, painting my nails and doing smokey eye makeup³ and was a little overwhelmed by the lovely comments on my “glowing complexion⁴” and “glorious hair.” My poor colleagues have had to go back to my regular look now.

我用早上的时间做发型，擦指甲油，画烟熏妆，大家对我“透亮的肤色”，“靓丽的指甲”赞不绝口，这些赞美让我非常精细。我可怜的同事们现在都回到我平时的样子了。

6. You hit a wall

你有点力不从心

On the first couple of days of my week as an early-riser, I didn’t even feel tired.

在早起这一周的头几天，我根本没觉得累。

And as the week wore on, the novelty wore off. By day five, I did not want to get up and was feeling really tired. When my friend cancelled our dinner plans for that evening, I was secretly thrilled that I could go home and go to bed. Which is most unlike me. The week felt so long.

随着时间一天天过去，新鲜感逐渐消退，到第五天的时候，我完全不想起床，感到疲惫极了。我的朋友取消了我们的晚餐之约，对此我暗中十分兴庆，想着我可以回家睡觉了。这太不像平时的我了。

7. You’ll be more efficient at work

你工作起来更有效率

Incredibly, I actually achieved more at work than usual and was surprisingly productive. I genuinely felt energised throughout most of the working day all week long. I was more focussed too.

难以置信的是，我能够比平时完成更多的工作，效率也出乎意料的高。在这一周中，我真切的感觉到自己几乎一整天都能量满满。我的注意力也更集中了。

Perhaps being productive first thing in the morning before you get to work does in fact make you more productive for the rest of the day.

在早晨一天的工作开始之前就让自己保持高效率，或许这样确实能让你一整天都效率更高。