I’ve never actually reflected on what it means to get up early, not by choice, just because I can’t go back to sleep and have had enough rest for the morning. Here’s what I find myself doing in these early hours when most of the East Coast of the United States is still asleep.

After I make my coffee, I find myself switching between BBC, Sky, France24, Bloomberg, and CNBC Europe. I reflect and write down my thoughts for the past 24-hours in addition to what I’d like to accomplish for the next day.

I consider topics of conversation on which I’d like to put into my writing portfolio — some are just two sentence ramblings; others are thoughtful paragraphs to turn into posts later.

I contemplate what world occurrences while I was asleep mean for me, my career, and second order impacts for the world-at-large. This not only allows me to find my own place in the world, but plan for contingencies for what might come next.

Synthesis is usually difficult, but it’s even more difficult when you’re just waking up. Exercising the brain to its maximum efficiency when you’re at peak energy for the day is vital for the use it or lose it mentality when you have that energy. Your mileage may vary as to when that occurs.

My maximum productivity oddly occurs at the early hours of the day, but it’s paramount that we all reflect how what happens around the world while we were sleeping, and how it makes us reposition our thoughts, actions, and forward momentum; can benefit contingency planning, alternative futures, and what our new day holds.

This was originally a post for LinkedIn on July 14, 2026