Do you have a job that you love to work except during certain times of the day? That’s how I initially felt about working at the gym and recreation center at my university, but once I got used to getting up early, it turned out to be a good thing. In every situation, there are positives you can take away from it, and these positives have made my job more enjoyable. In addition, having the ability to wake up early can definitely come in handy. The more skills and abilities you have in your arsenal, the more challenges you’ll be able to face. Not convinced? Maybe these ten reasons will help.

1. Waking up early is a good habit

A good sleep schedule is the foundation of a good week which eventually turns into a good month or term. If your class and work schedule is like mine, you won’t wake up the same time every day. Even if you don’t have any morning classes, getting up early is a good idea, and if you can use that time to make money at your job, even better!

2. Your preparation and organization skills improve too

When you work early, it’s a good idea to have all of your stuff laid out or packing up and ready to go the night before. When you do that for the days you wake up early, you end up doing it everyday because it saves you time during your morning. Time is a very valuable currency, and the more of it you have, the better.

3.Traffic

When is traffic a good thing? When there isn’t any. Whenever I drive to work early in the morning, I might pass by 2 or 3 vehicles total. Also, almost every light you encounter will b to your benefit. Just don’t get too cocky on the empty streets: a 30 mph zone is a 30 mph zone at all times of the day.

4. The customers

Usually whenever I work, the customers are nice, polite, and in a decent mood. This is more frequently the case for people I encounter in the earlier hours. They are especially motivated to get their day off to the best start possible. Not to mention they are polite. Sort of like Willy Wonka, only genuinely.

5. Parking on campus

If you are a person who drives to a college campus, you’ve struggled to find parking. Since a significant amount of the population is still asleep, you’ll definitely get a good parking spot. This is especially nice when you plan on being on campus or in a certain area all day.

6. Slower shift, better conversations

Most attempts to hold a conversation with coworkers or employees will be cut shorter than you’d like during other times of the day because of how busy it is. In the early shift at work, there are no such problems. Working the early shift is a great opportunity to get to know your coworkers, especially if you’re newly hired.

7. Less stressful

Since there are less people around during these shifts, the stress level is always kept at where you’d want it to be. No joke, this is the college student dream. For a few hours, you still have to do a good job, but it doesn’t require any kind of acrobatics or maneuvers to keep chaos away. It’s the exact opposite of other shifts during the day.

8. Accidents Happen

Except during these shifts. Anytime somebody has gotten hurt, fainted, or spilled their drink, it’s been on afternoon or night shifts. During those times, my workplace tends to live by Murphy’s Law. Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. That is almost never the case during the mornings; whether it be luck, coincidence, or people not paying attention.

9. After work is a good time to work out

This is a bit more specific to my job since I work at a gym, so after work I just change my clothes since I’m already there and I’m ready to get a good workout in. But if you have an early work shift, you’ll find it easier to get through the next few things on your to do list. Trust me, getting to Subway or to a grocery store earlier rather than later is always a good call.

10.The chances of having a productive day exponentially increase

Once the early shift is complete, often times the hardest part of the day is over: waking up and getting out of bed. You accomplished that at 6 a.m. and not at noon, so you have more time to accomplish what you need to do. Like I said earlier in this list, time is a luxury, so next time you get scheduled to work early, embrace it. You’ll get more hours under your belt (and into your paycheck) and you’ll be invigorated and ready to go to practice, class, and study.