With productivity at an all-time high, students and professionals alike are trying to find ways to free up more time for their work-life balance. Some are seeking the secrets to becoming a billionaire. And others are trying to get an edge over their competitors.

The "Morning Routine" has had quite a boom over the past few years with thousands of videos on Youtube and even more, Google searches shown by Google Trends data.

Last year, I had a bit of this craze too. Throughout high school, I followed a Youtuber by the name of Thomas Frank over at CollegeInfoGeek. He discusses various productivity tips for students that he, himself, implemented in his life over time. Of course, he is not a robot (or might be, who knows), and has the identity of being the productivity guru.

The morning routine is advocated for multitudes of successful people leading to the topic's popularity in online literature. Some claim that waking up at 3:30 A.M., 5:00 A.M., and everything in between is keys to success. But how true are these claims?

When I started at UC Davis, I was determined to make a name for myself. I tried to implement a bunch of productivity tips, but to my dismay, they often slowed my progress down due to the sheer number that I tried to do at once. The lesson of the day is to make incremental changes that lead to exponential gains.

However, the morning routine ideology stood with me with the main benefit of time without distraction. I tried different times in each quarter (3 month periods) to test the changes in my life.

First, I tried the 5:00 A.M. time as it seemed to be the most popular. Waking up when the world was still asleep was brutal, but it definitely allowed me extra time without any distractions from my phone and my roommate, Jonathan. (Jon, if you're reading this, sorry for waking up at 5:00 A.M. all the time.) I usually was able to get about 75% of my school work done for the day during this time period before my classes around 8:00 A.M. To do this, I set a rule for myself. I had to get to bed by 9:00 P.M. to try to get the full 8 hours. Sometimes it worked; sometimes it didn't.

The problem with waking up at 5:00 A.M. is that you have to sleep early or you'll be too tired for the day's work. As a student, these night hours are when you socialize with your friends, and I had to sacrifice this aspect of my life to achieve this goal. On top of this, waking up early may have disturbed the sleep of my roommate, Jon. These were serious problems with this morning routine that couldn't be valued over the amount of work I got done.

Later on, when I got my own room, I tried a 4:30 A.M. morning routine so that I could get into the gym and out before anyone else got there. This, of course, again had the same problem of sacrificing night social hours.

Fast forward to today, and I am now waking up at a cool 7:30 A.M. Now this may seem early to many people still, but my year of waking up 2 to 3 hours earlier prepared me for this well. This is a sweet spot for me as my natural waking time is usually between 7:00 and 8:00 A.M. which allowed me to wake up without the grogginess of waking up from an alarm.

From here, I give myself 30 minutes to catch up on financial literacy as well as social media platforms. After this, I head to work out in my garage for about 60 minutes since we are all social distancing (if you're reading this in the future, google "COVID-19.") This is followed by a shower and breakfast which I allot myself 60 minutes for. While I usually do not take the full 60 minutes, I've learned that overestimating the time is more efficient as it gives you some leeway. And then, it's off to do some work before my classes.

While this might not seem like the most efficient or most productive morning routine, I definitely believe you can learn from my self-experimentation.

Here are my conclusions:

• Wake up around your natural waking time. Don't fight your circadian rhythm. There is no magic number of when to wake up for success. Some of us are night owls, and some are early birds.

• Your morning doesn't have to be filled with work as people make it out to seem. This time might just be the best time for your self-improvement regimen.

• Get enough sleep. Waking up at 5:00 A.M. doesn't work on 2 hours of sleep. The other side of this is don't oversleep either as this can be just as detrimental.

• If you have a roommate and your natural waking time is earlier than theirs, tell them sorry now and maybe get one of those vibrating alarms rather than auditory ones. Sorry, Jon.

At the end of the day, it isn't the morning routine that gets you to success. It's the discipline associated with it. If you are able to discipline yourself enough to follow a consistent routine, it will help you in other areas of your life until you are successful.

Live intentionally.