3 Steps to Wake Up Early
We’ve all been there, the other side of frustration, annoyed and bitter for sleeping in, yet again. It’s not that we don’t love sleep, its quite the contrary actually, we adore it. It’s merely that we know that we have priorities and tasks to accomplish, goals to smash, and life to get after, to which sleeping in is counterproductive.
But let’s say maybe that’s not you. Perhaps, you need to get up early for work, and you’ve been struggling with it for some time. Or, that you find yourself chronically snoozing your alarm.
Either way, whoever you are, and whatever your specific struggle: here are 3 simple steps to get you out of bed and into another beautiful, productive day.
Set yourself up the night before
In all honesty, preparation is half the battle. It’s extremely easy to overlook, but vital to your success in the early stages of getting up early. This preparation doesn’t have to be anything too arduous or time-consuming. You are simply making a plan for what to do in the morning. Generally speaking, when you wake up early, you are giving yourself a few more hours in the day. That being said, if you want to succeed, then you need a plan for those hours. Otherwise, you will not see a reason as to why you should be awake and not sleeping.
This thought, this step, is centered around one fundamental concept, the notion of “WHY.” And, this “WHY” is vital to consciously changing any habit. Want to workout: why? To get healthy. Want to read a book: Why? To gain more knowledge. It’s simple, really. As humans, we are prone to problem-solving. This critical thinking is one of the key separations between the rest of the mammals and us. That said, whenever you set yourself the goal of waking up early, there is always a reason; structure your plan for the morning around that reason.
If it is to work out, then set your workout clothes out. Pick out what you want to wear, find your socks, shoes, etc. and place them neatly in a pile on a nearby dresser, or even at the foot of your bed. This way, when you wake up, groggy and disheveled, you will know, precisely, what you need to do, and have everything ready to accomplish it.
This was the turning point for me. When I began waking up early to workout, it was a struggle. I like to sleep, after all. Don’t we all? But, I knew that my health was something I needed to take more seriously. Thus, I laid out my clothes and everything I would need the night before so that I didn’t have to think about it in the morning. I could let my body move around and get ready, while my mind coasted on autopilot.
Set your alarm
Set your alarm and only set one. Most people I know like to create multiple alarms, at 5-minute intervals — which they promptly choose to snooze all of. Many of them claim they need them, saying they won’t wake up without them. Here’s what they don’t consider. By setting so many alarms, they are telling their brain that they don’t really need to wake up when they hear it. In fact, they can wait until the last one goes off to move. In reality, they are giving themselves an easy way out, a backdoor, and this is what compromises their plan.
You need one alarm, and only one because you need this alarm to have significance. Your mind needs to know that when it hears that obnoxious song, it is “go time” — no second chances, no “maybes.” It’s here; It’s now.
Another thing to consider when building the habit of waking up early is consistency. Consistency is vital. That alarm must go off at the same time, every single day (Alright, Fine. Skip Saturday. We know your hungover self could use the extra sleep.) With that one exception, that alarm will be going off at the same time, to the same song, in the same location, every day. This consistency is vital to programming your habit of waking up early.
A common misconception that people have around waking up early is the idea that they, first, need to go to bed early. This is wrong.
You don’t begin waking up early by going to bed early; you begin waking up early by WAKING UP EARLY. That’s it. You begin the thing — by actually doing the thing.
Yes, later on, you will be going to bed earlier too, but at the start, all you have to do is it. What happens when you make getting up early conditional on going to bed early, is just what you’d expect. You’re working around the house, watching a show, you get caught up in it and suddenly its 11 PM, and you’re telling yourself there is no way you’re getting up at 5 AM because 6 hours doesn’t quite reside within your beauty sleep margin. So you say you’ll begin the next day. Then tomorrow rolls around and low and behold; you do it again. Thus, you don’t start waking up early by going to bed early; you begin it by waking up early.
The first day you’re going to be tired, and that’s fine. Better yet, that is EXACTLY what you want, because when 8 o’clock rolls around, you’re not going to be thinking of watching another episode of The Bachelor. No, you’re going to be thinking of bed and how tired you are. And just like that, you’re going to bed early.
Locating your alarm
You have a plan for the morning, you’ve laid out your clothes, and you’ve set your alarm. You’re probably thinking, “Yeah, I’ve done all this before, and it still doesn’t work.” If that’s the case, then that is what this last step is for. Most people overlook how inconvenient it is for their habit of waking up to have their phone located, so conveniently, next to them, and thus, they sabotage themselves.
What you need to do, what you will do, is place your phone across the room far from yourself, out of reach, so that once the annoying beeping begins, and you’re dragged to consciousness, you now have to move to make it stop. This is pivotal because it gets you out of bed. When all you have to do is roll over to turn the alarm off, you’re incentivizing staying in bed. I get it — your mattress is so comfortable; you’re toasty warm under those sheets, and you don’t want to get out into the biting cold of your room. But, by locating your phone out of reach, that is precisely what you will have to do.
To make this even more effective, we are taking it one step farther. Next to your phone, or your alarm, you are going to leave a bottle, or glass of water. Your job, once you’ve turned that alarm off, is to drink all 8–16 ounces of it. Not only will this jolt you awake, but your liver will also thank you. If you want to take this just another step farther, then give yourself an action to do as soon as you finish that water to get your body moving a little more. Whether that be pushups, squats, sit-ups, or jumping jacks, is entirely up to you. The goal here is to get your blood flowing.
And just like that, you’re up and at it. You’re awake before most of the world. You are doing, today, what others will not so that tomorrow you can do what others cannot.
The benefits of getting up early are incredibly underrated. And sure, it sucks at first, but once you have established the habit, you will find yourself looking forward to waking up before everyone, the psychological win that it gives you, and the time that you have to yourself. They say the Greats are made in the early hours of the morning while the rest of the world sleeps. My only question for you is: what are you waiting for?
