I normally wake at 5am, and have been doing so for some time. In
fact, if I didn’t wake early you probably wouldn’t be reading this
right now as I simply wouldn’t have the time to write for this blog.
This past week, however, I have struggled to wake early and
have been hitting the snooze button for the first time in a long time…
what’s going on???
One
thing I have learned over the past year and a half is that waking early
is not just about setting your alarm clock for a particular time and
getting up. For example, it is pointless to force yourself to wake
early if it leaves you feeling like a zombie for the rest of the day.
If you are interested in waking earlier, the following are a few things
I have learned that may be of help. And hopefully we can work out why I
have been bashing the snooze button so much….
The Evening Before Avoid caffeine/ alcohol/ sugar.All these things can
potentially affect your quality of sleep and makeit incredibly hard to wake
when your alarm goes off. When it comes tosomething like sugar, for example, I
indulge my sweet tooth during theday. Then in the evening I avoid it because I
know it makes me restlessduring thenight.
Wind down. Don’t go to bed withyour mind still active.. This is one reason I
have been struggling towake early the past week - I have gotten into the bad
habit of shuttingdown the computer and heading straight to bed. I need to get
back intothe habit of turning off the computer earlier and instead reading
afictional book followed by some meditation.
Visualize. Just before falling asleep, visualize yourself waking at a
particular time. It’s amazing how effectively this works.
Sleep Get enough.
Different people need different amounts of sleep. So the key is to experiment
and be aware what amount works well for you.I need at least 6 and a half to 7
hours. When I sleep less than this(such as I did a night or two last week), I
always regret it because Iam tired all the next day. There is nothing
productive about that.
Better quality. Isleep less than I did 2 years ago, but I generally find it
easier towake up. One major reason for this is my quality of sleep is
muchbetter.
Waking Earlier Have a purpose.I usually find it relatively easy to wake at 5am
because I have a clearpurpose of what I want to do in the morning. Typically I
will spend afew minutes the night before making a list of what I want to do.
Thenin the morning I am able to quickly focus on these.
Find a morning routine you love.Over the past 1-2 years my mornings have
changed from waking up andrushing to get ready and out the door, to waking
earlier andincorporating some activities/ habits I enjoy into my mornings.
Iobviously don’t do everything in the preceding articles each morning,but once
you have some ideas to make your morning more enjoyable it iseasy to
incorporate at least one or two.
Be sneaky.A very effective trick I do is to place my alarm on the other side
ofthe room, effectively forcing me to get out of bed to turn it off.
Be disciplined.Of course the above trick is no guaranteethat I won’t go back
and curl up in bed (as I have done a few timesover the past week). I don’t
think my problem has been discipline somuch as the other things I have
discussed in this article. Butcertainly waking earlier does require you to put
“mind over mattress”.Remember: “the price of discipline is always less than the
pain ofregret”.
Small steps. Ittook me a number of months to go from waking at 7am to 5am. The
key wasto take it slowly by chipping away at 15 minutes at a time. Take
smallsteps and be patient.
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