One of my New Year’s resolutions is to train my body clock to jolt awake at 4am. Why? Because I want more hours in the day, and truth be told, it’s the only uninterrupted time I get to myself.

Any man in his mid-30s working for himself knows the hustle is real, especially when you have a family depending on you.

“How will I pay the mortgage? What school will I send my kids to? How will I grow my business this year?”

Heavy, life-altering questions swirl through my head as I stand in the kitchen in nothing but my underwear shovelling boiled eggs into my mouth.

But how does waking at 4am actually help? I’m exhausted and my brain isn’t firing properly. Should I rest so I can operate at 100 percent, or stay the course? Does this work? Or am I wasting precious sleep hours? I did some research and found out that, yes it does work and is alarmingly affective.

1. The early bird catches the worm
Research suggests people who wake early are more likely to anticipate problems and take proactive steps to solve them. Why? Because morning people tackle high-priority tasks first.

I read a book years ago called ‘Eat That Frog’, which uses the metaphor that if you eat a frog first thing in the morning, everything else that day tastes better. It’s the same idea as ripping off the Band-Aid. Deal with the hard thing early and free up mental space for everything else.

In short, morning people tend to be more productive.

2. Clearing the runway
I need time for my brain and body to switch on before life pulls me in every direction. If I don’t get that space, I get frustrated.

For the two hours before my Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu class, I slow things down. I read, meditate, practice gratitude, pray, and visualise what I want in life. I have a very active imagination, and I need to take it for a spin so it doesn’t hijack my focus later. Like walking your dog so it doesn’t destroy the furniture.

If I don’t allocate this time, my brain feels like a messy closet that’s always sitting in the background waiting to be cleaned. Those quiet two hours feel like clearing the runway so the rest of the day can actually take off like a Qantas  Boeing 747.

3. Discipline
If you’re anything like me and spent your 20s partying, avoiding accountability, eating cake for breakfast, and doing whatever you felt like, you probably lack discipline.

I was a TV presenter, radio host, and comedian living solo around the country for many years. I didn’t need discipline, so I never built it. It was fun. I lived in the moment and indulged in all of the fast-release dopamine behaviours that only feel good short term. But my health paid the price. I got miserable, depressed and developed a wicked dadbod (before being a dad)

I drank too much, ate whatever I wanted, and worked out every other day to think I looked good on the dance floor. What an idiot.

Like many people, I get addicted easily. Recently, I became obsessed with a game on my phone called Eatventure. It’s a kids’ game where you start with a lemonade stand and reinvest until you’re running a fast-food empire.

I had to delete it. It was taking up way too much time. But it taught me something important.

Invest in the product.