3 stupid habits I quit

Self-help content can make you feel like you’re never doing everything right. But you don’t have to feel bad when you’re not doing everything that self-help says you should.

That’s what this article is about.

Most self-help writers don’t even do everything ‘right’ themselves. They don’t practice all the life-hacks out there. And they break some of the self-help ‘rules’ or quit certain habits if it doesn’t serve them.

Right now, I’ll share three traditional self-help habits I quit because I think they’re stupid. I don’t like them. They didn’t serve my overall quality of life.

I want to clarify that these habits aren’t helpful to me, but they are life-changing for many others. I used to follow these habits but discovered they were counterproductive for me, personally.

But if these habits are helpful to you, please keep practicing them. Don’t fix anything that isn’t broken. Always do what helps you — not what someone (me, in this case) said on the internet.

Waking Up At 5–6 AM

I tried waking up at 5–6 am because dozens of self-help books preach this is the secret to success. Well, for me, it definitely isn’t. When I wake up that early, it feels like I’ve been hit by a freight train.

Even if I sleep 7–8 hours, the first few hours of the day are fuzzy, unproductive, and simply not fun when I wake up that early.

First, I thought there was something wrong with me. But, after years of researching sleep and experimenting with my optimal wake-up time, I’ve found that I’m most productive when I wake up between 7–8 am.

As it turns out, everyone has a fixed chronotype — a genetically programmed sleep-wake cycle — which makes everyone’s optimal wake-up time different. This is what most self-help gurus don’t tell you when they say you should wake up between 5–6 am.

According to Matthew Walker, author of Why We Sleep, there are three different chronotypes:

Morning larks (natural wake up time between 5–6 am)

In between chronotype (natural wake up time around 7–8 am)

Night owls (natural wake up time around 9–10 am)

If your chronotype is the ‘night owl’ or the ‘in-between chronotype’, you can try your hardest to build the habit of waking up at 5–6 am, but you're fighting a battle against your genetically programmed chronotype. You’re fighting against your own DNA — and that’s a tough battle to win.

This is something that most self-help gurus completely skip when they recommend waking up at 5–6 am. Besides, they make you feel like your odds of success dramatically decrease when you don’t wake up early — which isn’t true. For example:

Mark Zuckerberg wakes up at around 8 am

Winston Churchill would get out of bed at 11 am

Pharrell Williams wakes up at around 9 am

J.R.R. Tolkien (author of The Lord of The Rings) was known to wake up late

What matters more than waking up early is living in sync with your biological chronotype. This means waking up and going to bed according to your chronotype — not according to the advice from self-help gurus.

Living in sync with your biological chronotype maximizes your energy, productivity, and cognitive performance much more than simply ‘waking up early’ because someone says you have to.

This is why I gave up waking at 5–6 am. These days, my alarm clock goes at 8 am, and I’ve never been more productive.

Giving Up Alcohol

Alright, let me start by saying that, obviously, alcohol isn’t healthy. And respect to you if you don’t drink alcohol. I understand that alcohol, for some people, can lead to big problems.

But for me, it’s just too much fun to give up entirely. Even though self-help says I should.

There was a time where I didn’t drink any alcohol because I read on the internet this would help me achieve my goals.

It didn’t help anything. It only made me less fun at parties.

Drinking every now and then isn’t going to make you less productive or less successful. It’s BS.

I’ve had some of my most epic nights after a few (or more than a few) drinks. I’ve forged some of the strongest friendships after a drunk night out. And I’ve even had some of my most profitable business ideas after a few glasses of whisky.

If I’d religiously followed self-help advice, I wouldn’t have had these experiences. To me, that’s not worth it.

Of course, if you’re getting drunk every weekend, you might want to reconsider your behavior. When drinking alcohol becomes habitual, it starts to mess with your mental clarity and overall health. Alcohol shouldn’t interfere with building the life you want.

Nevertheless, drinking alcohol every now and then won’t decrease your odds of success, and it won’t make you an unproductive person, even though self-help content says so.

Giving Up Entertainment

I read it again, and again, and again: Cancel your Netflix subscription, sell your Playstation, delete your social media account. Stop all the mindless entertainment and focus exclusively on your goals.

So, I tried exactly that. After reading it so often, I thought giving up entertainment was necessary to become successful.

And you know what happened?

I became grumpy.

I became too serious.

I lost a ton of mental energy.

Turns out, if I don’t do that ‘stupid’ stuff, I’m much less happy. And being less happy doesn't improve your performance at work at all. One study showed that happy people are 13% more productive than their lesser happy peers.

I noticed this myself as well. By giving up all entertainment, I was leaking mental energy, which made me less inspired and productive at work. For me, it was counterproductive.

You don’t have to give up entertainment to become successful. Really, it’s complete BS. You can have both.

As long as you ‘leave it all on the field’ during the workday, it’s totally okay to watch your favorite Netflix shows, play video games, or scroll through your social media feed.

Here’s the deal: When you work, fully do the work. Don’t let yourself get distracted by social media, YouTube, or anything else. Be focused. Get your tasks done. No excuses.

But, after you’ve ‘paid your dues’, you can do whatever you want. You don’t have to live like a Spartan to achieve great things, you know. Don’t let the self-help industry trick you into believing that you need to sacrifice all of the fun stuff in order to achieve big things. It’s simply not true.

As today is a highly productive day, I’ll definitely be playing some video games with my friends tonight :)