Goodbye Night Owl. Hello 5AM Club.

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Hey my friend, ☕️ 

Happy Spring Day! Well, for those in SA :-)

Last week, I woke up every day at 530am and was in the office by around 7am.

Haven’t done this in years.

Mornings for the last few years have been a bit chaotic due to the hybrid in-office schedule. Some days in the office, some days at home.

When we moved from JHB to Cape Town, it came with a 100% in-office requirement for my role.

I saw an opportunity not just to change my address, but to change my life.

In Joburg, I was a night owl. Always working late, chasing deadlines, and convincing myself that “I get more done at night.”

In fact, it was not unusual to be putting the finishing touches on these very blog posts on Monday 1am…

My old routine had more in common with Captain Jack Sparrow than Robin Sharma.

Unpredictable. Chaotic. Somehow stumbling into results at the last possible second.

So, why did I make the shift? How did I do it?

Grab your coffee ☕️ 

Let’s chat!

The Problem with the Owl Life

Being a night owl worked…

But it also didn’t.

In JHB, I would often roll out of bed, grab a coffee, and stumble into the day already behind schedule.

With a mix of WFH and in-office days varying week-to-week at Discovery, it was tough to create a morning routine.

So I created a late night routine for work consistency.

But late nights have hidden costs:

• Reactive vs proactive — I always felt like i was catching up vs being on top of the day.

• Stress accumulation — starting the day a bit later often means you jump right into firefighting. This saps your energy and increases stress.

• Consistency is elusive — my calendar owned me instead of the other way around.

Jack Sparrow would’ve approved.

But I was tired of sailing in circles, drunk on caffeine instead of rum.

Living on the Back Foot is not ideal

Being constantly reactive eats away at confidence.

In JHB, my mornings felt like Jack Sparrow running across the beach with an entire tribe of angry islanders chasing him.

Emails, meetings, escalations. Everything was charging at me.

And I was scrambling, waving my arms, trying not to get skewered.

Jack Sparrow just stumbled forward.
But in management, stumbling is not strategy.

It’s survival.
It’s exhausting.
It’s unsustainable.
And it kills creativity.

So when the relocation came, I decided: The time is right for a drastic change.

Solution: The 5AM Reset

Enter The 5AM Club.

A simple idea from Robin Sharma: Own your mornings, and you elevate your life.

Wake up early. Spend the first hour on yourself before the world wakes up.

He breaks the first hour into three 20 min blocks of self mastery activities. The idea is to do this for 66 days to build a solid habit.

I decided to start small - just wake up early (530am), get ready quick, and head straight to the office. On the way, listen to some music, audio books and just reflect on things.

This gets at least the REFLECT and GROW parts of the model in. MOVE can come later.

Honestly, I hated it at first.
My body was wired for midnight oil. Not waking up early.
Also, it's still the last bit of winter left - ice cold and pitch black at 530am.

But the move made it easier to treat this like a (another) system reset. I did it last week mon-fri. And I’m determined to keep going for this week and slowly build towards 5AM.

Coming in early, I'm feeling a lot more on top of things.

Final Sip ☕️

Moving to CPT wasn’t just about changing my environment, it was about changing me. I left the night owl behind in Joburg. I brought an early bird into Cape Town.

If you feel like your day is always running you, ask yourself:

• What small reset can I make?

• How can I get on top of the day before it gets on top of me?

You don’t need a relocation to change. You just need to choose your own 5AM routine.

Don’t stagger through the day like a pirate.
Show up like a captain with a map, a compass, and a crew that trusts you.

Till next time, have a great week! ☕️ 

Vaugan

Chess Puzzle

Black to play and force mate

Move the pieces and try to solve here.

Check out this week’s sponsors before you go. Every click helps us keep the Scary Management Coffee Chat free for you :-)

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