Your support will help us tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to big technology, the independence is on the ground when stories develop. Whether you’re researching the finances of Elon Musk’s Pro-Trump PAC, or producing the latest documentary, The Words, we are shedding light on American women fighting for reproductive rights, but we know how important it is to analyze facts from a message.
At such a crucial moment in American history, we need a reporter on the ground. Your donation allows us to send journalists to continue talking to both sides of the story.
Independents are trusted by Americans throughout the political spectrum. Also, unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans from reports and analytics using paywalls. We believe that quality journalism should be available to everyone who is paid by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.
I Settle at 9am at my office desk and watch my coworkers wiping sleep out of their eyes. What they don’t know is that between 4:45am and 8:30am this morning, I went to the gym, meditated, eaten up lunch, tackled the fuss on my side, wrote in a thank-you magazine, and read chapters in the book Self-help book. I’ve even heard about productivity podcasts on my way to work. I am filled with the swing of the day, feeling energized and comfortable.
My mornings are usually lazy, but today it’s not. That’s not the case today as I’m watching corporate Gen Z-ers document themselves before work from 5am to 9pm or before running an action packed step-by-step wellness program for exercise, personal growth tasks, diet, diet, skincare and side histling. These routines are controlled and seem intense, but have great appeal. The 5-9 video style is recreated online by thousands of creators, with the hashtag #5to9routine having 35 million views on Tiktok alone. Under this tag, thousands of Gen Z workers will find something that shows how they will regain their time and personality and regain their corporate work.
Gen Z’s interest in maximizing productivity during these four golden hours is inspired by the rise of the “5am club.” This is a special group of superproductive superbings celebrating the benefits of rising dawn. Certainly people were always early risers (known Trendy The very act of awakening before the world is becoming increasingly common, though (and apparently one of these people) with celebrities who claim to be members of the club, including Jennifer Aniston, Mark Zuckerberg and Michelle Obama. There is also Gwyneth Paltrow. That morning routine consists of 30 minutes of tongue rubbing, Ayurvedic oil pull, 20 minutes of transcendental meditation and a dance workout. Thanks to bestselling self-help books including Robin Sharma’s, meeting points between productivity and wellness have become a popular cultural phenomenon in recent years. 5am clubHal Elrod A miraculous morning Adrian Herbert Power Hour James Clears Atomic habits. You can see that the same thing is happening at the club at 5pm.
Elena Asimakopoulosa 27-year-old marketing consultant living in London, began to rise at 5am when he was 20 years old to study for his university exam. When she started 9-5 as a marketing lead for a fintech startup, the routine got stuck, working on a range of side hustles, including selling books on Amazon and creating user-generated content for brands like Colgate. “I found out that waking up at 5am is the only way to coincide with the fuss on my side,” she explains. “I did some research into how the best time to enter a flow state turned out. It’s not for everyone, she admits. “I feel like that kind of grandma because I sleep every night at 9pm, but I managed to meet my friends early in the evening.”
But it seems to be rewarding. Thank you for her strict 5am routine. Ashimakopoulos was able to subsidize her salary with a fuss on her side and then became a freelance. “I’ve made over 100,000 pounds in my side hustle over the last few years. If I hadn’t had the discipline to wake up early, I wouldn’t have done it.” Assimakopoulos shares online wisdom through videos of 5-9, and encourages me to gradually set the alarm 10 minutes earlier every day until I get to 5am each day. “Obviously, you can’t be too strict with yourself,” she says.
Just a human or someone who might like to take destiny in bed every morning Love is blind In the evening, when you face a trend of 5-9, you may feel embarrassed. Ketki, a 24-year-old analyst at a high-tech policy company, is one of them. These videos make her feel inferior to her company peers. “I watched these videos and felt like they were inadequate,” she says. “Everyone seems to balance some kind of creative pursuit with running marathons and with work. I watch these videos and feel strange pressure.
A 5-on-9 lifestyle appeals to ketoki as they want to regain control of their lives outside of work. She graduated from classical studies at Russell Group University in 2022 and began her first graduate role a year and a half ago. However, adapting to the demands of a full-time job was more difficult than she could have imagined.
“When I joined the job, I got this strange feeling of wanting to regain my personality,” she explains. “Corporate takes a lot from you and you need to be on all the time. I don’t have time to go out and have a full lunch break. I always work through lunch.” A big part of adjusting to working full-time was lamenting her free time as a student. “In college, you can meet friends and play sports. It’s about not getting out of corporate work. I’m working now, but I feel like I have to maintain the lifestyle I had before, but I just narrow it down to these two gaps before and after work.”
This squeeze has been experienced by only one generation or more. Anuka Shen, workplace wellness specialist, offers workshops in corporate offices through her business Office Yoga Company5-9 trends tell us that it is a direct response to changes in relationships with work. “We have a lot of freedom over personal and work time during the pandemic, which has led to much of that autonomy being eroded in a short amount of time,” she explains. Business organizations are increasingly abandoning flexible working models, with JP Morgan, Amazon and Goldman Sachs doing all this. “The power dynamics between companies and their staff have changed and have returned to more traditional power structures through trends such as returning to office duties,” Shen explains. “If you feel that it’s defined by elements other than controls, you can feel it’s boxed.”
So, it’s funny how when young people try to escape the scope of their work, they impose strict schedules on themselves in the process. Isn’t that counterproductive? Shen explains that by implementing new habits on non-work schedules, you can “expand your self-awareness beyond the persona of work from 9 to 5.” “It gives you more agency than your life,” she explains. “For those who feel satisfied with their current job or are in line with their job, pouring themselves into a rigid 5-on-9 routine can be a distraction.
Jordan Conrad, founder of psychotherapist Madison Park Psychotherapypeople say they are maximizing their lifestyles in a more “voluntary and meaningful” faced with changing working conditions. “People live their lives on the edge of work,” he explains. “The reality is that many people are overwhelmed by their careers, slowing down work, checking their commute homes by email, and then working more ‘downtime’ or paralyzing them on TV and social media. ”
He explains that learning new things in his free time is very important as many people can stagnate. “People want to feel that they’re engaged in what they choose to do and that they’re getting better over time. Work, even the work you enjoy, doesn’t hurt that itch for most people. And that makes sense – life isn’t just one thing. Your career is important, but you need to feel that your relationship is developing and you’re also growing as a person.”
On paper, the 5am to 9am routine sounds ideal. There are many studies that show that being an early riser can make you happy, feel more motivated, and even affect healthier eating habits, but there are limitations. Early risers sacrifice the evening and must place bedtime at 9pm if you need to sleep overnight. And then I’ll take it from me.
“It depends on whether this is healthy or not,” Shen says. “As many examples of this trend relate to the fitness regime, it is important to consider rest days and recovery times. Our bodies need time to repair ourselves, and our minds need a break from constant fuss,” she says. After two days of poor attempts, I abandoned the routine. Early bedtime meant that I had missed out on dating friends after work. Plus, I’m not a morning person.
It’s also not realistic to stick to compactness from 5am to 9am. Ketoki agrees: she can admire these schedules from afar, but she knows it is impossible to maintain without facing burnout. She wants more sincerely and honestly from Gen Z content creators about the reality of schedules along with her work. “I never grue someone to be an early riser, but when things don’t go well, I want to see more transparency,” she explains. She would have been pleased to see productivity documenting the everyday life-related failures that come with life, like missing trains, having breakfast, and scruffing crusty Greg along the way (and covered in pastries in the process). “These experiences are always much more common than having S*** together,” she says.
The most accurate “5 vs 9” video I see shows you going home after a long day, throwing your bags on the floor, turning into an oversized T-shirt, heating up your microwave meals and floping onto the sofa throughout the evening. In another video satisfying the trend, a woman returns home, quickly switching lights, screaming on her pillow, sitting in the darkness. Certainly it feels more familiar: one day my 5pm to 9pm comes with binging Gilmore Girls I had Doritos share bags for dinner. But the next day I might actually go to gym class and eat a nutritious salad. And I’m totally thriving in that balance.
