Francesco Ciulla made his at 37. He started waking up at 4 AM.

That sounds like a productivity cliché. It isn't. What he discovered when he changed that one variable explains how a former European Space Agency engineer quietly built one of the most respected developer audiences on the internet: 200K on X, 340K on YouTube, 32K on LinkedIn, and a Rust book selling well on Amazon. All while most people in his field were still debating whether to start.

Here's what his answers actually reveal about timing, leverage, and the skill most people never develop.

The smallest skill with the biggest return

I asked Francesco what small skill produced outsized results. Most people in his position would say "consistency" or "showing up." He said: writing a list of tasks for every hour of the day.

Not a to-do list. An hourly schedule.

4 AM, post. 5 AM, send emails. 6 AM, update clients. 7 AM, run. 8 AM, breakfast, shower, Twitter. 9 AM, record video.

The difference is a decision about when, not just what. A to-do list leaves timing open. An hourly list removes the negotiation. You don't decide in the moment whether to record a video or check notifications. The decision is already made.

This is a pattern recognition insight dressed up as a productivity tip. The people who move fastest aren't working harder. They're eliminating micro-decisions before the day starts.

Corporate track: Before Monday, map your highest-leverage hour and protect it. Don't let others schedule into it. The meeting request that arrives at 9 AM for 9:30 AM is a negotiation. Decline it.

Creator track: Your best creative work happens in a specific window. Francesco's is the morning. He's done by 6 PM regardless of when he wakes up. Know your window, build your schedule backward from it, and treat everything else as interruptible.

The decision that felt small and wasn't

Francesco's turning point wasn't quitting a job or launching a product. It was waking up earlier.

He'd been finishing coaching sessions at 11 PM, eating dinner late, scrolling, sleeping, repeating. It worked for that life. When he switched to tech and content creation, the same schedule became a ceiling. He realized something specific about himself: he's mentally sharp in the morning and done by 6 PM. The 4 AM alarm wasn't discipline. It was adapting his schedule to match his actual operating system.

The insight here isn't "wake up at 4 AM." It's the process he used to arrive at that decision.

He identified his cognitive peak. He designed his hours around it. He stopped trying to force output during his low-energy window and started protecting his high-energy one instead.

This is how people go from working harder to working amrt with leverage. Not by doing more, but by aligning effort with capacity.

He also noted the psychological effect: by noon, he's done most of what others haven't started. That sense of progress compounds. The day feels like addition, not subtraction. This is the type of human skill that stops all the talks about “I would do it if I would have more time..”.

Eliminate before you add.

Francesco's exact words: choose what NOT to do with the same diligence with which you choose what to do.

We systematically overestimate capacity and underestimate friction. So we pile on: more platforms, more content formats, more revenue streams, more goals. Then life interrupts and the whole pile collapses, which we read as personal failure.

It isn't. It's a planning error.

The highest performers Francesco has observed, and he's built a community of 575K across platforms to observe from, share one habit: they say no to good things to protect their great things.

That's not a mindset shift. It's a skill. And like any skill, it requires practice and deliberate application.

What he'd do differently starting from zero today

Two things.

First, build immediately at the intersection of AI and content creation. Not because it's trendy. Because the combination of technical credibility and content reach is rare, and rare positions command premium attention. He saw the gap. He'd move on it faster.

Second, expose himself earlier. He waited until 37. He regrets the wait, not the decision.

This is worth sitting with if you're reading this and thinking "I'll start when I'm more ready." Francesco worked at the European Space Agency. He was a Docker Captain. He had real credentials and real skills before he started creating content publicly. And he still wishes he'd started earlier.

The bar you're waiting to clear doesn't exist. The version of you who's "ready" is a moving target.

This week's integration question

Francesco's framework reduces to three moves:

One question for your upcoming week: what's one thing on your list that you keep moving to tomorrow, not because you lack time, but because you haven't decided when?

Schedule it. Hourly.

I am happy to call Francesco a friend whom I discovered online long before we started interacting and collaborating with on X and beyond. I was super delighted that he was able to give you some insights on how he was able to build up from 0 to 500k and beyond. And be the 1st Diamond Tier Creator in The 300 challenge (yes I am lagging on the update on the featured article).

I subscribe to his content where ever it is and if you want to learn how to execute things and succeed just give him a follow and subscribe to his content everywhere it is offered!

Connect with Francesco

Website and links: francescociulla.com

YouTube: youtube.com/@francescociulla

If you're in the developer or tech-adjacent space, his Rust content is well worth your time. 340K subscribers don't happen by accident.

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