Shadowing Practice: I woke up at 5am for 30 days - Learn English Speaking with Video

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140 sentences

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Oh fuck

god damn it

Early in my career as a freelancer, I was a late night worker.

Not like a prostitute.

I would just procrastinate through the day until I couldn't put off my work any longer.

I'd often be up past 2am.

It wasn't until I started living with my partner Natalie that I decided to shape my schedule around hers.

It's at that point that I fell in love with early mornings.

There's something special about watching the sun rise with a cup of coffee.

Even in a city like Los Angeles, things seem to go quiet in the morning.

Well, not all the time.

I usually wake up between 6 and 7 a.m., but my schedule fluctuates.

I wondered how much more productive could I be

if I forced myself to wake up at 5 a.m every single day for 30 days.

How much more could I get done?

How would it change my life?

It didn't go as planned.

So I'm gonna be setting up my alarm for the 30 days of waking up at 5 a.m.

How many hours of sleep do you need each night?

We're gonna go with eight hours.

So my plan is to go to bed at 9 p.m every night.

Let's see how this works out.

Getting to bed by 9 p.m isn't a problem.

I'm getting kind of old anyway.

And Nat and I, for a long time, were going to bed around 9 o'clock.

So this is nothing new Waking up early isn't an excuse to neglect sleep.

The research is clear.

The serious consequences of getting less than seven hours of sleep per night is severe

According to Matthew Walker's best-selling book why we sleep the shorter

you sleep the shorter your lifespan The old maxim I'll sleep

when I'm dead is therefore unfortunate adopt this mindset

And you will be dead sooner and the quality of that shorter life will be worse

The real challenge here isn't waking up at 5 a.m.

It's getting eight hours of sleep.

There was an adjustment period for the first week.

It was a bit like jet lag and my sleep quality wasn't the greatest for the first couple of nights.

I had to get used to going to bed at a different time than that.

Good night, honey.

I love you.

Enjoy the bachelor.

But after a couple days, I felt a lot more like myself and my mornings started to get a lot more productive.

Then, I had to deal with real jet lag.

I'm heading home to New Jersey, which is a three-hour time difference.

So just as I've finally gotten adjusted to these early mornings, now I'm gonna have to completely reset.

This is probably gonna be the biggest test so far.

Uh, what's that?

Unexcitable.

Yeah, LAX, that's right.

Alaska Airlines.

I never would leave an apartment with a banana.

Why?

That's just a rule of mine.

Never leave an apartment with a banana.

It's like the best travel food.

No, it's not because then you have the skin

that you have to get rid of and then you just hold on to it for 45 minutes.

No, then I'm gonna throw it away in the trash can at the airport.

Yeah, exactly.

It's gonna be a 45 minute drive.

Yeah.

Hi, well, give me a hug.

Oh, I got it.

Hey Dad.

What's up dude?

How you doing?

I'm having a dilemma.

There's nowhere to sleep.

I'm supposed to be sleeping on that couch right there.

Okay, here's a sheet on the bottom and there's a sheet on the top of it.

Oh perfect, thank you mom.

Appreciate it.

The blanket's out there.

I see.

So it's just past 11 now.

Finally getting to bed.

I'm getting no sleep tonight.

If there's one thing I've learned about habit change, it's that life gets in the way.

When you least expect it, life will punch you in the face.

And that's what happened with my trip home.

Multiple late nights hanging out with my family combined with jet lag and I struggled to get quality sleep.

So it's just past nine right now and this is...

I just found out that this is daylight savings time.

It's been a long time since I've experienced sleep deprivation, but that night in particular hit me hard.

Over my first two days in New Jersey, I got a total of nine hours of sleep and it completely changed my personality.

Have you ever seen me like that before?

Very few times.

Very few times that low.

You weren't just upset, you were so frustrated.

I felt bad for you.

I decided to catch up with my sleep and snooze past 5 a.m two times during the trip.

And this is what happens to me all the time

when I try to wake up early or if I try to build a habit, I try to start exercising, eventually something's gonna happen.

You're gonna get sick, you're gonna travel, you're gonna go on vacation, and you're gonna get jet lag

and you're not gonna be able to keep up with the same exact routine that you've been trying to build.

This was just a reminder that I need to put my health

and my wellness first above this religious dedication to an arbitrary challenge.

After getting back to LA, it took another week until I started to get into a rhythm again, and travel wasn't completely to blame.

So finally after about 20 days of waking up at 5 a.m., and after a really unproductive week, one of the most unproductive weeks that I've had in a while,

I've started to build a bit of a morning routine here at 5 a.m

100

that works for me and a part of that is by 5 30 a.m.

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I'm on my way to go to the gym to get a workout in

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and I found that since the Sun at least right now, it doesn't rise until 7 a.m.

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It's really difficult for me to feel motivated to feel like

104

I have the energy to do really creative work first thing in the morning So if I go to the gym, I can get more energy,

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I feel good, I've gotten something personal for myself done at the beginning of the day.

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And then by the time I get home and shower, around then the sun's starting to come up

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and I can make a cup of coffee and I'm ready to actually get to work.

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So it turns out that waking up at 5am every day did change my life.

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It just happened to be in a negative way.

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I did have about 7 hours and 53 minutes in bed every night.

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I didn't get 8 hours of sleep.

112

In fact, it usually takes me about 30 minutes to get to sleep, so I probably got much less than I needed.

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I noticed that my energy levels weren't as high as normal, and while I did eventually put together a routine that worked for me, going to the gym in the morning and then eventually getting to work by 7 a.m.,

114

I wasn't any more productive than I normally am, and there was just too much that I sacrificed.

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You can ask Natalie.

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I mean, she sacrificed a little bit, too.

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I thought it was complete bull.

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I'm exhausted.

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Why are you exhausted?

120

Because you've been waking me up at 5am every morning.

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I did not opt into this challenge.

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Like next month with meditation, yes, I'm rather excited to do that with you.

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This was not a challenge I opted into, I was forced into.

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One of the things that I love most about running my own business is having a flexible schedule.

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I'm glad that I experimented with this ridiculously strict 30-day challenge because I know that I'm actually not missing out on anything.

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And I'm excited to get back to my regular routine of waking up between 6 or 7 a.m.

127

because, well, life can get in the way.

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If you enjoy this video, if you want to support my channel, and if you also want additional content that I don't release anywhere else, you can get that at Patreon. On Patreon.

129

At patreon.com slash Matt D'Avella.

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If you sign up for the exclusive videos tier on Patreon, you'll get instant access to over 20 videos, interviews, and podcast episodes with new videos coming every month.

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Like my full one hour interview with essentialist author Greg McKeown.

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Get my monthly AMA podcast where I answer patron questions about creativity and minimalism.

133

And get behind the scenes videos on how I make my videos.

134

Plus it helps me pay the bills and invest back into my videos here on YouTube.

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All for $12 a month.

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Thanks for considering.

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And of course if you do not have the money to contribute, please do not feel pressured to do so.

138

The fact that you watch my videos is enough for me.

139

See you next time.

140

Thank you.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “I woke up at 5am for 30 days”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: sleep, hour, waking, bed. This video has 140 sentences and 1505 words to shadow. The speech runs for 9:24. The speaker talks at a natural 160 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. Only 81% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.

Key vocabulary in this video

The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
unproductive adjective	/ˌʌn.pɹəˈdʌk.tɪv/	Not productive; useless; fruitless.
exhaust verb	/ɪɡˈzɔst/	To draw or let out wholly; to drain completely.
banana noun	/bəˈnænə/	An elongated curved tropical fruit of a banana plant, which grows in bunches and has a creamy flesh and a smooth skin.
podcast noun	/ˈpɑdˌkæst/	A program, especially an audio program, produced on a regular basis, delivered over the Internet in a compressed digital format and designed for playback on…
deprivation noun	/ˌdɛp.ɹɪˈveɪʃən/	The act of depriving, dispossessing, or bereaving.
essentialist noun		An advocate of essentialism.
fluctuate verb	/ˈflʌkt͡ʃu.eɪt/	To vary irregularly; to swing.
freelancer noun	/ˈfɹiˌlæn.səɹ/	Someone who freelances.
frustrate verb	/ˈfɹʌsˌtɹeɪt/	To disappoint or defeat; to vex by depriving of something expected or desired.
lifespan noun	/ˈlaɪf.spæn/	The length of time for which an organism lives.
minimalism noun	/ˈmɪn.ə.məl.ɪz.əm/	A style of art that emphasises extreme simplicity of form.
procrastinate verb	/pɹoʊˈkɹæs.tə.neɪt/	To delay taking action; to wait until later.
snooze verb	/snuz/	To sleep, especially briefly; to nap, doze.
unexcitable adjective		Not excitable, not easily excited.
ridiculously adverb	/ɹɪˈdɪk.jə.ləs.li/	In a ridiculous manner. In a way that is funny, embarrassing or extremely implausible.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
wake up verb	/ˌweɪk ˈʌp/	To stop sleeping; to awake.
get back to verb		Return to (an activity)
come up verb		To emerge or become known, especially unexpectedly.
find out verb		To discover, as by asking or investigating.
get behind verb		To come to believe or support something.
keep up with verb		To manage to remain beside or just behind someone or something that is moving away from one.
put off verb		To postpone, especially through procrastination.
put together verb		To assemble, construct, build, or formulate.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

How much more could I get done?
How would it change my life?
How many hours of sleep do you need each night?
We're gonna go with eight hours.
Have you ever seen me like that before?

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on	you've been trying · you've been waking
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	I've finally gotten · I've learned · It's been

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 59 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, gonna, I've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: deprivation /ˌdɛp.ɹɪˈveɪʃən/, meditation /mɛdɪˈteɪʃn̩/, dedication /ˌdɛdɪˈkeɪʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: unproductive /ˌʌn.pɹəˈdʌk.tɪv/, deprivation /ˌdɛp.ɹɪˈveɪʃən/, minimalism /ˈmɪn.ə.məl.ɪz.əm/, procrastinate /pɹoʊˈkɹæs.tə.neɪt/, ridiculously /ɹɪˈdɪk.jə.ləs.li/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like unproductive, exhaust, banana.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: I woke up at 5am for 30 days - Learn English Speaking with Video

Choose a practice mode

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Why I left America for good

A Day in the Life of a Minimalist

Why everyone is quitting social media

I tried zone 2 training for 30 days (what I learned)

How one habit changed my life.

I tried to optimize my life. It made it worse.

My Morning Workout Routine

Where did all the minimalists go?

I learned a system for remembering everything

This is everything that's wrong with consumerism

I quit social media for 30 days

CET-6 Listening Long Conversation: A Four-Day Work Week

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I deleted my social medias (as a content creator) my month offline

I Lived Like Elon Musk for a Week But One Day Was Enough

How to Change Your Life in 5 Minutes a Day ⏱

I Tried Public Sleep Pods

I Tried a 5am Morning Routine For a Week (+ WOW It Was Way Harder Than I Thought)

What Was I Thinking

I Work Out Every Day and It's Changing My Life

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Sentences worth repeating

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?